Recovery of lost files after reinstalling XP pro

[Guest]

Hi, help please.

I reinstalled windows XP pro from the windows XP CD and have now lost all my
documents. Is there any way that I can recover these lost files?

Thanks.

 

[guestuser]

If this was a format and a clean installation, no. If this was only a
reinstallation of Windows, yes. Your data and applications would be left
intact (theoretically) with a Windows installation only. If you formatted
and partitioned the hard drive and then installed Windows, your data is
gone. There are companies that specialize in data recovery that could
probably get the data back, but it costs a hell of a lot to do it.

You have learned a hard lesson.

 

[Guest]

In what manner was the installation performed?

Did you do:
1. Repair Installation
2. Upgrade Installation [as from Home to Pro]
3. Full installation

If 1: then all documents and settings etc would still be as they were.
If 2: same as for 1
If 3: then the system would be set up 'clean' in so far as all existing
Windows files and flders would be overwritten without regard to their status
or content.

The contents of the 'My Documents folder will be shown as empty.

Your original files etc may be present on the hard disk, in that the bits
and bytes are there, but the disk and system indexes have no reference to
their location: however you'll need to go to a hard drive recovery expert to
get the information off the disk, if indeed any of the files have not been
overwritten by new data.

This may cost a thousand dollars!