Automatic Update deleted all my files!

Anonymous
2010-04-29T14:22:13+00:00

Last night my laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit on a Dell Inspirion Laptop performed an automatic update. After rebooting, all my personal files including two 15 page papers I was working on for my degree were deleted.

All my pictures, word docs, and personal files are gone. Only the shell of My Documents folder, including the sub folders I created, is left.

I ran the System Restore going back to a two day old restore point, but non of my personal files were recovered.

I searced the internet w/ " Windows automatic updates deleted/erased all my files" and came up w/ several threads reporting this automatic update issue, but no solutions.

 Similar questions have been asked in other parts of this forum w/out satisfactory answers:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/itprovistaapps/thread/dd1beef0-4cae-4220-87fd-6556fd1c4d7d

<removed link>

I even displayed all hidden folders and searched the entire hard drive w/ *.doc and did not get a single file back!

I need help!

My papers are due in a week and all my course work is gone.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-06-14T15:48:38+00:00

    The same thing just happened to me. This is the second time in a row Windows has installed an automatic update and when my computer rebooted everything was either deleted or moved to a different user folder...System restore won't help me either and last time this happened I changed my desktop background and added a few files to my folders and then shut down my computer like normal, when I turned it back on the files I just added were gone and background was back to the generic one...This is very weird and frustrating! Thankfully my really important stuff was backed up on an external hard drive but I am working on some designs for a job interview and I can not deal with this!

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-06-21T18:00:30+00:00

    To avoid confusion & duplication of effort, please post any/all further follow-up in replies to your original thread => http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_update/my-problem-is-i-have-noticed-lately-that-every/747260b2-7908-4f27-84cb-f2d8f6bd5311

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-06-21T05:40:32+00:00

    hi famdebo

    the same thing happened to me twice after  automatic update was completed and  when i started my computer  two days later .on starting my computer i received a message telling me that the system is unable to start my computer and this problem will be fixed if the system is restored to a previous point, and this problem is being fixed .the problem was fixed through restoring the system to a previous point but i think the automatic update has something to do with this problem, so i cancelled automatic update  and will see the result . hope by doing so this problem will not happen again.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-10-06T12:32:12+00:00

    hi, it is a very serious problem, please kindly contact the Microsoft company. To solve your problem: Immediately stop using your computer for anything else. Download and run a file recovery program like Recuva . It might be able to help.

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  5. Anonymous
    2010-08-26T03:44:59+00:00

    Yumac, I had the same thing happen to me last night.  If you go into the control panel, then to system and security, then to back up and restore, there is a link that says: "recover system settings on you computer".  Clicking that will take you to a screen that will allow to select a restore date.  I had lost all my family pictures and school assignments.  Not good.  Once I did the system restore, it all came back.  I am, however, worried that it will try to install again, therefore, I am going to turn off automatic updates.  Hope everything turns out for you.

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