All files have moved to a new directory

[Hebrews12]

Hi there

My colleague switched her computer on today and her desktop was completely different. She tried to find her documents and couldn't but then I took a look and found that instead of being in the usual place, a new folder within 'Users' had been created called 'User' and everything was in there. I've run a scan user Kaspersky and nothing has changed. The 2 questions are:

1. Why has this happened?
2. Can I just copy all the files in to the original location and delete the 'User' file?

Thanks for looking

C

 

[Hebrews12]

Also, when she opens up Outlook, it starts the setup Wizard so it can't find all the settings/accounts for that either.

 

[RolandJS]

Something changed somewhere sometime somehow. Such massive disappearance does not happen for no reason or cause. Gently find out what the computer was doing just before being shut down the previous day.

 

[Hebrews12]

Thanks but she is the only person who uses it and she wouldn't do anything like that - or even know how to. I'm wondering if it is some piece of Malware or something?

 

[tommycake50]

Thanks but she is the only person who uses it and she wouldn't do anything like that - or even know how to. I'm wondering if it is some piece of Malware or something?

That sounds like an odd piece of malware, but it could be.
The only way to know for sure is to ask her what she was doing before she turned it off, since it must have happened then. If she was just doing work then it was probably malware, or a buggy application, though this is unlikely. It is odd not to notice that all your files have moved right after when it happens though, which means it may have happened at startup.

The answer to your second question is: Yes. But if there are still some files in her normal account folder that she was working on when the files were moved that haven't been moved (i.e. they were locked so couldn't be moved, and I'm talking documents, not folders), that would help pinpoint the time of the move and any information is useful.

 

[Hebrews12]

Thanks for this. When she opened her My Documents folder on startup, cation as to what happened or when. It was completely empty so there's no indication as to what happened or when. So, as you say, it must have happened on shut down but why? Yesterday, she was just working on a Word document and Outlook, Skype and Spotify were open - nothing out of the usual. Can't seem to find any problems that resemble this through doing a search online either.

 

[Porthos]

How to Fix Temporary Profile in Windows 7

This might be a help.


How to Fix Temporary Profile in Windows 7