Reinstalled XP, and need help finding my old files!

[aidendark]

My Dell Inspiron 1150 was driving me nuts (I got the "corrupted
system32" error message which prevented the computer from booting) so I
went ahead and reinstalled XP.

I understand that this involves deleting old files and such, but after
the reinstallation when I check how much GB my comp has left, I was
shocked.

6.69 out of 52.8 GB! That was the exact amount I had left before the my
laptop craziness began! So my old files and stuff are on here somewhere
but I can't find them anywhere.

Can somebody please help me out? Thanks so much in advance.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

aidendark,

Have you checked the "C:\Documents and Settings" and it's sub? If one of
then returns an "Access Denied" error, Take ownership and then access the
data in those folders. If you find that the files are redundant, or some are
not needed, you may delete them to reclaim the disk space.

HOW TO: Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421