[Question] Windows 10 user corrupted, recoverable?

Gared

Gared

Alright God admit. It looks like, one way or another, my Windows 10 user profile has become corrupted. This means that I can't get to any of my documents aside from my pictures. But the documents and downloads and everything else are still on my computer magnetically, Windows just can't show them to me. I've tried restoring, but all of my restore points are gone, I've run a repair installation from ISO, and I've checked command prompt inside safe mode. Can I still pull the drive and access the data from a second computer?

Edit: I'm going to leave the autocorrect, God admit is funny.
 
Eriol

Eriol

Assuming you didn't click "encrypt" your drive and/or user directory in any way, yes you can get at your files.

Best way I'd say is don't bother with another computer, just boot via USB or DVD to a Linux distro that runs right off of that on boot, and then just read the drive. Copy the files to somewhere else on the drive that's public (C:/Temp or make a directory if it doesn't exist) and you're golden.

From a quick Google, here's a list: 5 Live Linux Desktop Distributions You Should Know

Good luck.

If you need help booting to a live DVD and/or USB, somebody else can probably give a good link on that too.
 
strawman

strawman

Eriol's path is the one I'd take, except I would use another computer and a USB converter just because I find it easier. Regardless, as long as you don't have drive or windows encryption turned on those files should still be accessible, though I'm unfamiliar with "user corruption".

If the computer is running fine, you might also try creating another user account as an admin, logging into that account, then accessing the user files directly on the drive, should be something similar to C:\Users\<username>\My Documents. You might have to click a few dialogue boxes indicating you want to grant your new admin account access to those directories.
 
Gared

Gared

Well, whatever the hell it was, it was nasty. The documents were unrecoverable, but thankfully I was able to save the wedding photos. Now I just have to redownload and reinstall everything I had on here. But hey, now I know how to create a bootable USB drive to install Windows 7 or Ubuntu. No day where you learn something can be considered a total loss, right?
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Gared said:
Well, whatever the hell it was, it was nasty. The documents were unrecoverable, but thankfully I was able to save the wedding photos. Now I just have to redownload and reinstall everything I had on here. But hey, now I know how to create a bootable USB drive to install Windows 7 or Ubuntu. No day where you learn something can be considered a total loss, right?
Click to expand...
And you also learned the importance of backups! It's a hard lesson to have to learn.
 
Gared

Gared

Ravenpoe said:
And you also learned the importance of backups! It's a hard lesson to have to learn.
Click to expand...
Especially for someone who should know better. I even have an external backup drive hooked up at all times, just never got around to moving my document folder over to it.
 
Gared

Gared

Have I mentioned recently that I absolutely fucking despise Microsoft? I realized yesterday that Windows Update wouldn't actually update anything on my newly restored Win 7.1 OS, which is a pretty common occurrence if you don't have a genuine copy of the software. Checked the key that I used (which was my original key on this machine from way back in 2010), and because it was an OEM key, it wouldn't activate. Microsoft no longer has a phone number to call for the automated "something is wrong with my Windows 7 key" system, so my only two options were to re-upgrade to Windows 10, or buy a copy of Windows 7. Windows 7 isn't sold by Microsoft anymore, and the copy that Newegg lists has a lot of negative feedback about not actually getting the software and the keys not actually working. I didn't want to risk paying for something that would put me right back in the same position, so that meant I could either buy a refurbished computer somewhere for really cheap that was running Windows 7, and try to use the HDD from that machine as my HDD, but that risks running into a lot of OEM issues again. Well, I hate Windows 10, but at least I have a legal, working key for it, right?

Wrong.

The key that I had been using as recently as last Friday (when I shut my computer down in anticipation of a big storm that we wound up not getting, and unplugged it from the wall to protect against power surges)? Yeah, that was a free upgrade key. It doesn't work on new installations of Windows 10 after the free upgrade deadline.

So, after 5 days and $130, here I am with a new, retail version of Windows 10 on my computer. I should have pulled the video card out and thrown the rest of the fucking thing in the trash as soon as there was trouble, and saved myself a lot of headaches.
 
Eriol

Eriol

Just a note to everybody here: if you have this problem in the future, ask the board here. Somebody will PM you a valid windows 7 key. Probably both faster and cheaper than what was necessary for you here.

"Somebody" will step up I'm sure.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Eriol said:
Just a note to everybody here: if you have this problem in the future, ask the board here. Somebody will PM you a valid windows 7 key. Probably both faster and cheaper than what was necessary for you here.

"Somebody" will step up I'm sure.
Click to expand...
The same goes for bootleg anime porn.

Or whatever, that was just a random example and in no way specific.

The point is I... I mean we can hook you up.
 
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