SaveData.dat files disappearing

[BigBlueRI4x]

I have a whole bunch of Xbox360 saves, and last night when I went into the folders where I have the .dat files, .cas. files, etc, I found the SaveData.dat was gone in every folder. It's all my WWE games folders. I have my folder view settings to show hidden files. Made no difference.

I'd like to add, I recently migrated to an SSD to become my C drive. I imaged/backed up my old hard drive to an external drive before doing so, then moved all my Users folders to the old hard drive that's going to now be primary for storage of photos, videos, and documents. This is where my WWE games folders went to as well.

Has this happened to anyone with Windows 10? Were you able to recover them?

Edited January 14, 2019 by BigBlueRI4x

[Cave Waverider]

Let me guess, Windows 10 1809 (current feature version)? That version is known to delete random files from the User folders on update to it or sometimes even randomly at other times (even though it was supposed to be fixed very recently, I wouldn't be so sure, especially if you upgraded to 1809 before MS fixed it). If you still can, try to roll your OS back to the previous version (Windows 10 1803) and see if the files are restored. Then Defer Updates for at least 6 months (only works on Windows 10 Pro, though, for Home you might have to block the Update with the Hide and Show Updates tool, but that doesn't all that reliably) But since you changed OS drives, that may no longer be possible unless your imaging software reconstructed all the partitions 1 to 1. I hope it still is. If the rollback isn't possible or doesn't help, contact Microsoft, perhaps they can help you recover the files still (although I doubt it).

Another possibility might be that your antivirus blocked the files from being copied from one disk to another because it assumed they may contain a virus. In that case, the files may still be in the Antivirus' Quarantine folder and restorable.