Solved How to recover deleted files

[richard9362]

Hi. I have an SSD. I have two Window7 OS on my SSD. WIN7-1 & WIN7-2. Win7-1 OS has user account "Hobbies". Win7-2 OS has user "Arduino". For some reason I ended up signing in with a guest account on Win7-2. My user desktops for both OS are on a dedicated (and the same) partition. The folder situations is (say) DESKTOP_HOBBIES> Desktop In other words my, Hobbies desktop is in a desktop system folder called "Desktop", which itself is in a folder called "DESKTOP_HOBBIES". (Sometimes the system folder shows up as "DESKTOP_HOBBIES").

Anyway, for some reason while in WIN7-2 OS I created a user Hobbies. Don't know why now. The target for the desktop system folder was set to the same location as in Win7-1. In other words, on both Win7-1 & Win7-2 OS I had a user account called "Hobbies" and the desktop system files point to the same folder on the partition holding my desktop files.

OK, now on Win7-2 OS I deleted the user "Hobbies". But, I must have deleted the files as well. Because when I went into Win7-1 OS, there are no more files on the desktop. I've not added or removed any folders and files on the partition holding my desktops. So, the files should still be there. But, so far no luck. I'll get back tommorrow and report back. But, as yet, I've not managed to recover all the files on my "Hobbies" desktop.

EDIT: Removing the account and files did not delete the desktop system folder. So, I have DESKTOP_HOBBIES>Desktop. "Desktop" being the desktop system folder. But it's empty.

 

[RolandJS]

I suspect that hobbies data was within a particular account's data folder. You may have to use a portable, flash drive resident, deep drive scanner and recoverer, minitool data recovery is just one of many very good data recovery utilities. Deep scan might generate a list of green-yellow-red files by name or by generic nondescript names. I am on a non keyboard android device, so 'nuff said for now.

 

[file3456]

Have you tried a simple restore point?

Absent of that, try Shadow Copy View, find a date of a shadow copy before the mess up and chose the button I show in this image and copy the whole lot to another hard drive or what ever. You could do this on the same drive with a folder, but you'd need enough HDD space.

 

[richard9362]

The hobbies data I'm hoping, could/should be resident on the particular segment of the SSD on the partition that is holding all my desktops data. If I had a HDD, I'm assuming that would be in a particular physical segment of the HDD, and because there has been no activity (writing) to that partition the data should be there intact. Not sure if the same applies to a SSD. Anyway, now looking at the advice given above, see where it leads. To be clear, the system desktop folder did start out being located in Users folder, but I altered the target destination to a partition dedicated to my desktops data. Indeed the system folder still is there, but now empty. I have a purchased copy of Recover My Files I may need to use that.

 

[richard9362]

I think it is impossible to recover the deleted files. Because TRIM is enabled on the SSD. But, having said that I'm ready to run Recover My Files app. Luckily I have a version of the desktop residing on the laptop. So, I won't loose everything.

 

[RolandJS]

Going forward, one possible solution is to have all data go to a non-OS partition. A bit more work upfront, however, never again will a disappearing or corrupt user profile cause data loss.

 

[richard9362]

Hi. I don't think I actually deleted the files in the desktop associated with the user account "Hobbies". I used a recovery tool to recover a partition, the partition containing my desktops which is H drive. After running the tool, I saved all the files the recovery tool found on an outboard portable HDD. Then I used the Windows search facility to enter the name of a folder I know was on my "hobbies" desktop. And found the folder. To get to the chase, this folder I found is not only on the outboard portable HDD, it's also on my laptop HDD at: H:/DESKTOPS/DESKTOP_ADMINISTRATOR/Desktop/HOBBIES2/HOBBIES2/Desktop. Whenever you see "Desktop" that's a system desktop folder. Anyway, the first "desktop" you see in the above string should hold stuff on the desktop associated with user account "Administrator". But somehow in that desktop is a folder called "HOBBIES2. And in that folder another folder called "HOBBIES2. And in that folder a desktop system folder called "Desktop". That last system desktop folder contains all the stuff that was in the desktop associated with user account "HOBBIES" It's the desktop I thought I'd deleted. So, all I need do is copy the stuff in that folder back to where it should be which is in the system folder "Desktop" that got emptied, that itself is in folder called "DESKTOP_HOBBIES". Then do some cleaning up. Anyway, the short of it I've solved the problem by discovering that I've managed to move the files, not delete them. One point: The user account that I deleted that started all this was called "HOBBIES2" and I might have clicked on a button twice.

 

[RolandJS]

Richard, good recovery job!

 

[richard9362]

Hi. I'll close with this: That sometimes missing files might have been moved rather than deleted. As in my case. I would have found the files and their location by using thw Windows search feature on the HDD. But of course, I thought that files were deleted. The files that were originally in H:/DESKTOP_HOBBIES/Desktop ended up in H:/DESKTOPS/DESKTOP_ADMINISTRATOR/Desktop/HOBBIES2/HOBBIES2/Desktop. How that hapenned, I'll never know. Thanks for the input. Regards Rich