Users folder empty?!

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  1. EliteMaster16
    Posts : 7
    7
       New #1

    C:\windows.old\Users - folder empty?!


    Hi everyone, I really need help on this so I will try to include as much detail so you guys don't get confused at what I'm talking about.

    Heres what happened:

    1) I was clearing up space on my hard drive and deleting stuff that I don't need.

    2) I came across C:\Windows.old\windows folder and saw that it was about 13 gigabytes - and seeing that it's from windows.old, I deleted the windows folder contained there.




    3) After deleting C:\Windows.old\windows , I find out that my C:\Windows.old\users folder is empty, how is this possible?


    Is there any way to locate my files, I KNOW that they are still there - but there must be some strange bug or something idk, cause all I deleted was the "windows" folder and suddenly my users folder becomes empty. Help is greatly appreciated!
    Last edited by EliteMaster16; 03 Jul 2010 at 17:18.
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  3. derekimo
    Posts : 17,322
    Win 10 Pro x64
       New #2

    Was there anything in it?

    you can try this to recover it,

    Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download
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  4. Helios Latio
    Posts : 16
    Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows XP sp3 & Linux Mint 8 [Helena]
       New #3

    maybe its hidden. go to organize. click folder and search option. go to view tab. click on show hidden files, drives and folder and unmark hide protected operating system files (recommended). then click apply. :) or maybe you can try recuva to recover the windows folder back.

    Hidden Files and Folders - Show or Hide
    Last edited by Brink; 03 Jul 2010 at 15:36. Reason: added link
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  6. zigzag3143
    Posts : 28,845
    Win 8 Release candidate 8400
       New #4

    Windows.old is the previous OS folder. when you upgraded and used the easy transfer wizard it should have imported the info into your current OS.

    Windows.old does not contain your current users and settings.

    If you deleted something you need your only option is to use a data recovery utility like recuva.

    Can you give us some more info as to why you need windows.old?

    Ken
    Last edited by Brink; 03 Jul 2010 at 15:38. Reason: moved
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  7. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       New #5

    If you have a restore point from before you deleted the folder, you can recover it with Shadow Explorer. Just navigate to the folder and right click on it - then Export it back into your system.
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  8. EliteMaster16
    Posts : 7
    7
    Thread Starter
       New #6

    @derekimo , yes, all my data was in there, but mind you I did not delete anything *except the windows folder and that was all. I already backed around 7 gigs/13 gigs with recuva and put that folder (windows) into C:\Windows.old but still no luck.

    @Helios Latio , tried that as well, no luck but thanks.

    @zigzag3143 I didn't use easy transfer wizard, I just left it in that folder - Windows.old and yeah I know that it doesn't contain my current documents and settings hence the title windows.old - lol, but nonetheless I still have important data in there which is why I need it and yeah, I copied the recovered (partially recovered) windows folder to the directory C:\Windows.old - but still no luck.

    @whs - sadly I don't have any restore points left so theres nothing I can do there.

    any more ideas would be appreciated, hopefully someone knows a fix. btw the funny thing is I never thought that deleting the windows folder on a previous OS folder would cause such mayhem
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  10. derekimo
    Posts : 17,322
    Win 10 Pro x64
       New #7

    From your screenshots and what you are saying it sounds like your looking in

    windows.old for your current user folder, are you sure you're not mistaking the two.

    If you are using that same computer there has to be a user folder there.
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  11. EliteMaster16
    Posts : 7
    7
    Thread Starter
       New #8

    @derekimo - no, I still have files in my users folder - I'm not looking for my current one I'm looking for the one in the C:\windows.old folder. My current users folder has all my stuff, so my current users folder wasn't affected. I'm trying to find out what happend to my users folder located in my previous install of windows which has a special folder called windows.old. Like I said I was doing some cleaning up and I deleted the windows folder, after deleting the windows folder - my users folder went blank (not my current users folder). So the users folder that once had hundreds of gigs of data went blank after deleting the windows folder (sorry keep repeating myself) - so this folder C:\windows.old\users has gone empty - however I know it's not empty but it just appears empty for some odd reason. And it is directly correlated to deleting the windows folder.
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  12. derekimo
    Posts : 17,322
    Win 10 Pro x64
       New #9

    EliteMaster16 said:
    @derekimo - no, I still have files in my users folder - I'm not looking for my current one I'm looking for the one in the C:\windows.old folder. My current users folder has all my stuff, so my current users folder wasn't affected. I'm trying to find out what happend to my users folder located in my previous install of windows which has a special folder called windows.old. Like I said I was doing some cleaning up and I deleted the windows folder, after deleting the windows folder - my users folder went blank (not my current users folder). So the users folder that once had hundreds of gigs of data went blank after deleting the windows folder (sorry keep repeating myself) - so this folder C:\windows.old\users has gone empty - however I know it's not empty but it just appears empty for some odd reason. And it is directly correlated to deleting the windows folder.
    This statement here is confusing me.

    It's either empty or it's not, you might be out of luck since the warning in this

    tutorial Windows.old Folder - Delete

    States that once it's deleted it's gone. That being said,

    Here's some other data recovery tools you can try,

    Rescue Kit Free Edition | PARAGON Software Group - free partition software, hard disk partitioning

    Freeware file recovery software to undelete files, recover or restore lost files

    Let us know how it goes.
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  13. EliteMaster16
    Posts : 7
    7
    Thread Starter
       New #10

    derekimo said:
    EliteMaster16 said:
    @derekimo - no, I still have files in my users folder - I'm not looking for my current one I'm looking for the one in the C:\windows.old folder. My current users folder has all my stuff, so my current users folder wasn't affected. I'm trying to find out what happend to my users folder located in my previous install of windows which has a special folder called windows.old. Like I said I was doing some cleaning up and I deleted the windows folder, after deleting the windows folder - my users folder went blank (not my current users folder). So the users folder that once had hundreds of gigs of data went blank after deleting the windows folder (sorry keep repeating myself) - so this folder C:\windows.old\users has gone empty - however I know it's not empty but it just appears empty for some odd reason. And it is directly correlated to deleting the windows folder.
    This statement here is confusing me.

    It's either empty or it's not, you might be out of luck since the warning in this

    tutorial Windows.old Folder - Delete

    States that once it's deleted it's gone. That being said,

    Here's some other data recovery tools you can try,

    Rescue Kit Free Edition | PARAGON Software Group - free partition software, hard disk partitioning

    Freeware file recovery software to undelete files, recover or restore lost files

    Let us know how it goes.
    The windows.old folder isn't empty, the users folder is empty - located at C:\windows.old\users

    When I say it's empty but not empty, what I mean is that it says it's empty but I know I have stuff in there.

    sorry I'm confusing you guys, I just really want to fix this
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