Files disappeared or a folder is empty

Not every disappearance is the same failure

A file may be deleted, moved to another folder, hidden under another user profile or removed from the cloud by synchronisation. A whole partition may disappear after filesystem or partition-table damage. Before repairing anything, note exactly what changed and when the files were last visible.

Check the recycle bin and the cloud service's web interface from another working drive. Do not install recovery software on the disk the files vanished from. If it is the system drive, shutting the computer down is safest because ordinary work writes logs, updates and temporary files.

On HDD, USB flash and memory cards, deleted content may remain until the same blocks are overwritten. On SSD, TRIM can tell the controller to clear free blocks. File age alone cannot predict the result; the media type and activity after the loss matter more.

If a folder is empty but used space has not changed, permissions, hidden files or a damaged directory may be involved. If used space fell and the computer kept running, overwrite risk is higher. A recovery pass looks for the previous directory structure when possible and also for file signatures when names are gone.

Make a search list

1. File types: photo, video, document or archive.
2. Approximate folder and file names.
3. When the files last opened.
4. What happened after the loss.