Folder desktop not showing when I connect my old PC with a USB to a new device.

[matmanarolis]

i changed my pc due to a problem.

i connected with USB my old HDD to recover my files.

there is no desktop folder in the path c:\users\user ...

[Megan]

Hey @matmanarolis, welcome to our Community!

As a first step, can you clarify if you've enabled our Backup feature for the old device of yours? 

Provided that you have enabled it, when you visit your account online, are you able to see your Desktop folder or any of your other Backup folders online? 

One last thing: do you wish to recover specifically your Dropbox files, or something different? I'm asking, since I'd like to know the end goal, and what you wish to achieve here. 

Let me know more, and we'll take it from there!

[matmanarolis]

First of all, thank you for your quick response

Let me inform you that I am helping a friend with this problem, as he doesn't know much about computers.

Someone at some point installed Dropbox for him, so he doesn't remember anything nor he has any knowledge about an account or password regarding Dropbox.

So the end goal for me is to be able to read the old HDD as an external drive and gain access to his desktop folder, as if there were never a Dropbox installation.

Thank you again for your quick response.

[Megan]

Hey @matmanarolis, gotcha, thanks for the added info. 

If he still has access to his emails, he can check there for any Dropbox-related emails. 

That way, he'll know that said email was associated with a Dropbox account, and could then request for a password reset. 

That'd help you access the account, and download the content that way. 

As for the point about his desktop folder, I'm still not entirely sure if we're talking about the main Dropbox folder, or a different folder that was located at his desktop. Can you let me know? 

[matmanarolis]

There in no mail or anything else that could help us with the Dropbox account

We are talking about the main Desktop folder

Thank you in advance

[Megan]

Hi @matmanarolis, if you check into the friend's old HDD, are you able to locate his Dropbox folder there? 

And if so, is it possible that the Desktop folder is located there? 

[matmanarolis]

Yes. In the path c:\users\user\ there is a file Dropbox, that seems to be the "Desktop" folder.

But it has a different set of files and folders than it should.

[Megan]

I see @matmanarolis. 

In that case, without access to the account itself, or the old device, there's really not much that we can do.

I'm guessing that maybe your friend made some changes that didn't sync to the Desktop folder inside Dropbox. 

Have you tried searching for individual file names, to see if you're able to find anything?