I had read that this was all because a folder had been renamed from mydocuments to documents or some such. So all still there just hidden in plain site in different named folder. Dunno how true that is, can’t find any reference to it now.
However I’ve long thought the way Windows rolls out updates is completely wrong! Timing should be optional, it must cost a lot of companies a lot of wasted time when you arrive in morning, turn on a PC to then have it make you wait whilst it completes updates. It drives me bonkers… Still using Windows 7 here and you can get around it but you have to go out of your way to do it.
The vanishing Documents folder problem seems to vary slightly depending on how you have set up the system. On my friend’s machine it was absolutely bog standard W10 domestic with no option on refusing the updates at any time of day or night. The update was Pushed at him. So he is a Beta tester, like half the world.
The data is not actually lost, just in a reserved folder that is only visible if you know how to go looking for hidden folders. With the machine being set up as M$ want you to have it, he could not find a thing, and panicked. I found the folder for him to reassure him all his videos, photos, emails and docs were still there but just hidden.
However, before doing anything to change matters I used Acronis to clone the whole disc, system and all (a good half an hour), onto a spare HD I took with me - just in case. Then as Administrator I asked the W10 update system to roll back to the previous installed version. This took about another ten minutes, and all was well and he was happy.
I did not play with his registry settings for updates, partly because I’ve forgotten where I found the info on what to set and we were running out of time for a search, and partly because now that M$ are all too aware of the issue the next iteration of the update will probably be OK.
We have told the W10 update system he is on a metered internet (actually >50Mbits fibre!), and not to act as a local host/server, and turned off all the M$ snooping, so that should lower the profile of his machine.
He has now invested in a nice new fast external 1TB HD + 8GB SSD hybrid hard drive in a USB3 caddy that will be used as a regular scheduled backup including a system image. It should arrive soon, and hopefully he will be using it…
Thanks Richard and Martin for the info. I have had contact from an old customer on the issue so will be taking a look on my return.
From what info I have found, it looks more likely to affect those who originally did win10 as an upgrade rather than a clean install/new pc but that could just be conjecture
My friend’s machine is a very nice very fast two-year-old Dell laptop that came with W10 by default. Unfortunately he did not pay the extra thirty pounds (ish) for a W10 Professional version, which allows for a LOT more control on how the updates arrive (if you dig deep into the system). It also has the later generation of processor so we could not fit a fresh SSD with W7P to it when he bought it.
