What should I do? Uninstalling steam just wiped out all my files.

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niff Jan 20, 2016 @ 7:12pm

While I was downloading Steam, I accidentally changed my Steam folder directory to my background and ended up with a bunch of program files in my background.

I used the 'uninstall steam' program to clear out my background and realized that all my files, programs, words, excels were gone alongside with all the steam data.

Just can't find the folders / word files anywhere. Can anyone tell me why this happened & how to find my things back?

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Showing 1-15 of 38 comments

Bad 💀 Motha Jan 20, 2016 @ 7:52pm

Try running a full scan with this and see if u can recover deleted files:
https://www.piriform.com/recuva

CursedPanther Jan 21, 2016 @ 12:27am

Recuva is good for rescuing your accidentally deleted holiday picture album. But multiple games with all kinds of proprietary file formats and without a complete list for what to look for? Good luck with that.

May as well start downloading again.

niff Jan 21, 2016 @ 2:06am

Originally posted by CursedPanther:
Recuva is good for rescuing your accidentally deleted holiday picture album. But multiple games with all kinds of proprietary file formats and without a complete list for what to look for? Good luck with that.

May as well start downloading again.

Luckly, the deleted files were .rar files and etc of my due assignments.

niff Jan 21, 2016 @ 2:50am

The recovery was a failure. Thanks Steam for deleting all my precious files.

Can anyone tell me the reason why this happened?

Bad 💀 Motha Jan 21, 2016 @ 3:24am

How did Uninstalling Steam delete your personal files though?
I still don't understand this. And why would you uninstall a game client? As doing so removes any games along with it.

Septevar Jan 21, 2016 @ 3:38am

did you delete the steam folders on your desktop manually, and accidently selected personal files too?

Bad 💀 Motha Jan 21, 2016 @ 3:48am

And why would u have Steam Client running directly off the User Desktop?

CursedPanther Jan 21, 2016 @ 5:28pm

Originally posted by Bad-Motha:
How did Uninstalling Steam delete your personal files though?

I believe that is the default Steam uninstalling procedure. By removing the client it will attempt to remove the installed games as well, thus making the manually back up of the 'steamapps' folder a pretty big deal.

robert.lewen Feb 29, 2016 @ 2:47am

Hi, I just had the same issue. Installed Steam on default. And now when I unistalled Steam everything of personal files disappeared. Not just the games that would of been fine but also pictures, user settings, documents and so on. Even the start menu dosn´t work any more.

This happend right after I uninstalled Steam, why and how they removed everything, I don´t know but it´s a pain in the a** to recover everything again.

Bad 💀 Motha Feb 29, 2016 @ 3:40am

Originally posted by CursedPanther:
Originally posted by Bad-Motha:
How did Uninstalling Steam delete your personal files though?
I believe that is the default Steam uninstalling procedure. By removing the client it will attempt to remove the installed games as well, thus making the manually back up of the 'steamapps' folder a pretty big deal.

Yea that's not what I was referring to; first off people; there is never a need to "Uninstall" Steam; (or install it either); all u need is the Steam.exe file, that is it. Put it where u want it and run it. Now obviously if it is a clean system (like after a fresh OS install) and u have no other backed up files already then u'd have to run the Steam installer.

Overall I see no way removing steam client could remove OS files aside from your games.

Again if u need Steam Client help, just ask. You can move steam or repair it; there is never a need to uninstall it.

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robert.lewen Feb 29, 2016 @ 3:59am

Originally posted by Bad-Motha:
Originally posted by CursedPanther:
I believe that is the default Steam uninstalling procedure. By removing the client it will attempt to remove the installed games as well, thus making the manually back up of the 'steamapps' folder a pretty big deal.

Yea that's not what I was referring to; first off people; there is never a need to "Uninstall" Steam; (or install it either); all u need is the Steam.exe file, that is it. Put it where u want it and run it. Now obviously if it is a clean system (like after a fresh OS install) and u have no other backed up files already then u'd have to run the Steam installer.

Overall I see no way removing steam client could remove OS files aside from your games.

Again if u need Steam Client help, just ask. You can move steam or repair it; there is never a need to uninstall it.

What if you already have installed it (dosn´t matter if you need to or not) and want to uninstall it? As I wrote earlier, all my personal files dissapperad. Folders like "Documents" under my user isn´t there any more and this happends right after I uninstall Steam. Didn´t do anything else but that and all of it went away.

Folders that are left under my user is: Pictures, Desktop(with alot fewer maps and shortcuts in it) and AppData.

The only explanation is that Steam remove everything, not just the games and save files.

#11