Is it possible to reorganize documents with a restore?

[Juub]

Windows makes it clear that a restore will undo system changes and not change documents and folders. Too bad because this is exactly what I need. I don't know how but for some reason, I got about 300GB of data that was disorganized. Now my documents are all over the place and I'd like to restore them to the order they were yesterday.

I got backups from yesterday but I don't think they will reorganize my documents. I also got this error when I attempted a restore. 0xc0000022.

Is it possible to get my documents back to the way they were before they all scrambled?

Thanks a lot.

 

[kado897]

A System restore will not touch your data. An image restore of an image taken before the problem will return your drive to the state it was when the image was taken.

I don't think there is anything you can do if you don't have an image. BTW what was the cause of the scrambling and what do you mean by scrambling? It may be a sign of a more serious problem.

 

[Juub]

By scrambling I mean, I had about 300 different folders with subfolders and files in My Documents.

On the left hand side of Windows, there are quicklinks icons to your other directory, my brother seen another directory called ''Documents'' not ''My Documents''(the directory in which all our folders are located) which essentially contained the same files and subfolders but instead, everything was located outside the folders and subfolders. He thought he had made a copy of all the files from ''My Documents'' to ''Documents'' by accident, therefore he deleted all files in thought were duplicated in ''Documents''. After deleting them, the folders were all still there in ''My Documents'' except there was nothing in them. He then tried to recover them from the Recycle Bin. Everything came back, except everything was disorganized. Now I have files all over the place.

 

[seavixen32]

Have a look at this comprehensive answer: System Restore Error Code 0xc0000022 - Microsoft Answers

 

[kado897]

If you are running system protection, and I guess you are since you have tried system restore, you may be able to get back your organized files using the previous versions tab in My Documents.

 

[Juub]

Have a look at this comprehensive answer: System Restore Error Code 0xc0000022 - Microsoft Answers

Yeah, I do think disabling the antivirus will help, problem is, I don't think my problem will be fixed. I won't be able to rearrange my files.

Right at where the arrow points. Before all of the crap happened, there used to be ''My Documents''(where all my folders were located) and out of the blue appeared ''Documents''. Now I don't see ''My Documents'' and ''Documents'' essentially contain what there was in it, except everything is misplaced.

 

[seavixen32]

It looks as though your junction points may be corrupted.

That being the case, I'd certainly try a system restore to a point before the problem occurred.

 

[kado897]

Your image is pointing to the Documents Library not the My Documents Folder. Post an image of your c:\Users\your Name folder.

 

[Juub]

Edit: Update now. It's even worse than I thought. I used to click ''documents'' on the left-hand side and I would find all my files outside of their respective folders. Now they're all gone. Even when I search them, nothing. I don't know what happened but some files are now simply gone from the computer.

 

[kado897]

OK so you have a My Documents folder. So try right clicking on that (not in the library preferably) and selecting Properties. Then select the Previous versions tab and see if you have a version dated just before the problem. If so you can recover to that date by highlighting the entry and pressing the restore button. Be aware that anything added to My Documents since will be lost so if you need to copy it to somewhere else first.

 

[Juub]

OK so you have a My Documents folder. So try right clicking on that (not in the library preferably) and selecting Properties. Then select the Previous versions tab and see if you have a version dated just before the problem. If so you can recover to that date by highlighting the entry and pressing the restore button. Be aware that anything added to My Documents since will be lost so if you need to copy it to somewhere else first.

Wow thanks a lot. I can restore to previous versions. It has 300GB to organize so it'll take 2hrs...gotta go to work. I'll just let it like that and hopefully when I come back. It will be done. Many thanks.

 

[kado897]

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Please post back the results when you can.

 

[Juub]

Everything's back to normal. Thanks a lot. Neat little trick.

 

[kado897]

Good to Know Juub. Thanks for posting back.