All Documents / Media And Desktop Missing - System32 Folder Couldn't Be Found
Mar 10, 2016
I have a huge issue with my desktop PC at the moment. Everything was fine when I was using my PC yesterday but upon startup today a system message appeared saying that the desktop file in the system32 folder couldn't be found and my desktop was a black screen with nothing but recycle bin(I did have lots of shortcuts and folders). Shorty after other applications such as Skype prompted me to locate the files or reinstall the software.
Using the recycle bin on the desktop i accessed the files(or lack thereof) to find all of the document, video, picture, ect. drives empty with strange string of random numbers and letters(looks like hexadecimal?) at the top where it would normally say "documents" or whatever. Whilst the documents are gone the C drive is perfectly intact with program files and other stuff. The start menu does not work either so I cannot access control panel or command prompt but "windows key + x" shortcuts still work.
To my knowledge I haven't installed any suspicious software as I am well versed enough in computers to not click any old pop up, in fact I do not remember installing anything. I can't access my PC specs as control panel cant be accessed but it is a vibox gaming pc and is on windows 10. I cannot access chrome or any internet browser on my PC.
I have just formatted my PC last Monday, and i have installed drivers and Steam and American Truck Simulator. I know that my saves and mods are in My Documents folder and ATS loads still fine after the folder is missing.
When I go to C:Usersdrfee there is a folder called Documents, but there is nothing in it, but where have My Documents folder gone? And yes hidden items is checked.
When I click one of the shortcuts in the start menu, I am informed that windows cannot find the specified location.
When I try to navigate to the location, windows wont let me select it. Windows is looking for a file to navigate to when I get that prompt but, I need to specify a folder to get the shortcut I want. I tried to use a shortcut as well but, when I select, it opens the file location and cant be used as a specified file from what I can tell.
I originally upgraded to windows 10 and at first I couldn't find my documents or photos. I was then able to locate it under the windows.old file in which I dragged the photos and documents to file explorer. One thing I noticed was my personalization was not the same so I set up my background image, etc. THEN, a day later my computer restarted and had all of my previous settings before I did the upgrade and that's when I lost my photos and documents. I couldn't find it in windows.old, network, hard drive, owner, etc. So I decided to revert back to windows 7; again docs and pics not there. Finally, I upgraded back to windows 10 as I feel my files are gone for good. I did not delete anything so I don't understand why it is gone.
if I right click on my music icon in explorer I can change the location of its contents in the location tab which I was trying to do, as I have my Mp3s in a music folder on my D Drive.
whilst trying to do that I accidentally moved it to the desktop location of my use folder. So now both the Desktop and music icons in my explorer are both linked to the same location, (users/username/music) and the desktop link in my user folder has gone.
I just got my hands on a new UX305 from ASUS and it's working wonderfully. However, I wanted to change the icons for the Desktop, Downloads, Music, etc. folders in Quick access in File Explorer. I was able to do it on my main rig, but there is no customize tab for most of the folders in quick access, and those that do still don't allow me to change the icon.
This morning I started the windows creation Tool to download Windows 10 ISO to do a clean install. About 10 minutes into the download the machine lost power. I rebooted into the machine and tried to run the Tool again, but all I get is "Setup couldn't start properly. Please reboot your PC and try running Windows Setup again". So, I rebooted and all I get in the same message. What can I do to fix this?
I got myself a new 120GB SSD for the jump to Windows 10. I install the OS without problems from a DVD disk, boot up and begin to install stuff as steam, spotify and GeForce experience.
I remove the installation disk from my DVD reader and reboot. After the BIOS screen I get a message that claims there are no bootable media.
With the installation disk in the DVD reader everything works fine, I get an option to boot the installation even though the DVD is nr 2 in boot order after my sole storage unit.
I have tried to use all those bootrec commands to restore, repair or create a new bootmgr and so on. No installations of Windows can be found either. Been doing this for 6 hours now. I have reinstalled windows 10, 8 and 7. All with the same problem.
I plugged in one of my older 60GB SSDs and successfully installed Windows 10 on it. No sign of any boot problems. Booted without the installation disc. Same SATA connection on the motherboard. No changes in boot order.
So my thoughts about this right now, is it possible my new SSD have a defect from the beginning? Something in the hardware/hardware controller?
