No longer a fan of duckduckgo, Sallyanne, but I doubt this app caused your issue. If you did store your images in a Temp directory (as opposed to documents directly), then maybe a Windows cleanup operation deleted those files. I never store images in Temp folders for that very reason. Way out of the loop now (use to repair PCs between 2005 and 2010), but there are recovery programs available that might allow you to recover some of your data, but again, I'm out of the loop. Maybe someone here will bud in and recommend some programs. Haven't used it in quite a while, but I have an old CD image of Hiren's CD that has recovery tools that I know use to be pretty good, but that was a decade more ago. lol

Believe Hiren still exists, but lost the links over the years.

Lucky me Lyle (phew) Everything is back now. I just turned the computer off then back on and it is all ok now. Not sure what occured. When I tried to log on today it wouldn't even let me first couple times.
By the way I store my images in the pictures file never a temp file either. This scare may be enough for me to get a couple more flash drives and start storing them directly onto them.

Wallace
My backup is full so I cannot backup anymore (Maybe I should delete the backup files and backup again from now). Then find an online place where I can backup.
Although I may have something on a flash drive somewhere,which if I needed to use it I wouldn't have to start from dot 1

It's not a backup if you don't have an off-loaded 2 total copies (i.e, one on your main system, and, one on an external storage device). Highly recommend you invest in an external storage system, Sallyanne. Either an online service (no fan) or external USB storage device with sufficient storage capabilities for your needs.

Regardless, glad you data wasn't lost. Weird how I became the topic creator for this thread, though. lol

avoid long term storage on flash drives and ssd's. And as wallace says, at least two copies one local and one remote.

However purchasing storage will be $$$ these days as prices have shot up.

lylejk, you are prolly thinking about photorec.

I deleted my first post because everything was ok now. Unfortunately too late though, you must have replied at the same time.

So, can anyone tell me a good online free storage place? I found the cheapest so far to be icedrive but I think it only allows 10GB and I need more - have about 30+ GB pictures plus 10+ for documents

So this was a Ninja hat-trick then. lol







Like I said; not a fan, but if you can find a trustworthy site, it ultimately is offsite so your data would be safe even if your home experiences a natural (or not) disaster. If you use Windows, you already have OneDrive, but it's only free for a very small amount of storage. I use to use a Linux storage site (forgot the name name exactly but believe it was called Ubuntu One) but it quickly went out of business but at least I didn't lose my data. Hard to find a trustworthy site that will stay in business. if you have a family member, you can store your date on an external drive and then drop it off to that member for them to keep for you, or you can pay for a storage rental. Still, such methods, though more secure, suck (pardon my French and yes, I'm part French).

edit:

Did do a check and indeed it was called Ubuntu One.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_One

.... and people who come and read don't know the whole story ...
Not so good really.