Over 100GB of data disappeared. Help?

[Sgt_Stryder]

I just turned on my laptop and I was quite surprised to see that all of the folders and files on my desktop disappeared. Initially, I saw them in the file explorer, and my C drive had about 200GB of free space. As I was downloading updates on Windows 11, busy on the phone and whatnot, now more free space appears on the C:. I don't know what happened during that time. A virus scan doesn't turn up anything. What do I do now? Is there any way to do a restore and see if those files turn up? This is on an SSD and IIRC, there is a way to recover the files? Unfortunately, I didn't back up those files to an HDD so it's important to find a way to somehow recover them.

I don't know if this is related to Onedrive. I noticed that after this latest Windows update, OneDrive seems to have been turned back on and synced my files to OneDrive. I know files were backed up because there is a desktop folder with subfolders that range from 1-19. Unfortunately, some folders are empty. It makes me wonder if OneDrive was automatically deciding what to backup? Like if an existing folder with the same name exists on OneDrive, would it only back up the folder from my laptop and then delete the files if it seems to exist on OneDrive? I tried to do a restore via OneDrive to a previous date, but all my lost files don't exist using a previous recovery date.

Other than contacting a professional data recovery firm, which I really hesitate, about because of the potential costs and the possibility that a bad actor will steal my data.

I think my best hope is to find some sort of software that can try to recover the data even though TRIM could have permanently wiped it. There are tons of free space according to Windows. Is there any way to go back to a previous state before I installed all the Windows updates (not sure which one caused OneDrive to back up and delete the files from my laptop) and then the files and folders may reappear? I'm not hopeful since if there is a backup, I should have even less SSD space? I'm really frustrated that whichever upgrade, maybe it was a major Windows 11 upgrade?, Microsoft didn't respect the previous settings where I disabled auto backup. I had no idea OneDrive would backup my files to the cloud and then delete them from my desktop. Surprisingly, the deleted files didn't even show up in the recycle bin!

Another problem is that I wasn't subscribing to MS Office 365 so there's no way there would have been enough space to backup all of the files from my laptop. I wonder if OneDrive abruptly stopped backing up at 40GB and then sent a command to my laptop to delete all the files since it thinks they're all backed up?

 

[hozalp]

Firstly, regarding OneDrive, it's possible that the synchronization process could have affected your files if there were conflicts or if OneDrive settings were set to replace local files with cloud versions. However, without specific configuration details, it's challenging to determine exactly what happened.

Regarding recovering your lost files, here are some steps you can take:

Check Recycle Bin: Even though you mentioned that the files didn't appear in the Recycle Bin, it's still worth double-checking just in case.

File Recovery Software: There are various file recovery software programs available that may help recover deleted files from your SSD. Programs like Recuva, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, or MiniTool Power Data Recovery are popular choices. These programs can scan your drive for deleted files and attempt to recover them, even if they've been deleted or lost due to TRIM.

System Restore: If you have System Restore enabled on your laptop, you may be able to revert to a previous system state before the Windows updates were installed. This could potentially restore your files to their previous state.

 

[Sgt_Stryder]

Recuva didn't show anything after a deep scan. Not sure how to use EaseUS, but I hesitate to install any more apps onto the SSD for fear of overwriting any files.

While I continue to research this topic before resorting to professionals, would you guys say disabling TRIM and not using any SSD space to mitigate any further damages? After disabling TRIM, can I use Chrome or try another search for those files without potentially compromising the integrity of the missing files?

I'm also reading about cloning the drive with Acronis software and trying to look for the files like that?

When installing any software, can I install it to an external hard drive and run it from there? Is there any self-contained software that won't require installation to the SSD?