And yes I have searched around and Everyone seems to get it working with bootrec commands. I don't...
My 'documents' folder suddenly got moved into another folder named 'Doctor Web.' Looking into this, I find that Doctor Web is a piece of security software originating in Russia, apparently quite respectable, but it's not something I ever installed. According to its properties, the Doctor Web folder was created in 2014, but it wasn't on my computer two days ago when a backup I ran had no errors. Today, it choked on the new folder. I'm attaching a screen grab to illustrate the situation.
My question is, is there some method by which I can move the 'documents' folder from the 'Doctor Web' folder. put it back where it belongs and delete the 'Doctor Web' folder? I have access to all my documents, but I am not at all happy with them being spontaneously moved like this. Al
I updated to windows 10 and I couldn't find any of my files. Eventually found them moved in a folder. Once I restarted my computer, all of the files were gone and I had more storage on my computer. These are files as in music, movies, and pictures. They are NO WHERE to be found.
I have a problem where all my Office 2013 documents (word and Excel) disappeared after migrating to Windows 10. Microsoft support just say that they have gone without a trace. Not much support there. Fortunately I have a 99% backup but I now do not trust Windows 10 not to lose more. I think there is a bug in the migration but cannot get the message to Microsoft
If I create a shortcut to my documents folder, or pin it to Quick Access or Start Menu, then the shortcut will take me to my Documents library, which is not what I want. (The annoyance comes from the fact that once there if I then decide to go somewhere that isn't in the library, I can't simply go up to the containing folder; I also cannot click the address bar to get the current folder path.)
Is there a way to keep shortcuts to the documents folder (or pinned items) from taking me to libraries? Also is there a way to delete the default libraries completely? (I don't have any use for them.)
If disabling the libraries feature is the only way to do this then so be it, but I'd rather not as I might be able to actually use libraries. If that is the only way to do it, how would I disable the feature? I found this article which tells how do disable the feature in Windows 7, but I wasn't able to find anything for Windows 10. (Would the same .reg files work in Windows 10?)
I have two HDD drives - C (main drive) and D (storage) Drive C has windows 10 installed (upgrade from 7 today) and seems to be running OK
Prior to the Windows 10 install I had problems accessing the D drive drive so I booted from a Linux Mint disc in order to access my stuff on D, all went well and I created two folders with my stuff in them ready to access once I had upgraded to Windows 10.
Installed Windows 10 on C drive, all working great, I can see both HDD, I can see and access both drives, I can access one folder on the D drive and see all my files inside but i can't access the other folder on the D drive named "documents" Windows 10 says it's a system (.sys file) and asks for an app to open it.
Whenever I try to 'save as' in a documents folder, it flashes up "you don't have permission to save in this location. Contact the administrator to obtain permission. Would you like to save in the documents folder instead?" When I click 'Yes' I just go round in circles to be told I do not have permission??? I have followed instructions to 'Run as administrator' and on a couple of occasions I have managed to save things (I'm not sure how??) but next time I go into it, it reverts back to the same error message. Also it is hit and miss, and near impossible to search and locate any files.
I have downloaded windows 10 successfully. However, when I try to create a 'new folder' in Documents, the Documents window puts out a message "not responding".
I can create a 'new folder' on my desktop and put it in the Documents folder, but I cannot use the "new folder" icon in the Quick Access bar to create one in the Documents folder itself. Am I failing to see something I should have done?
When I try to open a folder in Windows Explorer, it opens the "Documents" Folder by default. I have to choose "Open" or "Open in New Window" to get it right. If I select "Open Windows Explorer" or double click on the folder, my Documents folder opens. I have reset every setting I can think of to default settings. I installed IoBit Advanced System Care9 Pro and was fiddling with a bunch of settings before this occurred.
At some point shortly after installation I changed the Location of my Documents folder, so it may reside within the OneDrive user folder.
Shortly thereafter I released this was not what I wanted, given that many applications, by default, spout numerous files into my Documents' location. I redirected the Documents folder once again, seemingly successfully, to its original location. Since then a second, duplicated Documents consistently reappears (even after deletion from both the PC and the OneDrive website).
On checking the properties of this Documents doppelganger I can observe that its location is configured still to the OneDrive folder.
