K
Kay
Have a Dell Dimension 8250, new March 2003.
Recently had a blue screen. Dell phone support walked me
through "repair" but it kept hanging. Because of language
barriers and hours spent on phone, effort was dropped.
Next day second Dell support person started walking me
through "repair" but again language barriers caused
errors, including directing me to reinstall instead of
repair. Voila, no old documents and settings, including
email folders, word processing texts, important
photographs, etc.
After reinstall, and discovering that 'documents and
settings' were missing, I wrote all recent files on the
hard drive to a CD. I used Windows Explorer to find all
files, including system files and settings.
Is there anything saved in a different folder or registry
file, and renamed or coded, that I can "restore"
or "undelete" in order to find missing information? Some
old information exists and is accessed by different
programs, e.g., reinstalled McAfee Spamkiller has all old
filters / friends, etc.
It was not a "clean install." I installed it to a folder
named Windows2 (previous OS folder was Windows), but it
replaced the existing "documents and settings" folder
with a new folder. There were files and previous "system
recovery" points and information still on the hard drive,
but not accessible from the reinstallation, as it thinks
it Windows2 installation is the only one.
Again, is there a way to access the saved files
and "system recovery" folders and info to see what
information is there, and to possible reconstruct the
previous documents and settings?
P.S. Not a newbie. Just flummoxed by newer software
programs that don't let you think for yourself.
Been 'puting since 1984 (IBM XT with two large floppy
drives and no hard drive, rebuilt several times, through
pentium board computer which I rebuilt or built several
times. This Dell is first complete system since my
original IBM XT). If this had happened in any earlier DOS
or Windows platform, I could probably work around it;
editing *.bat, *.inf, *.ini files, etc.
HELP
Kay
Recently had a blue screen. Dell phone support walked me
through "repair" but it kept hanging. Because of language
barriers and hours spent on phone, effort was dropped.
Next day second Dell support person started walking me
through "repair" but again language barriers caused
errors, including directing me to reinstall instead of
repair. Voila, no old documents and settings, including
email folders, word processing texts, important
photographs, etc.
After reinstall, and discovering that 'documents and
settings' were missing, I wrote all recent files on the
hard drive to a CD. I used Windows Explorer to find all
files, including system files and settings.
Is there anything saved in a different folder or registry
file, and renamed or coded, that I can "restore"
or "undelete" in order to find missing information? Some
old information exists and is accessed by different
programs, e.g., reinstalled McAfee Spamkiller has all old
filters / friends, etc.
It was not a "clean install." I installed it to a folder
named Windows2 (previous OS folder was Windows), but it
replaced the existing "documents and settings" folder
with a new folder. There were files and previous "system
recovery" points and information still on the hard drive,
but not accessible from the reinstallation, as it thinks
it Windows2 installation is the only one.
Again, is there a way to access the saved files
and "system recovery" folders and info to see what
information is there, and to possible reconstruct the
previous documents and settings?
P.S. Not a newbie. Just flummoxed by newer software
programs that don't let you think for yourself.
Been 'puting since 1984 (IBM XT with two large floppy
drives and no hard drive, rebuilt several times, through
pentium board computer which I rebuilt or built several
times. This Dell is first complete system since my
original IBM XT). If this had happened in any earlier DOS
or Windows platform, I could probably work around it;
editing *.bat, *.inf, *.ini files, etc.
HELP
Kay