Desktop icons gone

nagel · 13 Feb 2011

I just upgraded from windows vista to windows 7. It assured me that no old files would go missing. However, my desktop is completely new. I had millions of files and folders on it that have all vanished into thin air now. They should still be on the hard drive because no space has been freed on C:, which is where all desktop files were stored, but for the life of me I can not find them. I had a lot of music, photos and other things on there that I really want to keep.

So no disc space has been freed = Still on hard drive
"You will keep your old files" - Windows = Still on hard drive

But the desktop is all gone.

And yes, I do have the "show desktop icons" box checked, it doesn't appear to be that simple.

Irene · 13 Feb 2011

These are the steps which should have been taken:
Upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7 - Help & How-to - Microsoft Windows

However, did you perform an Upgrade install or a Custom (clean) install?

If all of your programs and files are missing, this indicates that you selected the Custom option which completely replaces the previous version of windows.

If this is the case, all of your personal files will be saved in a folder called Windows.old. You can retrieve all of the personal files, but the programs such as Microsoft Office will need to be reinstalled.

Here are some links with helpful information.

What's the difference between full and upgrade versions of Windows 7?

If this is the case, then this might help:

How to restore your personal files after you perform a custom installation of Windows Vista or of Windows 7