I took over a computer and deleted the previous owners user. Unfortunately,
I did it before she got all her files off. How can I get them back?
windows xp home second edition

If you deleted the user profile and told it not to keep the files, they're gone. There are various undelete utilities out there, and you may have some success with them. But the more you use the computer, the less likely you are to recover anything intact.

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http://www.dougknox.com
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"the dumb one" <the dumb (E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:964F999B-78DB-4A9D-ABE9-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I took over a computer and deleted the previous owners user. Unfortunately,
> I did it before she got all her files off. How can I get them back?
> windows xp home second edition

the dumb one wrote:

> I took over a computer and deleted the previous owners user.
> Unfortunately,
> I did it before she got all her files off. How can I get them back?
> windows xp home second edition

Short of running data recovery software on the machine, those files are
gone.

There are free data recovery programs available (Google for them), but I
have not used them. Some commercial (and very expensive) data recovery
programs are Easy Recovery Pro, which works very well and I have heard
good reports about R-Studio. I think the best solution would be for you
to have a computer professional try and recover the files since they
will have the data recovery software needed. If there is no one locally
who can do it, you can try a professional data recovery firm such as
Drive Savers (www.drivesavers.com). Their services are not inexpensive,
but only the previous owner can decide how much her data is worth.

If you want to try to recover the data, it is crucial that you do
*nothing* further on the machine.

Malke
--
MS-MVP Windows User/Shell
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic"

Thanks Guys, I kind of figured it was a lost cause. It has been a couple
of weeks since it was done. I was hoping a system restore going back that
far might work but I guess not.
Thanks anyway, I appreciate the support


"Malke" wrote:

> the dumb one wrote:
>
> > I took over a computer and deleted the previous owners user.
> > Unfortunately,
> > I did it before she got all her files off. How can I get them back?
> > windows xp home second edition
>
> Short of running data recovery software on the machine, those files are
> gone.
>
> There are free data recovery programs available (Google for them), but I
> have not used them. Some commercial (and very expensive) data recovery
> programs are Easy Recovery Pro, which works very well and I have heard
> good reports about R-Studio. I think the best solution would be for you
> to have a computer professional try and recover the files since they
> will have the data recovery software needed. If there is no one locally
> who can do it, you can try a professional data recovery firm such as
> Drive Savers (www.drivesavers.com). Their services are not inexpensive,
> but only the previous owner can decide how much her data is worth.
>
> If you want to try to recover the data, it is crucial that you do
> *nothing* further on the machine.
>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP Windows User/Shell
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> "Don't Panic"
>

Unfortunately System Restore is not intended to protect personal data such
as you lost.
See this link for exactly what System Restore is and is not designed to
restore:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/com.../faqsrwxp.mspx

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
http://www.dts-l.org


"the dumb one" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:CA47EE73-A0D8-4C6B-AD61-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thanks Guys, I kind of figured it was a lost cause. It has been a
> couple
> of weeks since it was done. I was hoping a system restore going back that
> far might work but I guess not.
> Thanks anyway, I appreciate the support