Windows 7: Whole Folder heirarchy deleted by Windows instead of file

I have had this problem a few times now and wondered if anyone else has experienced it or can shed light on this.

Firstly - not on my own computer but using a network drive at work.
(has happended on My Documents and a shared resource folder)
From Explorer I select a single file to delete and it works, select a file to move and it works fine. Then on another occasion I select the file to delete and it deletes the whole Folder structure above and below it! It comes up with the dialog e.g. 'Deleting 930 files' and before I can press cancel most have gone! It does not put any of the files or folders in the recycle bin. One time it even deleted the My Documents folder!
This has happened on about 5 occasions - at two different locations (schools) and I have had varying degrees of success with recovery from the backups.
(I am not a novice user, I know what I am doing and I definitely did not pick a folder to delete.)
Just happened to me today

Do I understand you correctly. This is happing on two different computers at two different schools. Or is it your computer that you are using in two different locations.
It could help if we knew what kind of filers your are removing and from where.

I've seen this issue on one of my computers a couple of times, never found a way to fix it, just be extra careful when deleting files, specially when using shilft+delete bypassing recycle bin.

Don't use the hierarchical tree to select files to delete, open the folder and delete from within the folder instead.

Thankyou for your replies.
The two different schools were at different times in the last year. Using school computers in both cases.

I did indeed open up the folders to delete just one file from within the folder. I was part-way down the heirarchy of folders.

I did not use shift-delete

I certainly am not doing anything silly here at all. Technical help in both locations could not find what happened.

It genuinely triggers a delete of a whole folder structure that is a parent of the folder I have open. e.g. As a simplistic example Folder A has sub-folders B & C. I navigate down to open folder B, delete a file and it deletes Folder C and other files (and folders) under Folder A.

Not sure what your problem is. But if it happens again, the easiest to recover the folders is from the restore points with Shadow Explorer. ShadowExplorer - Recover Lost Files and Folders

I will add that in Win Explorer it Can Look like you have selected just one file, in the right pane of WE, but in reality the actual folder is selected. Both the right and left panes can have a highlighted effect making you THINK the File is what is ACTIVE when it is really the Folder that is ACTIVE.

Best way around all of this is to Right Click On the FILE and select Delete.

Thanks edwar that sounds plausible. I'll make sure I watch for that in the future and right click. Shame it doesn't warn you 'you are about to delete 900 odd files are you sure?!'
I will look into the recovery with the network manager that whr suggests thanks

There should always be a warning dialog when you try to delete an item, like this:


Unless the recycle bin is disabled anything deleted will be there and can be restored.

Not if it's across the network and no recycle bin either.