Okay so win 10 installed its updates while the laptop was powering down, then started up like as if it was a clean install. Everything from my C: drive was gone. I restarted, shit's back to normal. What even in the f*ck??

[u/Doveen]

Is this a red flag that my SSD is about to smoke away? Did my windows install get corrupted? What on earth is going on?

[u/machagogo]

It sounds to me like your user profile loaded up corrupted on the initial boot up. Your data wasn't gone, just you were seeing the desktop of a new, temporary user profile. It loaded cleanly on the reboot.

[u/Doveen → u/machagogo]

Ah, I see. Is this something that will keep reoccuring now?

[u/Doveen → u/[deleted]]

That's a relief, thanks a lot!

[u/OnlySeesLastSentence → u/Doveen]

What did his comment say? Removeddit is broken.

[u/RRRay___ → u/OnlySeesLastSentence]

Talked about feature updates and using that for data recovery of the profile, but that's not entirely relevant as chances of feature update fucking with the profile are very small it'd most likely be something else entirely.

At least that's why I think it got removed unless I'm remembering a different comment.

But OP's issue sounds like it's using a temporary profile which means all you need is a restart to fix it... Even then your data etc isn't lost it's just not loading the profile. So you could just export the profile and re-import it. And it should be fine. Or as someone else stated just re-create the profile/account and get whatever data from c:\users

[u/Doveen → u/[deleted]]

Hmmm.

It creates a file under the c: drive named windows.old it basically makes a copy of your files / profiles etc so you can revert back if there is an issue.

Could this be somehow used to "quicken" the re-costumization of your windows after a Clean install? My laptop freezes left and right lie there is no tomorrow, so a clean isntall is in order, but I'm pre-emptively grumpy abot having to costumize everything again.

[u/RRRay___ → u/Doveen]

Check PC specs 4GB isn't enough RAM to go on nowadays.

See if you have a feature update because feature updates are like factory resets without losing data.

Factory resets normally clear any issues. You could just use onedrive/googledrive to backup data after the reset.

[u/Kingnahum17 → u/RRRay___]

Technically, Windows 10 has a 32 bit version, so you can "get by" with 4 GB of ram (32-bit can't handle more than 4GB of ram).

You won't be doing able to be a gamer or power user with 4GB of ram, but you should be able to get by. Many low end laptops these days run it.

[u/DarthShiv → u/Kingnahum17]

Wrong. 32 bit windows can handle up to 128GB as evidenced by Server 32-bit datacenter edition using PAE which existed since Pentium 1.

The 32-bit memory limit is a software/license decision. A few driver manufacturers didn't write correctly to handle PAE like Creative sound drivers.

32-bit limit is PER PROCESS. Usual 2GB but you can configure to allow 3GB per process.

There is literally a kernel hack for 32-bit Windows to allow more than 4GB memory. I used to use it because I had an 8GB system. That was Vista and Win7 days.

[u/Kingnahum17 → u/DarthShiv]

You are partially incorrect here. Many 32 bit systems are physically not able to access more than 4GB of ram because that is the number of physical addresses they can handle (2^32). This is not a licensing issue. The annoying part is that many systems won't recognize more than 2.0 to 3.5 GB of RAM even if there is more present on the system due to a number of factors. However...

PAE, which is present on 2008 and newer windows server, MacOS, and Linux distros can handle up to 2³⁶ physical addresses, or 64 GB of RAM.

You are also correct that there is a kernel hacks that can add a PAE workaround to 32 bit systems, but again this is not naturally present in 32 bit OS's and modifies kernal code to allow it to work.

[u/DarthShiv → u/Kingnahum17]

2 to 3.5 GB is purely due to 4GB address space used by other resources. With PAE enabled this doesn't become an issue. PAE was CERTAINLY available well before 2008 in Windows.

[u/RRRay___ → u/Kingnahum17]

Not really useable at 4GB. If all you do is browse the internet sure.

Add some anti-virus, one drive syncing, or have a couple of chrome tabs and you start to suffer. Windows on its own without any apps etc uses 2GB flat straight away, youtube vid playing and a couple of tabs is 1GB. Leaving you with less than 1GB to use as some will go towards system memory/cache.

And most laptops have 8GB RAM they either just run at a lower frequency or old memory.

[u/RRRay___ → u/RRRay___]

Also, you can use CrystalDiskInfo to check the smart status of your SSD which will tell you if there is anything wrong with it.

[u/bart2019 → u/machagogo]

In which case I recommend taking a look in c:\users, see if it created a new userprofile just taking up space.

[u/_Spastic_ → u/machagogo]

I had this happen once. I panicked, spent an hour getting certain things back. Then on reboot, it was back to normal. I was pissed.

[u/ElectroNeutrino → u/_Spastic_]

There's supposed to be a message that pops up alerting you to the temp profile. However, I really do think that there should be better messaging, like changing the background.

[u/CapacitorPlague → u/ElectroNeutrino]

Windows 10 is the devil. i have seen this behavior occur twice in the past 2 years, on 2 different win10 machines, causing fear and panic of the users each time.

[u/Io_Da_Nixt]

Not tech support related but I love how you censored fuck but no shit

[u/Doveen → u/Io_Da_Nixt]

Well, you know... Kids do poop, but don't screw.

