Is the fact that my program appeared straightaway in the Editor when I started the new Lazarus install of relevance?
That would be normal.
When starting Lazarus, it opens the project that was open when Lazarus was last closed. (There is a setting to disable that).
This happens across versions too.
When you update Lazarus, it keeps all your config (search for primary-config-path). That is unless you tell the installer (windows installer) to clear your conf.
Since the config is kept, Lazarus still knows what project was last open.
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Anyway there is still nothing that would give any clue as to what may have happened to your files.
Please also indicate, if any folders are/were symlinks, or had symlinks to them (even if the IDE did not know the symlinks)
1) your OS ?
2) the folder in which you installed lazarus?
3) the upgrade went into the same folder?
4) the folder in which your project was?
5) "wiped": The files were
a) still there, but empty
b) deleted, but the folder was still there
c) the entire folder was deleted
6) Do your projects have a "bak" folder maintained by the IDE? If so what happened to that?
7)
So -- to backup the working code. I then, thoughtlessly, deleted the old backups only to go back to the program's folder to discover that it had completely vanished!
Thanks Lazarus. This seems to be a SERIOUS PROBLEM!! It could hardly be a worse situation. Why did it happen?
a) How did you back it up? where to?
b) What happened to that backup?