Recovering Files

[BossTRoss]

I recently did a non-destructive restore to my laptop (Win XP), after it
failed to load Windows in any mode. I hadn't backed up my data and hoped
that since I had more than 4gb of space on my drive, the restore wizard would
backup my data. Well, the system is restored, my drive is full, but I can't
find most of my personal files (docs, jpgs, mp3s, pdfs, etc.). Is it
possible that they still exist? Can they be restored?

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

I recently did a non-destructive restore to my laptop (Win XP), after it
failed to load Windows in any mode. I hadn't backed up my data and hoped
that since I had more than 4gb of space on my drive, the restore wizard
would
backup my data. Well, the system is restored, my drive is full, but I
can't
find most of my personal files (docs, jpgs, mp3s, pdfs, etc.). Is it
possible that they still exist? Can they be restored?

Here is what I would do:
a) Restore the files from backup, or
b) Log on as Administrator, then examine the various subfolders under
c:\Documents and Settings. Your files might be in one of them, or
c) Pull out the disk and connect it as a slave disk to some other Windows XP
PC. Now download, install and run one of the many undelete tools that you
can find on Google. You must avoid writing to your disk until you have
recovered all recoverable files, in order to prevent your data from being
overwritten.

There is also an overall answer to your question. Experience is a wonderful
teacher but its tuition fees are often very steep. Your current experience
tells you that a full backup, followed by a sample recovery (to see if the
files are readable) would have avoided the current problem. If you have
important files on your disk then you *must* back them up regularly, e.g.
weekly. This applies in particular when you're about to perform something as
intrusive as a system restore. A 2.5" disk in an external USB case costs
very little and is a highly effective backup tool, provided that it is kept
away from the PC for most of the time.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I recently did a non-destructive restore to my laptop (Win XP), after it
failed to load Windows in any mode. I hadn't backed up my data and hoped
that since I had more than 4gb of space on my drive, the restore wizard
would
backup my data.

I'm not sure why you would think that, but what you did is what you did.

Well, the system is restored, my drive is full, but I can't
find most of my personal files (docs, jpgs, mp3s, pdfs, etc.). Is it
possible that they still exist? Can they be restored?

The answer is, "maybe, it depends".

First, stop using the drive. Disconnect the drive and attach it to another
system. Look in the Documents and Settings folder to see if there is a
second set of user folders, for example User and User.1. If so, look in
the older folder.

Or, while the drive is attached to another system, search your drive for a
file name you know should exist.

HTH
-pk