Author Topic: Windows wiped my documents  (Read 2671 times)

Windows wiped my documents
« on: 26 January, 2019, 06:39:03 pm »
As I've mentioned we had a BSOD so I'm rebuilding the PC.  New SSD and RAM.  Plugged the SSD into the primary slot and moved the HDD to the secondary.   All is going reasonably well except....


When I checked the old HDD to suck off the documents and so on I find it empty of anything personal - docs, pictures, programs everything has gone.  There are two windows folders, the original marked .old which was created when I did a clean install last week.  I subsequently decided to start afresh with the SSD.

The time stamp on the windows.old is 4 am yesterday.  Mrs R did say that a message came up claiming that our copy of windows was out of date and everything would be wiped in ... with a countdown clock.  She switched the PC off straight away.

Doing a search does reveal that a windows update has been known to cause this to happen.  Any one any thoughts?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2018/10/06/microsoft-windows-10-update-lost-data-upgrade-windows-7-windows-xp-free-upgrade/#775e70be6fa4  maybe?

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: Windows wiped my documents
« Reply #1 on: 27 January, 2019, 12:31:49 am »
You windows documents folder was definitely set up to point to a local drive and not sync from a cloud drive like OneDrive?

Re: Windows wiped my documents
« Reply #2 on: 27 January, 2019, 08:07:04 am »
Quote
Mrs R did say that a message came up claiming that our copy of windows was out of date and everything would be wiped in ... with a countdown clock

RED FLAG!!!

Windows, for all it is evil, doesn't do that.

OK, AFIAK it doesn't, but I'd have a fiver on it.


ian

Re: Windows wiped my documents
« Reply #3 on: 27 January, 2019, 04:29:00 pm »
It doesn't. Even if it's not a genuine copy or isn't activated, it just stops updating features (I think they still issue security patches) and goes into what I'm sure they call 'passive-aggressive annoyance mode.'

But no, they don't delete your files. Even if they'd really like to.

A nefarious Trojan, of the non-horse inhabiting variety, would, of course.

Re: Windows wiped my documents
« Reply #4 on: 27 January, 2019, 04:50:06 pm »
OK there was a recent Windows upgrade that did some selective deleting, but it wasn't intentional, it REALLY didn't warn you and got pulled very very quickly. OK, quickly. OK, OK, when they got around to it - something like 36 hours IIRC

Gattopardo

  • Lord of the sith
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Re: Windows wiped my documents
« Reply #5 on: 27 January, 2019, 04:54:19 pm »
Quote
Mrs R did say that a message came up claiming that our copy of windows was out of date and everything would be wiped in ... with a countdown clock

RED FLAG!!!

Windows, for all it is evil, doesn't do that.

OK, AFIAK it doesn't, but I'd have a fiver on it.

Yep, I'd bet more than that.  There is something not right.

Gattopardo

  • Lord of the sith
  • Overseaing the building of the death star
Re: Windows wiped my documents
« Reply #6 on: 27 January, 2019, 04:55:45 pm »
Have you got another computer you can attach the old drive to?

Part of me thinks that getting a linux version on a pen drive may make some difference.

Re: Windows wiped my documents
« Reply #7 on: 27 January, 2019, 05:11:18 pm »
That drive was attached to the PC now rebuilt and running off a SSD.   It was showing up as drive D with the two windows folders mentioned.  The drive is now out and will go to a wok collegue who says he may be able to do something.

Re: Windows wiped my documents
« Reply #8 on: 27 January, 2019, 09:00:43 pm »
One copy of anything is a single point of failure.

Backup, backup and again, backup.

Use the 3-2-1 system for important stuff.

3 copies
2 different media
1 offsite.

Gattopardo

  • Lord of the sith
  • Overseaing the building of the death star
Re: Windows wiped my documents
« Reply #9 on: 28 January, 2019, 04:38:31 pm »
Talking about back ups when there isn't one is pointless.

The girlie had the same thing about deleting files pop up on her machine.  I shut the machine down.  So going to look at it later.

ian

Re: Windows wiped my documents
« Reply #10 on: 28 January, 2019, 04:39:39 pm »
It's sensible advice going forward though.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Windows wiped my documents
« Reply #11 on: 28 January, 2019, 04:41:49 pm »
Could the files be encrypted somehow?

Gattopardo

  • Lord of the sith
  • Overseaing the building of the death star
Re: Windows wiped my documents
« Reply #12 on: 28 January, 2019, 09:32:54 pm »
Could the files be encrypted somehow?

Is that to me?

No idea, updated avast free and run a scan.  Nothing coming up.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Windows wiped my documents
« Reply #13 on: 28 January, 2019, 09:35:14 pm »
Just a general suggestion, really.  I know nothing about how Windows generally does such things...

Gattopardo

  • Lord of the sith
  • Overseaing the building of the death star
Re: Windows wiped my documents
« Reply #14 on: 28 January, 2019, 11:15:55 pm »
Ah in this case the redirect was from a website to download their windows repair tool won't name here

Malwaretools came up with nothing, just running superantispware to see if anything comes up.

Re: Windows wiped my documents
« Reply #15 on: 29 January, 2019, 07:46:05 am »
Talking about back ups when there isn't one is pointless.

The girlie had the same thing about deleting files pop up on her machine.  I shut the machine down.  So going to look at it later.
Pointless? How?

Reinforcing sensible advice at times like this to prevent other ending up in the same situation is never pointless.

OP the advice up thread to create a bootable Linux OS on an USB stick is where I’d start. If possible the files are deleted, but retrievable. The OS simply changes the first character of a file name to a ? so they can be found and ‘undeleted.

You do need to be careful what you do when they Windows drive is mounted. If at all unsure I’d suggest getting someone who knows what they are doing to do it for you.

Re: Windows wiped my documents
« Reply #16 on: 29 January, 2019, 07:51:42 am »
Ah in this case the redirect was from a website to download their windows repair tool won't name here

Malwaretools came up with nothing, just running superantispware to see if anything comes up.
I had this several times a few weeks ago.  Each time I closed my browser, scanned with AVG and Malwarebytes with nothing found.  I still have all my files.

Re: Windows wiped my documents
« Reply #17 on: 29 January, 2019, 02:43:18 pm »
Just received a memory stick from work colleague with 8000+ jpeg files on it.  A lot are web browsing images, some are corrupted but the majority are our pictures.

He will go back to look for documents and so on.

Quote
create a bootable Linux OS on an USB stick

No idea how to do this or how to use it so although I appreciate your advice it doesn't help much.

R

Re: Windows wiped my documents
« Reply #18 on: 29 January, 2019, 04:53:15 pm »

Quote
create a bootable Linux OS on an USB stick

No idea how to do this or how to use it so although I appreciate your advice it doesn't help much.

R
[/quote]

I acknowledged that the information may not be useful to everyone indeed those that don’t know what they are doing can cause serious damage to an OS if they don’t know what they are doing.

It may be something your work colleague may be aware of and can help with, or it may even be what they have used to recover the images you got back.