Windows.old folder missing documents

[AliShaikh]

Hello guys, I just installed Win 7 64 Ultimate. In the windows.old folder there are the Program files still there from old windows, but I can't find the documents!! When I go into Windows.old > Users > NOTHING IN HERE!! Only Public and default, not my old username which had docs in it!
The files are still there because the harddrive space is the same as it was before the install. Its still 150GB/640GB free, like it was with vista. So where are all my downloads? I had over 300 irreplaceable videos!!!
What should I do?

 

[Umbrella420]

They should be a folder in your C drive which has all of your old documents in, or check your current Windows 7 documents folder =]

 

[Tews]

They should be a folder in your C drive which has all of your old documents in, or check your current Windows 7 documents folder =]

A word to the wise .... ALWAYS, ALWAYS back up your data to a seperate drive or partition before installing/upgrading an OS...

 

[AliShaikh]

I know, my documents are NOT in my Windows.old folder or I can't see them(I have enabled hidden folders)

 

[Umbrella420]

Check your personal folder and the folder 'Documents' loacated inside your personal folder. If they are not there check the C: Drive for a folder containing your old documents.

 

[AliShaikh]

Dude... You don't seem to understand. I know where they SHOULD be(In my other comp all my other docs are in there) but not in this one! Where could they be

 

[Umbrella420]

Search your entire PC for a file which you know is in the documents folder and then just open location, if it wont find it i think your screwed, you could try downloading Undelete Plus, a great program to recover deleted files

 

[AliShaikh]

its not there! What do I do? I will try undelete plus and report back.

 

[AliShaikh]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Not with Undelete Plus either!
Am I screwed?

 

[Tews]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Not with Undelete Plus either!
Am I screwed?

Blued, Screwed and Tattooed... Im really sorry, but I hope you come away from this having learned from personal experience, the #1 rule in computing.... back up! Learn it, Love it, LIVE IT!!!

 

[AliShaikh]

But why is the HDD space still taken up? There were 200GB of docs in there. If it truely is gone, why didn't my HDD empty up

 

[copernicus]

You sure that's where you had them? Maybe you were saving someonewhere else this whole time.

 

[matt_0978]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Not with Undelete Plus either!
Am I screwed?

u mean to tell us u did a scan that only took 7 mins max? u might get better results doing a deep level scan. good luck!

 

[Kari]

Please read this.

Good luck,

Kari

 

[dlevens]

Windows 7 a huge failure for upgrading

OK so first thing first.

AliShaikh, I have to say, I totally feel for ya man. Totally sucks and completely rediculous that an upgrade from a product this late in the game would jack it up that bad to actually delete or hide or whatever to your documents, videos, pictures, music etc.

WTF Microsoft?

OK so I too had this issue. Fortunately I have a full backup of ALL of my drives. Notice I said ALL of my drives!? Are you really kidding me? I actually needed a backup of a drive that should not have been involved in this upgrade? YUP, I sure did! POS! I still have many hours ahead of me to repair this mess, but AT LEAST I have all my backups.

But in my case I upgraded from Vista Ultimate 32bit to Windows 7 32 bit. But what is pissing me off is the data I lost and need to restore was 400gb of Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos all on a Separate freaking drive. I purposely keep all my important data that needs nightly backup on a separate drive D. Windows Vista was on drive C, and I upgraded drive C.

This is beyond pathetic that an upgrade would screw around with my data ON A SEPARATE drive. And like AliShaikh the size of my drive has not changed. So where did my stuff go? It is not hidden or set to system files. I have view hidden and system files on and they are just no there.

Microsoft and the engineers responsible get a freakin F across the board for upgrade. The LAST THING you screw with is people's data. How stupid did they engineer this to cause these issues? Look how pissed I am, and I lost NO data.

AliShaikh, I totally feel for you man, and no matter what people say you should have done with backups, there is no reason this close to release that Microsoft would have a product that would screw this up this bad to lose your data.

Dennis

 

[Zidane24]

OK so first thing first.

AliShaikh, I have to say, I totally feel for ya man. Totally sucks and completely rediculous that an upgrade from a product this late in the game would jack it up that bad to actually delete or hide or whatever to your documents, videos, pictures, music etc.

WTF Microsoft?

OK so I too had this issue. Fortunately I have a full backup of ALL of my drives. Notice I said ALL of my drives!? Are you really kidding me? I actually needed a backup of a drive that should not have been involved in this upgrade? YUP, I sure did! POS! I still have many hours ahead of me to repair this mess, but AT LEAST I have all my backups.

But in my case I upgraded from Vista Ultimate 32bit to Windows 7 32 bit. But what is pissing me off is the data I lost and need to restore was 400gb of Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos all on a Separate freaking drive. I purposely keep all my important data that needs nightly backup on a separate drive D. Windows Vista was on drive C, and I upgraded drive C.

This is beyond pathetic that an upgrade would screw around with my data ON A SEPARATE drive. And like AliShaikh the size of my drive has not changed. So where did my stuff go? It is not hidden or set to system files. I have view hidden and system files on and they are just no there.

