Missing folders after upgrade from Windows 98

[Guest]

I just upgraded a Windows 98SE computer to Window XP SP1 and several folders
are now missing.

Windows 98 was running in the single user mode (only one user profile).
During the first attempt at upgrading the process failed with a HAL error. I
selected the boot option to revert back to Windows 98. I ran scandisk, tried
again and the upgrade was successful. A new account in XP was created and
the user registry entries appeared to have been successfully imported.
However, several folders were now empty, including desktop, my documents and
both application data folders.

I searched the hard drive, including all hidden and system folders but there
is no sign of the files. The last thing I attempted was to uninstall Windows
XP from Add/Remove programs. I am now running Windows 98 but none of the
missing files were restored. My guess is that the process of copying these
folders to their new locations was somehow interrupted and the old folder
were deleted.

Are there any temp files that can be recovered that might contain these
files? This computer has a second hard drive with a FAT32 file system. Is
it possible that any temp files from the install might have been created
there? I would really like to get back the missing files from my documents
and the Outlook Express messages.

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Items Are Missing After You Upgrade to Windows XP Professional: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q307229

Missing Data or Program Settings After Upgrade to Windows XP: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q312942

313055 - OLEXP Mail Folders, Address Book, and E-mail Messages Are Missing After You Upgrade to:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;313055

 

[justin.west]

Thanks for the info, but the files are actually missing, not just in
another directory. The user directories were somehow lost during the
upgrade, probably when had to revert back to Windows 98 during my first
install attempt (although I did not check at that time). What I am
looking for is any sort or temppraru CAB or ZIP files that might have
been created during the installation that I can somehow restore the
files from. But I'm thinking now that it's a lost cause.

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Missing Data or Program Settings After Upgrade to Windows XP: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q312942