Only restoring shortcuts to files

[IMac]

Hi,

Laptop decided to reinstall Win 7, programs still seem to be there, but files have gone, mostly Excel and Word, I installed and ran Recuva, (free version) it has found loads of files, quite a lot are not overwritten and come up about the right size in the list of files available for recovery. When I check the files to recover, all seems good, but all that is actually in the folder is a shortcut to the file, not the actual data.

Any ideas????

Edited August 20, 2018 by Nergal

[Nergal]

Ccleaner doesn't restore files.  Are you sure you're using ccleaner; perhaps you mean recuva?

[IMac]

Sorry, yes it is RECUVA I am trying to use.

 

[Nergal]

Ok, i've edited your post and moved the thread to the recuva discussion board.

[mta]

the re-installation of Windows 7 should have put all your personal files in the Windows.old folder within the Users folder - like they were before the install.
so look there.
because your programs are still there, it didn't do a fresh install or factory reset install, so you should be good.

a bigger question is, WHY did that happen? (that sort of thing doesn't just happen out of the blue)

[IMac]

Hi,

There is no windows.old folder

as to why - a couple of years ago laptop did a Win 10 upgrade, crashed a few days later, got it back up onto Win 7, and has been a bit dodgy ever since, routinely starting up with

'preparing computer for first use'

message, which went away after a couple of mins and reboot continued normally.

 

The other night on switch on it came up with 'reinstalling windows'

now I can see some - if not all the programs, but all files have gone, iTunes shortcut is still on the desktop, but is looking to reinstall

[mta]

so under C:\ drive, you see no windows.old folder?
it shouldn't need it, but check your folder options allow you to see hidden & system files.
let me guess, you have no backups either?

[IMac]

Backups are a job for tomorrow

 

The files I want to recover show a file size of about 2,500kb with an 'unrecoverable state', and comment 'File's data could not be found on the disk'

[mta]

I'll tag out at this point and wait for other members more experienced with Recuva to chime in.

[Augeas]

File's data not on disk means that the cluster addresses are not valid, they are probably set to 0xffff. There's no point trying to follow these addresses.

You may find your files with a deep scan, if, at the end of the scan, you filter for file type and date, size etc. But this is a long job, and if you find a file only the first extent will be recoverable without professional help.