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TIFU by trying to "fix" my laptop and deleting my entire semester?šŸ’”

I’m in my 2nd year doing BS Maths with AI. Last semester I had one project worth 40% of my grade. A machine learning model I spent 3 months on.

Two weeks before submission, my laptop started running like garbage. 100% disk usage, fan screaming, taking 10 minutes to open Chrome. Classic.

I’m broke and can’t afford a new laptop, so I googled "how to speed up windows laptop". First result: "Disable startup programs and delete temp files". Easy.

Second result: "Clean up disk space by deleting old system restore points and unused files".
Third result on some forum: "If you’re desperate, you can delete the Windows.old folder and clear the Prefetch folder to free up space".

I did all of that. Disk went from 94% full to 31%. Laptop was fast again. I felt like a genius.

I shut it down, went to sleep, woke up the next morning to finish my project.

Turned it on. Desktop loads.
My "University" folder? Gone.
My "Project_ML_Final" folder? Gone.
Downloads, Documents, even my desktop files. Everything gone.

I panicked and googled "files disappeared after deleting temp files". That’s when I learned what I actually did.

That "forum tip" about clearing Prefetch? Some people were talking about deleting the entire User folder by mistake if you run the wrong command. And when I used that "disk cleanup" tool and clicked "clean system files", I must’ve checked a box I shouldn’t have.

Recycle bin was empty. System restore didn’t work because I deleted the restore points to "save space".

I spent 8 hours trying recovery software. Got back maybe 20% of files, all corrupted. The Python notebook for my project was just gibberish.

I had to email my professor at 2AM with screenshots of the recovery attempt and explain what happened. I thought I was getting a 0 and maybe kicked out.

He was actually decent about it. Gave me a 1-week extension and let me redo it, but said "this is the only time". I pulled 3 all-nighters, rebuilt the model from scratch with worse results, and ended up with a C in the course instead of the A I was gonna get.

What I learned:
1. If you don’t know what a folder does, don’t delete it
2. Back up your shit to Google Drive. It’s free.
3. Reddit "life hacks" will ruin your life

Now I have 3 backups and I still get anxiety every time I hit "delete".

TL;DR: Tried to speed up my laptop before finals, deleted my entire semester project instead. Barely passed the class.

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