This guide will help you recover your missing data from the Windows.old folder using a manual method and through a utility from Microsoft. Therefore, make sure you do not delete the C:\Windows.old folder before you confirm that all your data has been safely migrated to the new version of Windows. As the Windows upgrade process backs up your data to the backup C:\Windows.old folder, we can use that folder to restore your data. It just means that the Windows setup program had a problem transferring it over or you specified not to. If your personal document folders are empty after an upgrade that does not mean that your data is lost. These reasons may include permission issues on the files or folders or because you selected the Keep Nothing option when you upgraded to the newer version of Windows. When you upgrade to Windows 8 there may be situations where your personal documents are not transferred to the new version of Windows.

Recover your personal files in Windows 8 using the Recover Personal Files tool.