user gone

[shank]

Last night, we had a power loss and the computer shut off. On start up and
login, all the user account information is gone. Login was OK, but no
address book, favorites, email messages - all gone! Is there a way to
recover this data?

When I looked in Document and Settings, there were 3 user folders.
/John
/John Doe <-- should be the legit account
/John Doe.JOHN

I tried accessing one of these and got an error that it may be corrupt.
What next?

thanks

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Last night, we had a power loss and the computer shut off. On start up and
login, all the user account information is gone. Login was OK, but no
address book, favorites, email messages - all gone! Is there a way to
recover this data?

When I looked in Document and Settings, there were 3 user folders.
/John
/John Doe <-- should be the legit account
/John Doe.JOHN

I tried accessing one of these and got an error that it may be corrupt.
What next?

thanks

Your best option is to recover your files from backup. If you
don't have any backup then you may have to treat this
unfortunate event as a forceful reminder that you must back
up all important files to an independent medium every week.
It takes a lot of effort to destroy the contents of a metal
filing cabinet. By comparison, it takes only a miniscule effort
to completely destroy the structure of your hard disk.
Backing up your data regularly is your only protection.