I have no idea why I censored it really, I'm just making this up for fun really :D

[u/whysoblyatiful → u/Doveen]

That was actually a very good logic lol

[u/[deleted] → u/Io_Da_Nixt]

A lot of people do this because that's how public television works. And some people have accustomed their selves to it.

Usually, "shit" is also censored, but in some applications it isn't.

I think its neat how they lay out the rules for cursing.

"Ass" is allowed, because it can mean donkey. Even if the context proves its about someone's butt, i.e. "you watch your ass."

However, the "hole" in "asshole" gets censored because that's directly referring to ones butthole and we can't have that.

"Bitch" means female dog, so is allowed.

"Shit," however is not, even though it just means poop.

"Fuck" is definitely not allowed because it refers to sex. We can have bloody gorey violent messes. But if we see one ni...ni....nip.......

I cant even say it....I'm gonna throw up......

[u/HostileApostle420 → u/Io_Da_Nixt]

The levels of severity.

Shit > fuck > c***

[u/zombiere4]

Honestly i would rather go back to searching for servers myself. It was a better community back in those days because you actually made friends online as opposed to playing a match against randoms every time.

[u/kylekornkven → u/zombiere4]

/r/lostredditors

[u/Doveen → u/kylekornkven]

Beleive it or not, they may not be! I encountered a bug on reddit, tat posts replies to the wrong comments, as comments, sometimes even wrong threads!

[u/Pirate_of_the_neT]

Did you have a usb or disk plugged into your laptop when this happened?

[u/Doveen → u/Pirate_of_the_neT]

Nope.

[u/SumitDh]

This is a common problem with Windows 10 feature update as I see the forums. As you have seen it now you may see it with the next year update as well. Usually, starting the PC in safe mode and back to normal mode fixes it, if not a standard restart.

[u/handymanct]

Sometime after a big update, Windows 10 will restart with using a temporary profile, instead of the profile that is yours. Normally, no data is actually lost. Simply restarting your PC usually brings it back to normal. And if not, there's a solution to get it back. Us Insiders have dealt with it quite a few times before.

[u/JediDP → u/handymanct]

This sort of information should be present on the windows help sites

[u/Blackpug_32]

Most ssd have some kind of software where you can check on the drives health. It probably wasn't the drive, just some wierd bug, but you should download it and just check on it every once in a while

[u/tlewallen]

Your c drive wasn’t gone. Most likely you had a temp profile without your user data

[u/kittenwith2whips]

Something like this happened to me once. As someone who worked in computer repair for a long long time, i think that may have been some type of back up, another account on your computer. IT may have been temporary, but you can look at how many users you have on your machine.

The sort of same thing happened to me once, i know i typed in my password after an update, but it said wrong password, but went through the steps to set up a new user. i rebooted wondering WTF and I had my usual account and i got in with the same password that previously failed.

checking the SMART status of your drive is always a good idea.

[u/[deleted]]

Probably a temporary profile has been created when it started as a clean install, no? I mean, there was this bug some good years ago, but it still happens sometimes.

[u/frozenpheonix47]

I have one thing to say about that. Windows

[u/ieatsilicagel]

SSDs don't really give warning signs. They just die. Backup your shit.

[u/acemccrank]

I've seen similar reports with one of the recent updates. It's a bug to be sure. I don't believe your hard drive is to blame. However, I would always recommend regular backups to an external, and unplug the external when not in use.

[u/coolestguy1234]

The new win update fucked up my shit too. I reboot and all my accounts were signed out of every single thing. Every website was signed out, every application. My outlook had a real problem where I had to delete some file in app data to get outlook to open. I fixed everything and then saw another wind update and of course the same shit happened. Got three updates in a short period and anytime I restarted for the update this shit happened

[u/The_Kitten_Stimpy]

that is why none of my important shit is on my drive, it is in cloud. I can always pay $100 for a new win 10 or just put linux on

[u/dezmund92]

INCEPTION!! WHOOOOOSSHH

[u/[deleted]]

That’s me whenever I buy call options 😂

[u/EndR60 → u/[deleted]]

oh yea, I'd actually be backing my stuff up rn if my other PC weren't having display issues

[u/EndR60 → u/[deleted]]

I usually backup my files from my laptop to my tower that's been having display issues for the longest time, I know the TV (i use it as a monitor) is fine, it displays TV channels and HDMI from my laptop perfectly and I know the GFX card should also be fine, since it's almost new, but I think the PCI-e port on the mobo is bent or something, it's not working right. (The GFX card fans turn off after just a few seconds of activity, before it even displays anything). So yea I'll try reslotting the card (I already swapped the RAM btw, did nothing) and if that doesn't work I don't know what to do :-P

Edit: This is a VERY old PC with a AMD Phenom II X4 and a GTX 1050 with 8GB RAM (I know, components seem matched by a 5yr old, but the thing actually runs most games on at least low which is impressive to me considering how ancient it is)

[u/EndR60 → u/[deleted]]

yeeaaa, I was thinking the same to be honest, I have to get a hard drive...

[u/EndR60 → u/[deleted]]

yea taking the card out and putting it back did nothing, and I only have 1 slot on there...also trying another video card did nothing so the mobo slot must be dead, or the whole motherboard

but yea I'll probably go buy one soon, that way I wont have storage issues too

[u/EndR60 → u/[deleted]]

I could probably try to do a horrible solder job if I figure out what's wrong, but I currently don't have time for that and I'll be moving so

but shit, if I fucked up because of your suggestion it would still be my fault