Using Windows 10, half of Icons and Start Menu disapeared

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From a morning reboot I found half of my Icons and half of the Start menu was gone, and that is not the worst part. Later I found that all of the files in my Download folder and my Documents folder were gone. The document folder had a lot of files. All my pictures disappeared too, but I have them backed up.

I have been intending to use another hard drive for document storage, pictures etc., but didn't get to it. (I will from now on!)

I use Cc Cleaner so I upgraded to CC Cleaner professional. Now I see that there is another upgrade to another CC Cleaner version and I see that it has a restore files ability, so is there a possibility that it might help me in my case. I have already checked as well as I know how and the folders seem to be empty.

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if you mean the System Restore option in Tools, then no, that won't get your files back.

that is for a handful of system files to allow Windows to revert back to a saved state after, say, a wayward Windows Update process.

for file recovery use another Piriform program called Recuva.

you backup your pictures, but any chance you have backups of the Documents, Downloads, Desktop etc folders?

do you do system image backups?

it may be wise to check you PC for malware, see rule #10 in the forum Rules here; https://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showannouncement=15&f=5

and to check the integrity of your drive, start an elevated command prompt and type in chkdsk c: /r

3

This is an upgrade to my post of April 09, 2017, by Earlyboomer.

I had checked my document folder and download folder and they were both "this folder is empty". I went through my PC looking everywhere I could and no files.

Then about 4 days later I booted up my PC in the morning and my Icons were back, I quickly checked my document and download folders and everything was back in them also.

I don't know what to make of this except it was like winning a minor lottery. I got a second chance to do some backing up now. I can't explain what happed but I'll take it.

I do check for Malware, because I have had attempts by malware hackers to lock up my PC but I got around that, but I was still concerned that they still might have got me.

I also checked my hard drive for errors, there were none. I upgraded from windows 7 to !0, and I am still learning the differences. I have CC Cleaner, System Mechanic, and Malwarebytes.

I do remember when I was booting up one day that I saw a notice pop up in the lower right corner of the screen, there always seems to be something there, so I didn't look quick enough, but I think it was from Malwarebytes stating it did something. You don't get a second chance to read these pop ups, they are quick, but It makes me think Malwarebytes could have eliminated the problem.

This was a good reminder, like the moderators say, we need to be prepared for anything and everything with a PC.

Thanks for the suggestions.

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with nothing to go on except a hunch, I'd be guessing you may have had a corrupted user profile.

either way, Windows logged you on with a temporary user, so nothing in the Documents, Desktop etc folders.

it would have popped up a window stating something along those lines which may have disappeared just as quickly.

anyway, glad you got it sorted, and backup, Backup, BACKUP. :)

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Just in case you are using MBAM 3, there was a 3 page thread about it causing user profile issues. Last post in thread here

https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/192282-profile-corruption/?page=3#comment-1112276

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Also if it was some malware that Malwarebytes cleaned up automatically via real-time protection that event should be in the archived logs - that is if you don't have cleaning software such as CCleaner clean the logs.