Windows Update Deleted my files?

[amueller]

Hello,

I've been struggling with this one since 6:00am CST I left my computer last evening at 3:00am CST with only 1 program open: VMWare.

Windows Update downloaded a new update, installed it, and rebooted the computer around 4:00am CST. When I got to the computer at 6:00am, the VMWare image was 'suspended'. This is pretty normal.

However - the image won't run anymore. Reason: about 50+ files are removed from that directory completely! This was a pretty important VMWare image and I am hoping there is a way to recover what the MS Update did.

I have tried undelete programs to no avail. Is there someplace MS moves files to during an update? Why would this have happened and what can I do about it?

The only restore points (right-click folder, 'restore previous versions') are from 4:00 AM and then later on in the day. When I open the restore point for 4am, the 50+ files are not there either.

Any ideas guys? I'm fresh out of ideas and about to go insane.

 

[richc46]

Welcome

I am sorry that you are having problems. I will start off by telling you that I am not familiar with VmWare, so I cannot give your specifics about that progam, I can however give you general answers, which should work. I think that a system restore would return everything the way it was prior to the update. The upadate will also be removed. You can replace that if important.

 

[whs]

The files may be in that 4AM restore point after all. Previous version is not very reliable. Run Shadow Explorer and have a closer look. If you found them, right click on them and "Export" back into your system.

 

[amueller]

Welcome

I am sorry that you are having problems. I will start off by telling you that I am not familiar with VmWare, so I cannot give your specifics about that progam, I can however give you general answers, which should work. I think that a system restore would return everything the way it was prior to the update. The upadate will also be removed. You can replace that if important.

Explain 'System Restore'?

I did load ShadowExplorer and the files are not in the fileset for the 4:00am restore point. Is this 'system restore' something different I should try?

 

[whs]

That means they were AWOL already before.