Please help - Need to recover hard drive & Windows XP issues

[Dave]

Hi. My computer was stolen and later recovered. It is a Toshiba M100 and it
had a feature onthe desktop called MY SAFE which required thumbprint scanning
to open. All of the data on the hard drive removed (possible formatted-dont
know) and the entire Windows XP HOme edition was replace with Windows
Professional 2002 with Service Pack 2.
I did not do a proper system back up, but I literally copied every file from
my C drive and D drive to an external hard drive. Can I simply copy and paste
these files from my hard drive into their respective folders, replacing the
content that has been put there? OR can I use the Files and Settings Transfer
Wizrd to import this data?
The only data I couldnt copy was the valuable data in MY SAFE, as I could
never figure out the location and no copying attempts could access its
folders.

I'd like to remove this operating system and replace it with my old one. Is
this possible? IT currently has the thieves name written everywhere as
registered. If I uninstall the current Windows XP 2002 will I also lose all
my data stored on the cmputer?

I hjave a Product Recovery DVD ROm for Sateliite M100 disk, but I tried
putting it in and nothing happened.

Ive also tried using GETBACKDATA for NTFS program. I was able to retireve
all my old deleted files, but I dont know how to restore them to the system
(I even found the MY SAFE FILES here)

can anyone offer any advice here?

Thanks

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

See below.

Hi. My computer was stolen and later recovered. It is a Toshiba M100 and
it
had a feature onthe desktop called MY SAFE which required thumbprint
scanning
to open. All of the data on the hard drive removed (possible
formatted-dont
know) and the entire Windows XP HOme edition was replace with Windows
Professional 2002 with Service Pack 2.
I did not do a proper system back up, but I literally copied every file
from
my C drive and D drive to an external hard drive. Can I simply copy and
paste
these files from my hard drive into their respective folders, replacing
the
content that has been put there? OR can I use the Files and Settings
Transfer
Wizrd to import this data?

*** You can copy & paste your data files but not your program files.

The only data I couldnt copy was the valuable data in MY SAFE, as I could
never figure out the location and no copying attempts could access its
folders.

I'd like to remove this operating system and replace it with my old one.
Is
this possible? IT currently has the thieves name written everywhere as
registered. If I uninstall the current Windows XP 2002 will I also lose
all
my data stored on the cmputer?

*** Further up you write "All of the data on the hard drive removed", so
*** what else could you lose?

I hjave a Product Recovery DVD ROm for Sateliite M100 disk, but I tried
putting it in and nothing happened.

Ive also tried using GETBACKDATA for NTFS program. I was able to retireve
all my old deleted files, but I dont know how to restore them to the
system
(I even found the MY SAFE FILES here)

can anyone offer any advice here?

Thanks

I recommend you do this:
1. Format your partition(s).
2. Re-install Windows.
3. Re-install your applications.
4. Restore your data files from the backup on your external disk.