What Happened To My Computer?

Did you set up a user name and then not log into that user name?

Most any computer (even a Mac) will crash at least once. That is why it is so important to have an external drive to save your important stuff. You were very lucky. Could be lots of stuff went wrong...Too much memory being stored, old computer, faulty something or other, etc.

sounds like you logged out of your internal account and into the blank state. look under admin to see what other accounts there are. also try closing down but log out instead, choose your name.

usually a system restore doesn't save the pictures. but if you had a link on your desktop that would vanish, but the pictures would remain - its a good idea to back that up right now though, along with any document you want to keep. that system restore doesn't always work.

but as to what happened, there could have been a major crash and the system could have loaded it from a previous time. you could have a virus that nulled everything, someone else had the machine before you. you were logged in as someone else, your entered the wrong house.


---Mike Savad

Sounds like you were not logged in under your administrator account. Did some else use your computer?

I've noticed that sometimes Windows 8 will start up in a generic mode for no reason that I can see. I just restart and everything comes back.

No one uses my computer but me - my husband has his own and I did not set up a user name
I do have everything backed up externally except my last week or two images which I will do tonight
I did the system restore for two weeks ago and like I said everything was restored including all my docs and pics etc
My computer is only two years old but I may have too much stored on it
Thanks for the input everyone

You really should have a user name and a password with which to log on when you start your computer. It's just an extra measure of security.

Yeah I guess I should set up the user name and password - it's just the two of us at home now so never really thought I needed one

and if you have wifi, make sure it has a password, it could have been hacked.

---Mike Savad

I do have wifi - I better check to make sure it has a password - thanks Mike

turn wifi off, take a cable to your router

otherwise turn on mac filtering in your router, also hackable, but still better than nothing in conjunction with a pw thats at least 16 chars long

be sure to write down the password - that one is an easy one to forget. install a firewall, make sure thats on. and again back it all up - don't rely on cloud either. you can invest in a blueray and get it backed up pretty fast. your drive could die one day (if it isn't already) and you'll lose it the next time. i wonder if it caught any errors. if you go into admin tools and look at the event viewer, there should be a log of warnings - drive failure, resets, etc, maybe it can shed light.

---Mike Savad

perhaps the illuminati took control, another diabolical plan...


---Mike Savad

Oh my stars, you just made me realize that I haven't backed up my files in forever. Thank you for the reminder! Glad you were able to restore your machine. Running off in a panic to copy everything to my Passport now... EEK.

@ stanislav - thanks will try to do and will do pw - 16 characters ok
@ Mike - sorry for leaving thread but I had to check out some of the stuff mentioned - I did go into admin tools and something was definitely going on - had some warnings and errors - had no servers responded, service control manager issues - my firewall is on and I did the memory diagnostic and everything is good and so I will do the pw etc and keep my fingers crossed - I have to get another external back up tomorrow but will use the one I have now to back up tonight my last couple weeks files - thanks so much for your help
Thanks everyone!