I have used Windows 8 for a while and I recently updated it to Windows 10. After installing Windows 10, I downloaded a lot of files as well as played a lot of games without logging in to my Microsoft account. I only recently logged into my Microsoft account and after I restarted my PC after updating Windows 10, all files in my documents folder disappeared. All save game files, all downloads - everything completely disappeared. I tried using the Search option and I couldn't find any files from that time.
I've deleted the 'Documents' and 'Pictures' folders which appear under 'Folders' when you click on 'This PC'
I did this because I'm trying to get into the habit of using my OneDrive not my local disk for storage.
The folder icons are still present, however they now have a little syncing icon attached to them, and I can obviously no longer access them. I get the following error message when I click on them or whenever I perform an action that opens a default folder, such as attempting to attach a document to an email.
I can navigate just fine to my OneDrive by clicking the OneDrive icon, it's just these folders under This PC which seem to be affected, though the file path on the error message confuses the heck out of me because it says it's in my OneDrive.
I'd like to ideally just change my settings so that my OneDrive is the default folder that opens for all of these kind of actions (attaching documents to emails, default location to save files etc.)
Secondarily I'd like to restore the folders under This PC (just the folders, there were no files in them) as the syncing icon bugs me a bit.
My standard Documents located in C:users...documents is no longer a writable folder following upgrade to Windows 10. Affects Visual Studio, Outlook and some other software. eg for Visual Studio 2013: CurrentSettings.vssettings cannot be written. I own the folder of course and attempts to remove the "Read Only" flag appear to work and then immediately fail when I attempt a write operation to a file in one of the folders. I am administrator but this doesn't useful. Also logged on as a local user instead of Windows Live account, but same results.
On Windows 7, everything was fine. Since I upgraded to Windows 10, I have a problem with c:usersftrdocuments (ftr is the user account name)
It is locked to read-only, and when I change it, it immediately changes back, despite me giving administrator privelege. This is messing with so many programs that expect to be able to write here, and the biggest is Adobe Premiere. It can no longer write to the folders it needs to in here and when it offers to switch scratch disks to My Documents, the program craps out - probably because it's running into the same error.
I thought at first this may have been because I changed to an Outlook account, so I switched the machine back to Local - but I still cannot take control of the folder.
I have this problem on my fresh Windows 10 Pro x64 installtion where the documents folder keep multiplying in the file explorer navigation pane, it sometimes appears when I'm using the file explorer or leave it open in the background for a while.The system folders (Documents, Pictures and the other system folder) are all located in OneDrive and in my case D:OneDriveDocuments.
And this is what happens when I leave the file explorer open for a while. What triggers it so it is hard to reproduce. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with it being in OneDrive but I guess not since none of the other folders are acting like this.The extra Document folders don't appear like that all at once, they appear one by one and when you wait long enough it can become like that. There are no events in the event viewer that seem to be related to this problem so nothing I can show you from there.
I've just found the cause of this problem, it caused by OneDrive syncing the folder. The moment it starts to look for changes or update changes in the folder it will multiply and keep adding more folders one bye one.
I play video games and all my games are saved in my documents as many other steam users but the games cannot load any save data from countless games like skyrim, Arma 3 etc. As soon as I remove the read only attribute from the document folder and apply the settings it does the whole apply to all the sub folders and files crap but as soon as its done I click okay and right after i check the properties again and voila there it is read only is checked and i cannot do jack about it.
When I had Windows 7, I had literally every single thing in My Documents. Every song, every file, every tax record, every picture...literally everything. That way, when I backed up my hard drive, I just plugged in the My Passport Ultra drive, synced it with My Documents, and everything backed up.
But in Windows 10, I'm seeing Frequent Folders that include ThisPCMusic and ThisPCDocuments. So I figured I would just drag the music folder into the Documents folder, and it would just create yet another subfolder within Documents (other subfolders within Documents include "Resume", "Travel Info," etc. So I figured "Music" would just be another subfolder, as was the case with my Windows 7 setup.
Instead, it made a copy of the music folder, which is not what I want. I want to actually migrate the Music folder into Documents as a subfolder. I thought that maybe I could just copy it over and delete the original Music folder, but what if the copy doesn't work because the original version has been wiped out.
