Reinstalled Win XP - need to recover old files

[AlisonB]

I am just learning the hard lesson of not backing up. Since moving to
WinXP a few years ago I have been lucky and needed to use the WinXP
system restore function only once.

Last week I turned off WinXP system restore function to solve an
antivirus software problem. I forgot to turn it back on.

Today when I was I installing a new cordless keyboard and mouse, Win
XP would not restart as part of the installation process – a system
file was missing or corrupt. I tried reattaching the old keyboard and
mouse, starting in safe mode, starting from the last successful boot,
but nothing would work – reinstalling Win XP was the only option left.

I reinstalled Win XP but have done nothing else yet – only XP and
anything that is bundled with it is installed (e.g. WMP), there is no
internet connection yet, etc.

I remember reading something before about the old data still being on
the hard disk so I want to recover what data I can - I am not sure
what to do next.

Now I need some advice before doing anything else.

For a start, I am unsure what can I realistically hope to achieve.
There were photos, emails and contacts, programme downloads as well as
ordinary files such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.

Am I likely to be able to recover any of these?

There is no external hard disk attached to my PC. I do have a laptop
with Win98 and an internet connection – but the hard disk only has 3Gb
available. I also have an old hard disk that was in my old PC from
when I upgraded a few years ago.

I think my options are to give my disk to a company that will recover
the data for me for a fee (I think this will cost too much) or try to
recover any data myself. I have been reading about recovery software
and am really shocked at some of the prices. I have checked out a
couple of freeware or shareware possibilities.

Any suggestions (polite) as to what should I do?

Kind regards,

Alison

 

[Phil]

First, what kind of reinstall of xp did you do? A format and clean install?
Or a repair install?
Format / clean install - your stuff is gone.
Repair install - it should be still on the drive. Did you look/search for
your data?

 

[Alex Nichol]

I reinstalled Win XP but have done nothing else yet – only XP and
anything that is bundled with it is installed (e.g. WMP), there is no
internet connection yet, etc.

I remember reading something before about the old data still being on
the hard disk so I want to recover what data I can - I am not sure
what to do next.

Now I need some advice before doing anything else.

For a start, I am unsure what can I realistically hope to achieve.
There were photos, emails and contacts, programme downloads as well as
ordinary files such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.

Am I likely to be able to recover any of these?

It depends. If by 'reinstalled' you mean you booted a regular XP CD and
used the Repair installation, then the files will be on the disk; you
will have to look for the folders and 'Take Ownership' (See help and
support)

But if you did an installation involving formatting the disk - and that
includes almost any restore provided with a new machine and installed
system - then everything was erased beyond hope of recovery