Recovery problem with XP

[Guest]

HP supplies Windows XP home on its computers with an option to do a non-destructive recovery... It reinstalls windows and driver files and wipes out applications installed after purchase. Unfortunately, the recovery process is now known to have a bug so that user document and other data files tend to get over written or destroyed... not something HP support tells you until after a disaster.
After a Recovery I found nothing in my document file but some NTUSER data files and some NTUSER.dat files in Documents and Programs for specific users. The NTUSER (no suffix) files appear to contain encrypted data, or at least data that is not easily readable. They date from the time of the Recovery suggesting they may contain some or all of the lost data.

Does anyone know how to recover data from these files or decrypt them?

 

[Malke]

HP supplies Windows XP home on its computers with an option to do a
non-destructive recovery... It reinstalls windows and driver files and
wipes out applications installed after purchase. Unfortunately, the
recovery process is now known to have a bug so that user document and
other data files tend to get over written or destroyed... not
something HP support tells you until after a disaster.
After a Recovery I found nothing in my document file but some NTUSER
data files and some NTUSER.dat files in Documents and Programs for
specific users. The NTUSER (no suffix) files appear to contain
encrypted data, or at least data that is not easily readable. They
date from the time of the Recovery suggesting they may contain some or
all of the lost data.

Does anyone know how to recover data from these files or decrypt them?

I agree that the HP bug (a known issue for a really long time with a
patch available on their site) was a serious one. However, HP isn't
responsible for backing up your data. Unfortunately, I believe the only
way you might be able to rescue this data is by using a professional
data recovery firm. You might give DriveSavers a call and see if they
think this can be done. Their number (USA) is 800-440-1904. They are
expensive, but only you can decide how much your data is worth.

Good luck,

Malke