Computer help: reinstalled XP, where are my files?

[Rizon]

Had a friend's computer who's hal.dll file became corrupted and the computer wouldn't boot. I figured I'd just do a repair reinstall of XP to fix the problem. After the reinstall, all the personal files were gone from the computer. Odd thing is is that My Computer reports the C drive as only being 2 gig, and lists no other drives (and no other drives appear if I turn on Show Hidden Files). I know the drive is way more than 2 gig, so I'm thinking the old files are hidden on some magical partition I can't see or get to. What can I do?

I'm sick and was medicated at the time I did it, but I'm 99% sure I didn't click on Reformat and Reinstall.

[DaddyTorgo]

do you have a cd with a bootable linux distro on it? or make one and use that

[Rizon]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

do you have a cd with a bootable linux distro on it? or make one and use that

Nope, but how can I make one?

[DaddyTorgo]

websites sir. you can just download a "bootable cd" version of ubuntu (for example...that's the one i used) and burn it onto the cd...toss the cd into the drive and reboot the computer. hop into linux...fire up the web browser there to take you to a website (that you've written down the address to) that talks you through any steps you need to know

[Rizon]

Oh, well the computer works and Windows starts up fine after the (re)install. I just can't find any of the original files. Would that Ubagato thing help me find them?

[DaddyTorgo]

aaah....well not necessarily...just thinking it'd be nice to look at things from outside of the "microsoft box" and just see if they're right there but windows just isn't showing them for some reason. maybe they got partitioned into a separate partition that you don't have recognized by windows.

i'm sure someone will have a better suggestion though.

[Rizon]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

. maybe they got partitioned into a separate partition that you don't have recognized by windows..

That's what I was thinking. I vaguely remember being asked what partition to put XP on, but at that point I was barely awake. I've done this a million times, but on my own computers that were configed the way I wanted them.

C drive shows 2 gig total size, with 150mb of free space.

[DaddyTorgo]

that's weird. have you checked in your windows disk management to see if there's anything you can gleam from that?

[Rizon]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

that's weird. have you checked in your windows disk management to see if there's anything you can gleam from that?

No, but will add that to my list. Thx.

[MizzouRah]

Boot into the recovery console and run a chkdsk /r

Does it list more than 2GB after it runs?

[Wolfpack]

I know that occasionally if XP gets fouled up, in straightening itself out, it will actually create a new "account" for you, almost as if you were starting XP up for the very first time.

One of the things that happens in this reset is that will be new folders set up for your use and the old folders are forgotten. If you go into the Explorer and go into c:\documents and settings, you may see the user's root folder (usually in some form of their ID and their computer name, e.g. "John Smith.HOME"). Underneath that would be the "My Documents" and other settings folders associated with that ID. When the reset occurs, XP will set up a new folder under documents and settings that is the same folder name, but with a ".000" suffix added to the folder name, so now it reads "John Smith.HOME.000". If this is what happened here, then the original docs folder isn't lost, but XP can't point back to them anymore for whatever reason, so you'll have to manually enter into the old folder and move everything over to the new one that's just been created.

[Rizon]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

that's weird. have you checked in your windows disk management to see if there's anything you can gleam from that?

Shows the Primary Partition as C, with 2 gb and unallocated space of 147gb. That unallocated space is what I'm looking for. How do I access the data on it?

[Wolfpack]

I feel like I've had that happen, but I can't seem to recall what the solution was. I think it was something you could do in the partition allocation setup in XP under Administrative Tools/Computer Management. I remember taking a huge leap of faith in assuming the reallocation wouldn't wipe everything I had out, but it did work. Unfortunately, I can't remember the magic search terms that lead me down this path. There also seems to be at least a few programs that perhaps can get your partitions straightened out, but I can't vouch for them.

Good luck.

[MizzouRah]

Partition magic: Download Partition Magic 8.0 Free Trial - Partition Magic allows you to create, resize and merge partitions.