Help locate "my documents"

[JP Bless]

Hi all,
My friend is not exactly sure of what she did but she recollects that she
was sleepy and meant to shut down her HP (Hewlett Packard) XP system. HP
systems users can use an F key, possibly F10 key, to get their system to
restore factory settings. The end result of what ever she did was the HP
system deleted her user account and installed "owner" account. Now her very
important documents along with previous user account vanished from the
system. Has anyone in this whole wide world have any clue how to recorver
her documents under the vanished user account. She had made a system wide
search for word documents (*.doc) and can't find any. Is there a way to
search for "orphaned" or "dumped" word document files. I believe the
"restore" command she accidently triggered did not erase or format her hard
disk since MS Office and other software she had installed using the vanished
account are still accessible in the new "owner" account.

Please help. Thanks in advance

 

[Quaoar]

Hi all,
My friend is not exactly sure of what she did but she recollects that
she was sleepy and meant to shut down her HP (Hewlett Packard) XP
system. HP systems users can use an F key, possibly F10 key, to get
their system to restore factory settings. The end result of what ever
she did was the HP system deleted her user account and installed
"owner" account. Now her very important documents along with previous
user account vanished from the system. Has anyone in this whole wide
world have any clue how to recorver her documents under the vanished
user account. She had made a system wide search for word documents
(*.doc) and can't find any. Is there a way to search for "orphaned"
or "dumped" word document files. I believe the "restore" command she
accidently triggered did not erase or format her hard disk since MS
Office and other software she had installed using the vanished
account are still accessible in the new "owner" account.

Please help. Thanks in advance

The only hope is to open C:\Documents and Settings and look through each
and every user account for the missing stuff. It might be found under
her original user account. In any event, your friend should review the
concept of "file backup", i.e., writing the contents of her user account
(or My Documents only) to CD or using an imaging program like Acronis
True Image or Norton Ghost.

Q

 

[JP Bless]

Thanks for responding... she already looked looked in programs and settings
and there is no folder for the missing account.

 

[Bryce Alan Katz]

Then things don't look good. HP's recovery process is an evil, evil thing.
Is she missing applications as well? If so, odds are she did a complete
system restore, which wipes the drive and restores everything back to the
state the system was in when it shipped from HP.

You *might* be able to use an undelete utility to recover a few files, but
after such a major disk access the odds are slightly worse than a whelk's
chance in a supernova.

"Automated system backup" is definitely a thing.

 

[Malke]

Thanks for responding... she already looked looked in programs and
settings and there is no folder for the missing account.

Then it very much sounds like your friend restored the computer to
factory condition. I'm not sure how one could do this by accident, but
it doesn't really matter. At this point, you can try two things: take
the machine to a good local computer repair shop that has data recovery
software and see if they can get the data. If they can't, then the only
way to get it back is to use a professional data recovery firm. I like
DriveSavers, http://www.drivesavers.com. Their services are not
inexpensive, but only your friend can determine the value of her data.
When it's all over, do her a favor and teach her how to use a cd
burner.

Good luck,

Malke

 

[JP Bless]

Thanks all for responding. Yes she accidently restored the HP to original
factory settings... along with her data. I think HP restore process is very
prone to accident especially for inexperienced users. So much for HP's
F10... Anyway I will pass on your suggestions to her. Again, thanks for
responding.