Accidentally deleted ALL of my files

Check your Recycle Bin

Even though you said the deletion bypassed it, it’s still worth verifying:

• Right-click Recycle Bin → Open.
• If it’s empty, try the OneDrive online Recycle Bin too:
• Go to onedrive.live.com
• Click Recycle Bin on the left.
• Check both primary and second-stage recycle bins (scroll to bottom → “Second-stage Recycle Bin”).

Use File Recovery Tools

If the files were hard-deleted, you can often still recover them with data recovery software, provided they haven’t been overwritten.

Microsoft’s own tool:

Windows File Recovery (free from Microsoft Store)

Command example (replace drive letter accordingly):

winfr C: D: /regular /n *.*

Or use reputable third-party tools.

Check Backups and Cloud Versions

If you’ve ever used:

• Windows File History (Control Panel → File History)
• OneDrive Personal Vault / Backup
• Time Machine / External backup drive

Check there — they might contain snapshots of your user folders.

Windows 10/11 often “moves” Desktop, Documents, Pictures, etc. into OneDrive automatically when you set up cloud backup. Even though they looked local, they were being synced to (and stored in) your OneDrive directory. Deleting OneDrive removed the entire structure.

When you reinstalled or reactivated OneDrive, it showed only files that were already synced to the cloud — not the ones that never finished syncing or were deleted locally before upload.