Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (
More info?)
If you performed a "repair" installation of XP, the documents are still
there, but possibly hidden. If you performed a clean installation, then it
formated first, and they are gone.
Assuming a repair installation, you should be able to "see" the documents,
if you log-in as an administrator, then you can "take ownership" of the
files.
Even in the case of a format, they some of them amy be recoverable by the
use of third-party software. Do a web-search on "FILE RECOVERY" . Then
download and install a few demo programs and see what they can find. Most
demos will not actually recover large files, but they will list what files
they could recover, if you purchase a license key.
Caution: If possible, do not install the programs on C:\, since the act of
installing can overwrite some of the space that might contain your files.
But, if you only have one partition, then there is little choice.
After recovery, if possible, to avoid such problem in the future, think
about breaking the hard drive into at least two pieces, one for XP+programs
and one for personal files. If you ever need to reinstall XP, on C:\, your
personal files will still be safe on D:\. You will need a third-party
program to do this, like Partition Magic. Alternatively, if this is a
desktop PC, install a second hard drive, and that will become D:. (Note:
If a second hard drive, then the CD/DVD drive(s) will increase in letter,
for example from D:\ to E:\, but that i usually no problem)
Finally, I suspect that you now realize the value of backups of personal
files? Get a USB or firewire external disk, or a CD or DVD burner and keep
copies of valuable files off the PC. You might even want to exend this
logic to making an image of the C:\ partition, so that you could go back in
time a week or a month, in case of a bad program installation or XP update
or virus. Partition/disk backup software is available from amany sources,
but the two classics are Norton GHOST (now merged with Drive Image when
Symantec bought Power Quest), and Acronis Trueimage. I use Tueimage and it
has saved my bacon several times.
"recoveryaftersp2" <recoveryaftersp2@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:93F8B45F-5D0C-4D9A-8D06-55516AC524D9@microsoft.com...
> after loading sp2 system would not boot back up, couldn't even get to safe
> mode. used restore cd and xp is back up but desktop and all personal
> documents appear to be gone now.... is there anyway to retrieve missing
> documents ?
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