What the freak happened to my brother's computer?!?

[AmEv]

Just today, I turned on my brother's computer. Was greeted by what looked like an automatic factory reset. Default wallpaper, default desktop... Except for the programs were still installed.
I thought, OK, maybe an update reset the desktop. Then services I had explicitly disabled started running. -.0 So I go to the Documents folder.



Gone.
Nothing.


Anyone have ANY idea what the freak just happened, and how to get the precious files that were on this computer back?

(He did buy an external HDD for it, but he only ran it, maybe, once or twice, two-ish years ago.)

[OvRiDe]

Check the "Documents and Settings" folder on the C:\ drive and see if there is an extra profile directory listed there. I have seen this kind of glitch up when a domain computer can't locate the domain, even though it should just use the cached profile.

[AmEv]

TEMP was created. Found my brother's directory, and all isn't lost *phew*. Rebooting to see if it fixed itself.

Question is, how was TEMP created??? Malware?

[TLHarrell]

Glitched Windows Profile? I've had a corrupted profile before. Not fun.

[AmEv]

I rebooted, and all reset itself.

I think it was a bad update.

[Luke122]

I was going to suggest a corrupt profile also.. I've seen that happen loads of times! Run your backup RIGHT NOW! RIGHT NOW! This could be an indication of a failing/corrupt hdd.. make sure you get your data backed up before you do any other troubleshooting!