The problem could be that re-installing XP created new user accounts, and
the files on the external disk are not visible because XP thinks that you do
not own them. Note that this could be a problem only if the external drive
is formatted as NTFS; FAT32 drives do not have such security. Log-in to XP
as an administrator and try to "take ownership" of the files as described in
this article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;308421
"Ian" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news

11B7F5E-EE02-48BC-B3CD-(E-Mail Removed)...
> After reinstalling windows XP my external 80g USB Hard Drive cannot be
read.
> I have saved nearly 50g of data that I dont want to lose.
> So I dont want to format the drive again.
> Any help about retrieval of the data or commands for the PC would be of
great help.
>
> Ian