that I have no idea what is going on.... I'm just saying 'be cautious'...

Used to be Windows had several versions... something like 'home', 'pro', and others... that will the same? Maybe it's just one those versions or even NONE of them but rather their device OS?

Also what I don't understand... surely you have back ups at work? Don't most people have backups? How are they 'losing everything'? I'm suspicious of the reports right now... but no doubt 'something' went wrong.