Accidental re-installation.

[Guest]

My Vista was acting a bit funny so I attempted to repair any problems by
using the installation disk. I have a 32-bit, OEM version in Japanese (I
live in Tokyo) and didn't see a prompt for repair, and ended up reinstalling
Vista, losing all of my documents and programs in the process.

At least I think so. On a hard disk of 250GB I have 232GB available for use
and of that 133GB are free. Does That make sense? Have I accidentally
partitioned my hard disk somehow, and if so, how do I locate the other
partition and remove it? All programs, documents, photos and downloads are
replaceable so it would be annoying but not the end of the world to lose
them, but what the heck is going on?

Thanks!

 

[dean-dean]

You may find your old documents, etc., in a folder called Windows.old. Its
path is C:\Windows.old (Click on Computer, and then click on the drive
Vista is installed on. You should see the folder there).

If you created an extra drive, you would see it by clicking on Computer.

 

[Guest]

Thanks, dean-dean.
It doesn't show another drive, no. It shows the 80GB drive (D) that XP is
on and that is unaffected, and the 250GB drive (C) that Vista is on, but not
another. I guess that all the files and so on were saved in Windows.old, as
you say, as everything is there, yes. So I guess that everything is there,
and the drive was not actually partitioned. Now my problem is to restore the
programs and documents somehow. Any ideas?

 

[dean-dean]

First of all, were you able to activate Windows, now that it's re-installed?
(Just to be sure your activation key supported what you did).

As to documents, pictures, videos, etc., you will have to Cut the files you
want to save from the appropriate folders in Windows.old, and Paste them
into their appropriate corresponding folders under your User Name folder in
Vista. For example C:\Windows.old\Users\(User Name)\Pictures\example.jpg
would be moved to the C:\Users\(User Name)\Pictures folder.

See: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932912/

As to programs, don't bother moving these, as they will have to be
re-installed, since most if not all will not work by simply moving their
files. You will have to run their setup or installation file again.

This may help when you are done moving documents:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930527

Since you have XP on one drive and Vista on another, are you given a "Pick
your Operating System" (dual boot) screen when you start your computer?

For future reference, this is how you get to "Repair Your Computer" when
booting the DVD:

How to automatically repair Windows Vista using Startup Repair
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial148.html