How to Recover the Lost Data After Windows Update?

Updating your Windows OS is helpful in several ways. The latest Windows update provides advanced features like security updates to protect your device from attacks and allows you to have an amazing user experience. But ever wondered what if your data gets deleted after installing the latest Windows update on your device? Upgrading to Windows 11 from lower versions, such as Windows 10, Windows 8.1 or Windows 7, is usually flawless. Generally, it restores all your files and folders, but in some cases, you may lose your data after installing the latest Windows update.

If you ever encounter such data loss issues after upgrading your Windows OS, try to find the exact cause for the issue. Here, you will get to know the exact causes of sudden deletion or loss of data after a Windows update. Also, check several methods to know how to recover lost data after Windows upgrade.

What Causes Deletion of Files after Installing Latest Windows Update?

Before you apply any method or use the data recovery software to restore your deleted files after the Windows update, try to find the exact cause for the data loss issues. There are several reasons why the deletion of files occurs on your device after installing a Windows update. Some of these include:

User error: Instances may occur when you may accidentally delete files from your device without realizing it. To avoid such a situation, it’s important to double-check every file before deleting them.
Software bugs: Sometimes, there may be some unforeseen bugs or errors that can cause unintended consequences, like the deletion of files after installing the latest Windows update. These bugs can hamper the update process itself or interact with other files on the system and lead to their deletion.
Incompatible software or drivers: Many third-party software or drivers installed on your computer may not be compatible with the latest Windows update. This can lead to various issues, including their sudden deletion without any warning.
Virus or malware attacks: Suspicious malware or viruses on your device could take advantage of vulnerabilities exposed by the update, leading to file deletion issues. You need to keep your system protected using the updated antivirus software.

How do I Recover Your Lost Data after Windows Update?

If you encounter data loss issues on Windows 10 device after installing the latest Windows update, don’t panic. Just apply the following data recovery methods to get your deleted files back. In this part of the blog, we will discuss some quick and effective ways to recover lost data after Windows update:

Method 01: Restore Lost Files after Windows Update Using Backup

If you have created Windows backups of your files before installing the latest update, try to recover the deleted data using those backups. Go through the following steps to know how to recover the lost data after Windows update from Windows update:

Firstly, click the “Start” button located in the bottom-left corner, type Control Panel and then launch it.
Click the “Backup and Restore (Windows 7)” link, and then choose “Select another backup to restore files from” option.
Now, from the window that appears, choose the files you need to restore and click “Next”.

If you don’t have any previously created backup, you can use other data recovery methods given below.

Method 02: Remove the Temporary Account

After installing the Windows 10 update, you may log into a temporary profile instead of your main account. In such cases, you will be unable to access the files from that temporary account. Even the changes you will commit will not be saved once you log out from the temporary account. Thus, go to the following steps to sign out of the temporary profile to restore lost files after the Windows update.

Right-click on the “Start” icon located on the desktop and select “Settings”.
Now, locate and click “Accounts”, then select “Sync your settings”.
If you are logged into your temporary account, you will get the message indicating “You are logged on with a temporary profile. Roaming options are currently unavailable” on your screen.

At last, restart your device and log in to your main account.

After successfully login to your main profile, check if the lost files are back on your computer. If you still fail to access your lost files, move to the next solution.

Method 03: Enable Administrator Account Created for Upgrade

When you install the latest Windows update, the Administrator account you were using earlier may get disabled automatically. In such cases, you will be unable to see the documents stored on the broken Administrator account. To know how to recover lost data after a Windows update, you need to enable this account by following the below-given steps:

Type “Computer Management” in the search box located on the taskbar of your desktop and tap open it.
Now, from the “Computer Management” window, click the “Local Users and Groups” option from the left navigation pane.

Double-tap on the Users folder from the right side of the pane. Then, double-click on “Administrator” to open Properties.

Uncheck the box next to “Account is disabled” if it is ticked already. After that, click Apply and then tap the OK button.

At last, sign in with your Administrator account and check if you are able to access the lost data files.

Method 04: Recover Lost Data After Windows Update Using Data Recovery Tool

If the above methods fail to restore your missing documents, you can use professional data recovery software, like Stellar Data Recovery Professional. The software supports the recovery of data deleted due to any reason, including sudden power failure, virus or malware attacks, etc.

Some main features of Stellar Data Recovery Professional tool that make it best for your deleted data recovery on Windows devices:

Supports recovery of files deleted from Windows and Mac devices.
Recover files from internal and external storage drives, including USB cards, SSDs, Hard drives, etc.
Recover multiple types of files including your photos, videos, audio files, documents and many more.
This data recovery tool can recover files deleted due to any reason including accidental deletion, formatting, RAW, etc.
Restores data from formatted, encrypted, or corrupted drives along with your completely crashed & unbootable systems.

Follow the steps below to check how to recover the lost data after Windows Update using the Stellar Data Recovery tool:

Start the data recovery process by downloading the Stellar Data Recovery Professional tool on your device.
Launch the software after installing it on your device, select the type of file you need to recover from the Select What to Recover window and click “Next”.

Now, select the drives or storage location from where you need to recover your lost files and click the “Scan” button.

Wait till the scanning process gets completed, then select the type of file you need to recover and click the Recover button to save them at the desired location.

Wrapping Up:

If you update your Windows OS to its latest version and facing a data loss issue, go with the above methods to know how to recover the lost data after the Windows update. This blog specifies some simple workarounds to restore your deleted files after a Windows update. If the manual methods anyhow fail to get your deleted files back, you can try using the Stellar Data Recovery Professional Software to recover data from Windows hard drive.