Windows.old folder automatically deleted

[Veltas]

I have installed Windows 8 Pro (and then upgraded to Windows 8.1 Pro) on a partition that already had a Windows installation on it. It saved the files from the previous install in a folder named Windows.old (as it said it would).

I didn't get around to moving the stuff in that folder into a more appropriate location yet, and just today I watched it disappear.

Turns out

Windows 8 has a new Timer feature which will delete Windows.old files automatically after a period of 4 weeks since upgrade.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/1cc46980-d18e-4aca-ad09-8792f2969e1b/missing-windowsold-folder-after-upgrade?forum=w8itprogeneral
http://windows8-drivers.com/windows-8-drivers/windows-old-files-are-deleted-automatically-in-windows-8/

Well that caught me by surprise. Here's hoping they remove the feature in future revisions of Windows or actually prompt the user to ask if they want to remove it or not.

Well, I had old files in there that I still want that aren't backed up: what's the safest approach to getting them back at this point? I have not turned on my computer since this happened for fear of somehow making it harder to recover (if it comes to it, I'm hoping there's a "reverse" functionality but guessing that there isn't).

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or help.

[Salmon Trout]

1. if you have not done any disk cleanups then software like Recuva may be able to get the deleted folder back.

2. You may have an old System Restore that contains the data you want.

Note: I have not done these things, but I Googled and found this page which contains links to some free apps

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1654029/restore-windows-folder-windows-deleted.html

[Veltas]

Yes System Restore won't fix this, unfortunately. Also, this was not a 'Disk Cleanup' as in that post, but instead something that apparently mimicked this as part of something called 'Timer'.

Recuva is my last resort, but probably going to have to be my solution.

I shall give it a day to see if anyone's got any other suggestions, but at this point I won't be surprised if there are no other suggestions.

Thanks for the reply.

[Veltas]

BTW, love the signature Salmon, very funny...