Time Machine: No Back up on Mac Mini

Hello Everyone,

I recently rearranged my office and accidentally unplugged my Mac mini thinking it was the monitor; to be far they looked the same, anyway.

After setting up my desk and plugging it back in I thought it would just work normally but it didn't.

I am stuck at the login in page with only an area for a“Name” and Password” and no users. I am an educator and I have school files on their which I need, it’s not the end of the world BUT it would be a pain to have to redo.

What do I do If I don't have anything backed up to the Time Machine? I have things or the desktop synced to the cloud so I know I can access files a re-upload them but is their something I should try first before clicking “Restore as New Mac OS”?

I want to exhaust all my options first before creating a new Mac mini.