Disappearing "Documents and Settings" directory - HELP! HELP! HELP

[Guest]

While preparing to send my wife's Dell D510 in for repairs (Blue Screen of
Death for a bad video chip), I was starting to back up her data to a CD ROM
drive. I was doing this inside of WinExp and was simply grabbing all of the
sub-directories under "Documents and Settings" and moving them to the D:
drive icon, prior to issuing the "burn CD" command.

The copy process got hung up, and I attempted to cancel it. Just then (sure
enough!), I got the BSoD and had to power down the laptop.

When I powered back up and logged back in (we have three users), my screen
showed only the icons for IE and Recycle! When I pulled up the Start Menu,
the "All Programs" selection shows "(empty)". When I try to access the
different document files (my login has Admin status), they are all empty!

I used the "Run" option and opened up Explorer. It showed no "Documents and
Settings" directory on the C drive, but it did show the three logon Document
Folders and the Shared Documents Folder as standalone icons. However, each
of those folders are empty! The D: drive cache shows only the "All Users"
and "Administrator" directories.

I have tried the http://www.tweakxp.com/article36827.aspx trick to no avail.

Of course, in the midst of all of this frantic keyboarding, I get the BSoD
popping up fairly often, necessitating a cold reboot.

Can some please tell me how to save my wife's files (and therefore my skin!)?

Thanks!

 

[Malke]

While preparing to send my wife's Dell D510 in for repairs (Blue Screen of
Death for a bad video chip), I was starting to back up her data to a CD
ROM
drive. I was doing this inside of WinExp and was simply grabbing all of
the sub-directories under "Documents and Settings" and moving them to the
D: drive icon, prior to issuing the "burn CD" command.

The copy process got hung up, and I attempted to cancel it. Just then
(sure enough!), I got the BSoD and had to power down the laptop.

When I powered back up and logged back in (we have three users), my screen
showed only the icons for IE and Recycle! When I pulled up the Start
Menu,
the "All Programs" selection shows "(empty)". When I try to access the
different document files (my login has Admin status), they are all empty!

I used the "Run" option and opened up Explorer. It showed no "Documents
and Settings" directory on the C drive, but it did show the three logon
Document
Folders and the Shared Documents Folder as standalone icons. However,
each
of those folders are empty! The D: drive cache shows only the "All Users"
and "Administrator" directories.

I have tried the http://www.tweakxp.com/article36827.aspx trick to no
avail.

Of course, in the midst of all of this frantic keyboarding, I get the BSoD
popping up fairly often, necessitating a cold reboot.

Can some please tell me how to save my wife's files (and therefore my
skin!)?

I'll give you a few ways to get the data with these caveats:

1. If you don't have other computers and a fairly high level of computer
skills, take the machine to a computer professional who does data recovery.
This does not mean your local version of BigStoreUSA.

2. If there is any question that the drive is at fault - it's making noises
for instance - and the data is crucial DO NOTHING. Every time you spin that
drive up you may be destroying data. If this is the case, send the drive to
a professional data recovery company like Drive Savers (my preference) or
Seagate Data Recovery. General prices run from $500USD on up. Drive Savers
recovered all the data on a failed laptop drive for one of my clients and
it cost $2,700. He thought it was worth the money; only you know what your
data is worth.

DriveSavers - http://www.drivesavers.com
Seagate Data Recovery Services - https://www.seagatedatarecovery.com/

That said, to try and recover the data:

1. Pull the hard drive and slave it in a working computer. Since you have a
laptop, you'll need a laptop-to-IDE converter or an external usb/firewire
laptop drive enclosure.

2. If the working computer has XP, see if it can see the data on the laptop
drive. If so, copy it to the host's hard drive where you can then burn to
CD/DVD-R. Do not try and burn directly from the laptop drive.

3. If #2 doesn't work, try booting with a Bart's PE or Knoppix (my
preference) and get the data that way. I copy client data onto a FAT32
drive with Knoppix.

4. If #3 doesn't work, use data recovery software. I use Easy Recovery Pro,
but that is expensive. There are various free data recovery programs and
others that aren't free but aren't hugely expensive but I can't vouch for
them.

So, there you go. Only you know your skill level, equipment inventory, and
the worth of the data, so you decide what would be the best course of
action for you.

Malke

 

[Guest]

I can symphonise with the bashing of head against hard object as I have a
near similar problem but due to other factor.
On last “unscheduled Windows update†came just as I was switching down as
the local power company was switching off power for maintenance.
So halfway through “do not switch off Microsoft down loading†the power was
cut and in mid update to.
On login I was surprised to see a deactivated user account of mine in place
of what was before switch off an administrator user login.
Now on log in I found either can I create a new admin user as it states
there is already one, but I have lost not just connection logins but also the
files to connect them.
Admin is still well and health on the HD but I cannot get admin back into
login and this user deleted.
I therefore have the same in a way problem as being not logged as Admin,
those files, settings and even operational software are closed to me.
Could be you have be rerouted as other user and in such locked out of
original settings, does not cure yours or my problems but it’s an area you
could look at.
Hopefully by now your problem is solved as to mine I’ll cut my losses, buy
200 or so DVD’s (even another HD) backup original HD and start all over again.
Good luck, we need it with Windows.

 

[Newbie Coder]

Aly,

A UPS would have helped with the updates being installed then