Microsoft and the engineers responsible get a freakin F across the board for upgrade. The LAST THING you screw with is people's data. How stupid did they engineer this to cause these issues? Look how pissed I am, and I lost NO data.

AliShaikh, I totally feel for you man, and no matter what people say you should have done with backups, there is no reason this close to release that Microsoft would have a product that would screw this up this bad to lose your data.

Dennis

I also feel your pain but I feel that I must mention one thing...

Microsoft clearly states that when performing an upgrade OR when Installing a copy of Windows 7 over Windows 7 (Installing to the same drive), the first foremost thing is to back up all your data. That is all I will say

 

[dlevens]

I did some investigation and reboot. I can now see the hidden folder I did not see before.

On Vista my D drive folders were like this

Backups
Documents
Pictures
Secure
Videos

Obviously I remapped 3 of the folders from their normal locations. I also renamed them from My Documents, My Pictures, My Videos to what you see above.

After Windows 7 upgrade my folders were like this

$INPLACE.~TR (this folder was hidden)
Backups (untouched and all data safe)
My Documents
My Pictures
Secure (untouched and all data safe)
My Videos

All 3 of the My Docs/Pics/Vids folders were renamed back to defaults and had no data in them, just a bunch of empty folders.

All of my data was sitting in
$INPLACE.~TR\Machine\DATA\Documents
$INPLACE.~TR\Machine\DATA\Pictures
$INPLACE.~TR\Machine\DATA\Videos

I got access denied to the $INPLACE.~TR but after right clicking to view permissions and saying yes to allow admin I then could double click to go inside it. I have since cut and pasted my data back. I am still checking permissions to see if they got messed up.

So obviously a huge bug in Windows 7 that was not tested. Does MS just assume that everyone uses the default names and locations? Only the folders that were mapped folders were affected.

bad bad Microsoft, a huge miss!

Dennis

 

[dlevens]

Zidane24,

I see, so your one of those guys eh? Kicking people when they are down, and backing an obvious bug by spewing some CYA garbage that MS slaps on everything? Give me a break dude.

Of course I backed up, but that is because I know better. And what do you tell the guy who like me had his data on ANOTHER drive completely?

If this was a network drive, would you spew out the same things? Well, uhh, you should have backed up all your computers in your house man, thats all I have to say. Give me a freakin break.

There is no justification for this. This is Windows, a product owning, what, 90+% percent of the world market? A vast majority of the business market? And this is near final code. There is no excuse for this.

Pathetic!

Dennis

 

[Kari]

Zidane24,

I see, so your one of those guys eh? Kicking people when they are down, and backing an obvious bug by spewing some CYA garbage that MS slaps on everything? Give me a break dude.

Of course I backed up, but that is because I know better. And what do you tell the guy who like me had his data on ANOTHER drive completely?

If this was a network drive, would you spew out the same things? Well, uhh, you should have backed up all your computers in your house man, thats all I have to say. Give me a freakin break.

There is no justification for this. This is Windows, a product owning, what, 90+% percent of the world market? A vast majority of the business market? And this is near final code. There is no excuse for this.

Pathetic!

Dennis

Zidane told, polite and correctly, that he understands the OP but that Microsoft clearly states the importance of backup before upgrading. How can you find something negative on that?

Some Windows operations like installation, backup, creating a system image, a full and deep virus scan etc. take a lot of time. Most often this missing files issue when upgrading is a direct result of the laziness of the user: "No s***, it takes too long. Why bother?" Often this not so wise decision is based on some irresponsible comments like this:

... I dont understand Why people back up files before a clean install. If you dont delete partition all of ur old files will be saved on the new OS in C/Program files /Windows.old folder.

Losing personal files when upgrading is always the users own fault. Microsoft has nothing to do with that. They tell very clearly you should always backup your personal files before doing an upgrade installation.

Kari

 

[Zidane24]

Zidane24,

I see, so your one of those guys eh? Kicking people when they are down, and backing an obvious bug by spewing some CYA garbage that MS slaps on everything? Give me a break dude.

Of course I backed up, but that is because I know better. And what do you tell the guy who like me had his data on ANOTHER drive completely?

If this was a network drive, would you spew out the same things? Well, uhh, you should have backed up all your computers in your house man, thats all I have to say. Give me a freakin break.

There is no justification for this. This is Windows, a product owning, what, 90+% percent of the world market? A vast majority of the business market? And this is near final code. There is no excuse for this.

Pathetic!

Dennis

LMAO!!! To the other guy I will say the same thing...backup his data. Backups extend to external drives, DVD, etc....Also your taking the comment to the extreme; I have never known of Windows 7 manipulating a drive NOT being used for setup. Networking is NOT EVEN RUNNING at the beginning of setup...how would you explain the modifications there? Windows DNE OS Software + Babysitter...the end user is responsible for making sure their data is secure and backup at all times. You would think that a little common sense would allow someone to see that upgrading/clean installing an OS is MAJOR and securing your data beforehand would be sufficient

Perhaps I have too much faith in people