Computer almost wiped clean since installing Windows Update 20H2

[gigglepot33]

Hello, did I accidentally download some virus or malware? I have been prompted to download and install the new version update of Windows 10 20H2, which came out in October 2020. I finally decided to go ahead. Big mistake. It took a while and when the welcome screen finally came on, it said I was not an authorized user! So I restarted and when it finally loaded to my desktop everything was gone!!!! My desktop was completely generic, 90% of my desktop icons were gone. All my settings were wrong. And the worst part was NONE of my files were on the C:drive. Everything was gone. No pictures, no home videos, all my files were gone. It was like I just purchased a brand new computer. Thankfully I went to Windows Update and found the Restore option and restored it to previous Windows version and it's all perfect and back to normal again. I've paused all Windows Updates for a few weeks but I'm worried because when that time is up, it said it will automatically download this Windows 20H2 version again and all will be lost again. Did I do something wrong? Can't find anything about this happening to anyone else online. Please help if you can. Thank you.

 

[britechguy]

It was probably "a burp" with the update to the new version, these do happen on occasion, and they most often don't recur when a second attempt is made.

That being said, you have learned that it is critical to take a full system image backup prior to applying any Feature Update. Although it wasn't the case here, that "burp" could have screwed up something that would have made the rolling back to your previous version not work, too.

Always take a full system image backup prior to applying any Feature Update. It's very cheap insurance and great for your peace of mind.

I also strongly prefer using the following instructions for actually applying Feature Updates:

• Doing a Windows 10 Repair Install or Feature Update Using the Windows 10 ISO file

It has multiple advantages from my point of view. You know if you have the ISO that all components needed to complete the Feature Update are present whether or not you have an active internet connection or have an interruption in your internet connection if you elect not to fetch updates as part of the Feature Update. I routinely don't, as Windows Update itself will get anything that has been put out by Microsoft subsequent to the creation of the ISO for the Feature Update Version that you created. (You do, of course, create a fresh ISO for the actual version you are intending to install). It also has the advantage of your having the ISO already in hand if you were to need to do a Repair Install or to do the Feature Update on other machines without having to go through the whole download process for the components on those other machines. It speeds things up considerably if you have several computers you want to update over allowing each to download from the Microsoft servers independently from one another. (I have seen far less sharing than I'd like from Delivery Optimization, which I'd hoped would cut down on repeated downloading among the PCs on my local area network when big updates are being applied.)

 

[NumberFiveee]

Were you by any chance loaded into a temporary profile?

If Windows for some reason was unable to load your profile, it will start you in a temporary profile (it will show you a message saying so) that looks like you described (brand new PC).

You can check this by going to C:\Users and check the folder names.

 

[britechguy]

Were you by any chance loaded into a temporary profile?

That's precisely my suspicion of what happened, too. I have never had anyone be able to explain how this comes about nor how to prevent it. But it's also usually a fluke that does not recur on subsequent attempts.