Files disappeared from documents after a restart with no recovery possible.
Files disappeared from documents after a restart with no recovery possible.
Hi everyone, I'm dealing with a serious issue at my school where one of our teachers has lost all their documents after a restart, and despite multiple recovery attempts, we haven't been able to locate them. Hoping someone here might have insights! Issue Summary: Teacher attempted to move the Documents folder to the Desktop . Shortly after, Windows 11 received an update (only an antivirus definition update). After restarting, the Documents folder was completely empty —all files gone. Other folders like Downloads and Pictures remain intact . Searching for specific files yields no results . What We've Tried: Checked OneDrive (including the Recycle Bin) – no files found. Checked for temporary profiles – user profile appears normal. Verified Documents folder location – no redirection detected. Ran file recovery using Hiren’s Boot USB – no deleted files detected. Looked for Previous Versions / Shadow Copies – none available. Checked Event Viewer logs – no obvious signs of file system changes. Concerns: The fact that file recovery tools found nothing is alarming—almost as if the files never existed. Could the attempted folder move have caused an issue with file paths or permissions? Is there any possibility that Windows Update (even though it was just an AV definition update) could have triggered something unexpected? Next Steps: We’d love to hear if anyone has encountered something similar or has other troubleshooting ideas. Any help would be greatly appreciated—these were all the teacher’s lesson plans, and losing them is a huge setback. Thanks in advance!
This situation brings up some confusion about file handling. It’s possible someone believed they had moved files but actually didn’t—perhaps the documents were stored elsewhere, like a network folder or another person’s drive. We use Onedrive for most tasks, and during new laptop setups we often have both local and cloud copies. There might be a misunderstanding about how the system works, leading to incorrect data or assumptions. Alternatively, it could be a strange error message with no clear file traces.
Are you working with SharePoint? Like syncing a folder there and it suddenly stops working, disappearing without a trace. Try looking for recent documents in tools like Word and see if you can track the issue. The same applies to network drives or OneDrive shares—likely the files aren't on the computer itself but linked elsewhere.
Teacher wasn't utilizing OneDrive, and there was no connection to other network storage. It seems like a mysterious situation. From our perspective, it appears the files never existed.