ALL DATA LOST ON PC!

[UncalculatedCreativity]

So I came home and woke my PC that had been left on sleep, to find all my data had been erased from the PC. there were still the items in my recycling bin and traces of previous data (i.e google chrome) but all my documents, photos, music etc. IS GONE! 

[MVPernula]

Do you have more than one HDD/SSD?

[UncalculatedCreativity]

No, I have a single 1TB HDD. 

[fjdhdhcyfhf]

you can take it to a drive specialist. Experiment with random software people will tell you to try. Learn to keep a backup that is not connected to your pc 24/7

[ArduinoBen]

Do you ever pirate things, is it likely that you had a virus?

[vorticalbox]

21 minutes ago, SCHISCHKA said:

you can take it to a drive specialist. Experiment with random software people will tell you to try. Learn to keep a backup that is not connected to your pc 24/7

why? Just boot a kali live Linux and use foremost to scan the drive for files, you will need to recover the files to a different drive. 

[Wild Penquin]

Well, the possibilities are: 1) Some other user removed the data 2) the user removed the data (inadvertently) by themself or 3) there is some malware on the PC that removed the files.

 

Either way, determine what caused it. Files don't just delete on themselves.

 

Also, make backups in the future.

 

In case the data is/was partially very important, and you want to try to restore it, stop using the drive immediately until you have made the recovery attempts. Writing on the disk could overwrite the data you want to retrieve.

[ArduinoBen]

Yes!  Backing up is very important.  I recommend using GoodSync.  Even external hard drives are fine.  What's most important is that you at least have a backup.

 

You should update it every week and if you are using a backup drive smaller than your PC's hard drive, don't backup software or the OS, just user made files, etc.....