Some desktop icons dissapeared after accidental click and drag

[bachrock]

So here’s what happened…
I highlighted most of my desktop icons then accidentally clicked and dragged them into VLC. This caused and error which resulted in most of my desktop icons disappearing. I restarted my computer to see if that would fix the problem. It did not. I searched for the files and they seem to be gone. Could the files still be there? If so, how would I go about recovering them?
Thanks!

[Bruce]

dragging desktop icons into the VLC icon should have only tried to ‘open with’ VLC and since they weren’t 'playable" files, nothing should have happened except ‘that file can’t be played’ sort of messages.

so not sure how they got deleted, and if you Ctrl+Z instead of rebooting, it may have been possible to undo the mistake.

check your Recycle Bin as I feel you may have deleted them while they were all selected.
fingers crossed.

[Bruce]

in that case, i got nothing.

if they were desktop shortcuts, the actual program will still exist in the Start Menu, you have only lost the shortcuts to that program which can be easily recreated.
if they were text files, or pictures, etc, you may be buggered.

don’t suppose you have a recent (or any) backup of your files or a snapshot of the system at all???

[bachrock]

No such backups, unfortunately. I’ll be making them from now on though, oof.

But yeah, it seems the solution is to download a free recovery program. It looks like not all is lost.

[Bruce]

what free recovery program?
even good free ones, like Recuva, have an extremely high chance of getting NOTHING back.
sad but true - but of course when desperate, you have to try even the ones with the smallest chance as you just may get lucky.

it’s just the way Windows works, once a file is gone, that space on the drive is available and the more the PC is used, and rebooted, the smaller your chances get.

Recuva, for example, will most likely easily find the files in question, as to the state they are in and whether they are currupted, will be a suck-it-and-see exercise.

good luck.

[phillpower2]

Thread closed due to lack of feedback from the OP.