Automated Windows 10 updates deleted all my documents and files

There is no way to get to THIS PC, there is no task bar, no Windows box in the corner. START is missing. No way to access the things you are talking about. Just an empty recycle bin on a blue desk top. We had to pull the hard drive to get files and next trying to reload windows off of a USB and the computer won't let us even do that. 

Microsoft seems to have trashed the computer on this update.

in 99% of the computers I have worked on around 30 of them so far all of the users files have been intact they were just unable to get to them.

Its a simple procedure to get things back in order it just takes time and some know how.

1 Remove the hard drive from the laptop

2 slave that drive into another computer using a drive apapter and copy all of the user documents, pictures and Other needed files to another hard drive.

3 replace the hard drive back into the laptop and try to reboot into the recovery partition. (I have been able to do this in about 13 of the laptops.)

4 If you are unable to reboot into the recovery partition then use a USB drive pre-formatted with Windows 10 on it to boot from and re-install windows 10 using the key information from the computer. 

5 After windows 10 is done installing slave the hard drive that you copied the users files to and re-copy the file back to where they belong.

6. Let the user re-install any programs they had previously had installed.

After a few hours of work you have your computer back in working order with your files all intact.

Yes Microsoft has said nothing about this and so far I have found no other way to correct things from their screwup..

Rick

Sorry Raphy, it has not been that easy for most of the people who are on this thread, their/our files have gone, erased, no longer to be found on the machine. And still the Sound of Silence from Microsoft, typical....

I applaud your offer of help but the simple fact is that Windows has no right to write programs which can wipe our data, they are supposed to be supporters/guardians, not vandals... 

We may as well sing along while we wait for them,

Hello darkness, my old friend

I've come to talk with you again

Because a vision softly creeping

Left its seeds while I was sleeping

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the sound of silence.....

I had this happen! If you can get to the blue screen that allows you to reboot into safemode you will be able to access the options to reset the entire thing while still keeping your files (it’s somewhere under Troubleshoot and Advanced Options, iirc).

It will pretty much uninstall everything and go back to the initial version of the OS, stick a nice little list of everything it uninstalled on your desktop, and leave you with a now-functioning computer and all your files intact.

You will then have to spend a few hours reinstalling everything, but all things considered, I think I got off lightly.

If you cannot find the option to reset, you are not actually ion the right screen, even if it otherwise looks identical. I know because I had to try multiple times before I had those options available to me. Keep trying.

Spoke with Microsoft technician by phone about this today and they currently do not have a way of fixing this. Only suggestion is to have someone pull the hard drive and download the files and reinstall OS. My son has end of year projects stuck on the hard drive that are due in two days. We don't have time for Microsoft to figure this out, so will have to pay to get this done. Cannot tell you how upset I am with Microsoft about this.