NUIT have acknowledged that there is an issue with disappearing Desktop items and Internet Explorer Favourites. The cause is still unknown.
Current advice is to attempt to recover these items using the videos found on the Z: drive, within the Public folder. They show you how to use the Previous Versions option, in order to retrieve your items from the various backups that are taken.
Below is a written form of those instructions:
Right-click on your H: drive
Choose Proprieties from the menu
Click Previous Versions tab
and wait! The amount of time that you have to wait varies, anything from a few seconds to 5 minutes.
You will then see a list of dates and times. Click on a Date/Time
Click on the Open button (this will open up your H: drive at that particular day/time)
Open the folder called Desktop. If it is blank, you will need to repeat this process by going back and choosing another Date/Time
When you eventually find your missing Desktop items, drag them to your Desktop area.
You can use this same method to retrieve your missing Internet Explorer Favourites:
Right-click on your H: drive
Choose Proprieties from the menu
Click Previous Versions tab
and wait! The amount of time that you have to wait varies, anything from a few seconds to 5 minutes.
You will then see a list of dates and times. Click on a Date/Time
Click on the Open button (this will open up your H: drive at that particular day/time)
Open the folder called Favourites and check its contents. It may not be the correct version. If that is the case, you will need to repeat this process by going back and choosing another Date/Time.
When you eventually find the correct version of your Favourites folder, right-click on it and choose “Send to” from the pop-up menu. Select your H: drive and confirm that you want it to replace the current (incorrect) Favourites folder.