Solved Deleted User Account, Selected Keep Files, lost all files

Abe

New Member
Messages
6
Windows 8.1
Started a new account, with admin privileges. Deleted old account also with admin privileges. Selected the "KEEP FILES" option. Deleted account. A folder pops up in desktop, with the computer's name. Under that folder there was another folder with old user name, and under that folder there was yet another folder also with old user name. Completely empty.
Desktop>[COMPUTERNAME]\[USERNAME]\[USERNAME]\Empty
I don't have a restore point to which to retrieve my files. The c:\ disk says there is 600GBs of free space, previously I had only 300. All the library from my old user account have been wiped. I also checked Recycle Bin which is empty. The current account has admin privileges and is set to show hidden files. I was told that it might be under c:\Users. I checked that with CMD and two folders were titled "." and "..", they don't show under file explorer.

I am running Recuva right now, but from what I understand that won't be able to restore file names and fragmented files, which are both critical. I also had an encrypted file with a none standard extension which might be ignored by Recuva.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
Hello Abe, and welcome to Eight Forums.

I'm not sure what went wrong, but this is a perfect example of why you should always back up anything that you do not want to lose first to be safe. :(

I hope Recuva may be able to recover your files for you.

Did you have any system images or Windows backups to restore them from?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    64-bit Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom self built
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K OC'd to 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    OCZ Series Gold OCZZ1000M 1000W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Malwarebyte Anti-Malware Premium
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
I do have restore points(so I come to find out), what I don't have is actual back up of that data, or at least not all of it. I would do so if I had an extra disk laying around but I don't. I moved what I could to a USB stick prior to doing anything. I had by recommendation of someone else use windows own system recovery which restored some folders but no actual files. However this shadow copy program seems to be promising. I can actually see all the files I had lost, if at least the file names. I am having it restore all the files that were under the old user account. Which seems to be taking a long time and also keeping the disk busy, as seen from task manager. C:\ free space is slowly being rolled back although I don't actually see the files from explorer yet.

Crossing fingers.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
If you see the folders, you should find your files. Please keep us updated.

And for the future it might be a good idea to get a big disk for backup. Best for that are SSHDs. They are fast and relatively inexpensive - especially the bare bone ones that you can run in a eSata or USB3 caddy.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Vista and Win7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
    Hard Drives
    5 SSDs and 12 HDs
I am planing to buy a big external HDD. Something with support or their own integrated RAID capabilities. Not just for back up but ideally as a main external library, but that is in the future.

I will update the status as soon as the shadow program finishes, but I have to sleep for now.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
OK, we'll talk to you tomorrow. Good night.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Vista and Win7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
    Hard Drives
    5 SSDs and 12 HDs
All video, music and picture(including pdf) files corrupted beyond use. Text and document files survived. Some ISO files might have not survived, I haven't checked. If anything though I have file names, which will help me retrieve some from the internet in the future.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
It's good to hear that you were able to recover some of them, and will hopefully be able to re-download the rest.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    64-bit Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom self built
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K OC'd to 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    OCZ Series Gold OCZZ1000M 1000W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Malwarebyte Anti-Malware Premium
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
I suggest you go back into Shadow Explorer and try to open e.g. a picture folder in Shadow Explorer. Maybe you can retrieve the files individually. I have never seen files to be corrupted in the restore points. It could be that the corruption occured because you exported too much at one time. I vaguely remember that Shadow Explorer had some problems at one time with that.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Vista and Win7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
    Hard Drives
    5 SSDs and 12 HDs
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