Is It Possible To Undo File "Limbo" Without Reformating Drive?

[Guest]

I deleted a user account and as a result some of the files assosciated with
that user have been placed in a kind of limbo. As admin I have no access to
even see these files but they are clearly still taking up 30gigs of space,
but I niether can delete them or gain access to them. I have tried setting
all admin file access to full - no effect. I tried using a restore point
(with the user active) which now allows me to see the file folders but shows
them as empty, deleting the folders does nothing. I tried reloading some of
the "limbo" files and doing an auto-purge of duplicates - no effect except
the disk space used went from 97gig to 111gig.

I believe this is the result of specific file associations in Media Center
and Media Player and the deletion of the user account those programs
associated the files with - possibly as sole authority over them. The files
were music files but were not located in the standard "user-music" file area.

As an interesting side effect Vista is freaking out about the disk size of
the efected disk - in drive properties it shows it as very full (111gig of
150gig) but with a nearly empty "blue bar" - well below quarter full.

Is reformatting the drive my only choice here?

 

[Eberhard Schefold]

Is reformatting the drive my only choice here?

Have you tried CHKDSK?

 

[Guest]

Well I didn't think it would do anything, this is not a disk problem but a
Vista file problem, and CHKDSK shows no problems - the drive is fine.

 

[Guest]

Defragging restored the lost space, and the 30gig of files are all gone -
should take about two weeks to reload those CDs. Word of advice to anyone
managing multiple user accounts - make sure you grant your "Administrator"
account full control of all file types in all locations by all users before
making any changes. Also make sure you've COMPLETELY set up every single
program (including the OS) under each "User" as there are NO global settings
in Vista, IMHO there should at least be global OS settings, but live and
learn.

Also I've learned the hard way that the System Restore utility has been
rendered virtually impotent in Vista, was great in XP, unfortunately it now
automatically deletes restore points -greatly reducing your options. Frequent
system backups (esp file structure) are your only protection from file loss
under this OS.

CHKDSK didn't work but it pointed my thought process in the right direction
- thanks for the assist Schefold.