Corrupted files with black background and big red line

Hi,

My boyfriend uses my second Adobe login on his Windows 10 desktop (I use mine on a mac and have no idea how to use PCs.) Apparently he's still using Photoshop 2019 CC.

I introduced him to Photoshop because he wanted to try his hand at drawing digitally, and back then I didn't have Illustrator. However he's become insanely good and he's created some really amazing illustrations. 

But tonight when he opened Photoshop, I guess it had updated (still 2019 CC, but maybe they released a new version?) because he says the opening screen was different, and all his preferences were gone, including his presets. And when he tried to open his drawings, they were all just corrupted files with a fat red line on a black background.
He sent me one and I tried to open it in my Photoshop (2022, on mac) and it's the same, even though I do see the image in the preview icon of the file. 

From what I've read in past posts, it sounds like the files are corrupted. I don't know why or how, and he swears than unlike the other cases we found here on the forums, his computer didn't shut down or freeze – all this just happened when he turned on the app as usual, and instead of loading his files, he got the black background and red lines.

If someone can explain what could have happened, it would be helpful, but really, the main question is: are his drawings gone for good? Is there nothing we can do to recover them? I'd appreciate any advice because he's seriously gutted right now. It's 3 years of work, just gone. (And no, he had no backups...)

Thanks in advance!