[/IMG] I'm really hoping there's an expert on here who could assist me. I currently have a boot drive and a mass storage drive. In preparation for a format on my boot drive I was uninstalling programs and games from my mass storage, things like Origin, Steam, MSIAB things like this, I was uninstalling these things using the Windows > Apps and Features option. In there I uninstalled a Windows update, can't recall what it was. Now ALL my files in my mass storage drive are gone, I have tried to see if they are hidden but they are not...they are gone. Checking the boot drive TEMP folders proves fruitless aswell, and they are not in the recycle bin. However the drive is still saying that 14GB of space has been used despite the drive appearing empty. Using Windows settings > System > Storage...it shows my mass storage drive as have nearly 14GB of "TEMP" files..but I can't find this temp folder. I'm abit anxious about this as I have some really critical files and videos of family on that storage drive. When I click files explorer on the toolbar the folders are there but says they are unavailable, deleted, moved or renamed....
Also those files and folders can't be deleted because speedfan, which was installed on that drive, is still functioning and a few of the files are located on the bootdrive under documents and in the download folder...
Very weird, a hidden temp folder perhaps? Open up a command prompt and type: echo %temp% See if there is a folder entry that is hidden, then access it with "cd [path/to/directory]" hit dir and potential move the files to a visible location. It can also be that during the windows migration that the contents of that temp directory have been moved. Typically copy of the old windows install is found on the HDD/SSD often such a directory starts with $windows.old or a weird string of characters. If so, you should seek there.
Thanks for the reply. So I checked the echo %Temp% location but there was nothing in there I could see. Also I could see an Windows.old but there is a Windows.~BT but that didnt have my files either. I couldn't find any temp folder on my D: drive, so I have absolutly no idea where that 14GB of used space is. There are data recovery people in my town so I might consider taking it too them, as I don't want to risk erasing these files permanently, providing they arent already erased :|
Very weird, Did ownership change? E.g. does your account have the right privileges to see the files? I have no idea otherwise mate, sorry.
Its very weird. I've been building and using PCs for over 15yrs, have uninstalled and installed various OS, including Windows 10, multiple time but I have never experienced this before. I tried signing out and signing back in but this didn't do anything. As for privledges I'm not sure on that, I will check. I gather that changing the privledge settings is not a simple click of the mouse if I recall. I suspect its either something to do with that Windows 10 1903 assistance update I tried to run but canceled due to incompatibility with my PC or the Windows update I uninstalled. What was weird was that even a system restore did nothing, infact all my previous restore points, apart from one, all there dates were changed to today's date. I'll take it in tomorrow and see how I go, if there's no dice then theres no dice...ill just have to move on. Thanks again Hilbert, have a great day/night.
Yeah I have to invest in some kind of backup. Reason I haven't is that nothing on my personal PC is work related or is there other private information, it's just pictures and the odd document so I haven't wanted to back anything up until now, not having any past issues either has given me a sense of security. Technology these days is a 2 edged sword isn't it.
Right-click on Speedfan icon, and select "Open File Location" See what you get. It could be that the partition lost it's drive letter. Check with Disk Management, or use an app like EaseUS Partition Manager.
If you have valuable data there then better disconnect drive and take it to professionals. The more you try blindly with our (blind) help the more chances to ruin the information.
^ +1 For information purposes though, ever since I was pointed to Parted Magic (https://partedmagic.com/), have been a fan of it. Has already saved me two ssds I thought were lost.
Thanks for taking the time to reply folks, very much appreciated. So user @Caesar came through. I tried the program they suggested and it worked great, I was able to recover 80% of what was lost, but most importantly what was most important to me was what I was able to recover. So a huge thank you and 1+ to Caesar. In regards to what happened, going through the list of files the files didn't belong to the path the drive said they belonged too. Example some family photos were located in the steamapps folder which I wouldn't have stored there myself, there was also stuff scrambled all over the place on the drive. I got what I needed so all In all I am very pleased. Going forward and taking note I will have to look into firstly where I am installing programs because perhaps Steam.exe being on a mass-storage drive had some conflicts, but also I will be looking into backing up my drives. So anyone reading, learn from my mistake. I do it at work but not at home, go figure...
