Clean install on 2nd HD, files lost?

[Callie Jordan]

I tried repairing my XP Home and setup restarted several
times. Finally installed it on the 2nd HD because of
course I didn't have a current backup of all my important
files and there was a warning that installing it on the
same disk might overwrite My Documents.

However, it looks like part of the setup/install got
through to the original location and now there's a My
Documents but it's empty. I'm hoping it's not totally
hopeless to think I might be able to recover the files?
(I tried Norton UnErase but it didn't find them.)

At the moment I have two OS, one that works and one that
doesn't. I figure I'll just format the original hard
drive once I get the files off it (if I can). Is that on
okay idea?

Thanks,

Callie

 

[Randy Byrne [MVP]]

WinXP wont mind.

It is non-standard per say, but fully OK as far a the OS. If you ever have
someone/tech/support look at the machine, you may need to tell them where Windows is
installed. It may shorten their troubleshooting "discovery" phase.

--

Randy Byrne
Microsoft MVP (Windows Technologies)
http://support.microsoft.com/support/mvp
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Do not email me, please use the newsgroup so that everyone benefits.

 

[Callie Jordan]

Do you mean that just formatting the HD to get rid of the
old OS is the "non-standard" way to do it? Or that it's
not standard to have the OS on the D instead of the C?

Callie

-----Original Message-----
WinXP wont mind.

It is non-standard per say, but fully OK as far a the OS. If you ever have
someone/tech/support look at the machine, you may need to tell them where Windows is
installed. It may shorten their

troubleshooting "discovery" phase.

 

[Callie Jordan]

Select the folder that shows your old user name. You should find a
"<username's> Documents" subfolder that has your old files in it.

Thanks for the suggestion. I didn't have any choices to
make during the setup/reinstall except where to do it and
whether to repair or install. I tried to repair it
several times and setup got halfway or so more than once.
At any rate, now that I have an OS on the other drive, I
can access the other one just fine. BUT there's nothing
in the My Documents, a new one that somehow got created
during the attempted repairs I suppose.

I found a website for data recovery and the files were
indeed discovered (intact!!) down inside a lost cluster
or something that I couldn't access from Windows
Explorer/My Computer. It cost me $99 for 1MB of files,
but they show you what's there and you can pick and
choose which ones are important enough to pay to get back.

It's Virtual Lab at http://www.binarybiz.com/vlab/

Perhaps if I'd known how to get to the HD with DOS, I
could have found them myself, but these guys can recover
files even from a drive that's been formatted, so it's
probably good to keep in mind.

Thanks for your help.

Callie