User Deleted on Windows 10 Update

[JJas007]

About a month ago I did a Windows 10 update on my virtual machine and lost my identity!  When I tried to log into my Windows 10, it did not recognize my login credentials and when I logged in as Administrator I did NOT have a USER account and of course no data, meaning all directories and files under my username, which did not exist, were NOT there!  I have no idea how this could have happened and I have NOT been able to recover.

Here is my pertinent info:

• Running VMware Fusion 12.1.2 (17964953)
• On a MacBook Pro running Big Sur Version 11.5.2 (20G95)
• Windows 10 Pro virtual machine, 64 bit Version 10.0.19043 Build 19043
• Important data was backed up and can be accessed.

If possible I would like to know:

• What could have happened?
• What could/should I have done to prevent this?
• Is/was there any way to recover?

At this point I am rebuilding my user.  Some apps that I had are no longer functioning or are not available.  These are apps that were installed by me for me, like MSOffice, which I had to reinstall and configure, as well as a few others.  I’m assuming there are others which will have to be reinstalled.  All in all, a royal pain.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

John J DiMack

[scott28tt]

I can’t help but wonder what this has to do with Fusion?

[JJas007]

Thanks for you response.

I really don't know that it has anything to do with Fusion, but I had never seen anything like this happen before, in my 20+ years dealing with and supporting Microsoft OSes, both on hardware and as virtual machines.  So I thought Fusion might be a good place to start.

My instincts tell me it was some random occurrence where all the planets, moons and stars were in some kind of alignment, or maybe they were out of alignment!   Anyway, I thought it was curious enough and was wondering if anyone else had seen anything similar.

Thanks,

John

[bluefirestorm]

From the way you described it seems like you were using a local account on Windows 10 VM (i.e. not an online Microsoft account). I noticed with 20H2 and 21H1 of Windows 10, a fresh setup (whether VM or physical machine) requires a Microsoft online account to login to Windows 10. I think 20H1 was the last version that allowed the option to choose an offline account (called reduced experience or something of that sort during the fresh setup).

It is possible that the upgrade somehow messed up in this regard.

[ColoradoMarmot]

One other idea - is it possible you restored or deleted a snapshot?

[JJas007]

Thanks for the replies.

I had to log into Microsoft each time, so my account was not local.  I did have 2 other local accounts that I had created for test reasons and they are fine!

I do not use snapshots, so I did not do a restore!  However, maybe I should have and I could have restored back to a known good snapshot, before the update, and my account would be there!

Well, I'm pretty much back to where I should be, though I have a few apps that I must reinstall.

Thanks for your insights/suggestions.  I did find this to be rather interesting, but not something I will spend any more time investigating, as it's less time and resources just putting things back than trying to ascertain what happened.  And, as I stated, I'd never seen anything like this before, so whatever it was it clearly is not a common occurrence.

Agan, thanks.
John