Stupidly loosing all my files and how to recover them

[Asko]

This is going to sound extremely stupid, but:




I've been using Windows XP Home for a few years now and
have obviously customized it from time to time.


To this end, when I heard from a friend of mine that he had
changed his boot screen not to show the normal Windows logo
and loading bar to something else, I decided to give it a
try. this involved replacing the ntoskrnl.exe.




This made me a bit uneasy but since it hd worked for my
friend I made a copy of the old one (named it ntoskrnl_old)
and pasted the given ntoskrnl.exe and restarted.


LILO came up fine, as did the new boot screen. But after
the boot screen the machine simply restarted again and
after a few loops of this I pulled the plug.






So, I thought, that didn't work. Well, no harm done, I'll
just replace the new ntoskrnl.exe with the old one. So I
went to my parents' place and hooked up my drive as a slave
and did just that.




Then my computer didn't start at all. I mean no power what
so ever. I took the computer apart (as in off with the
cables, HDs and PCI devises etc.) and put it back together
again.


Now the boot screen comes up fine, the old, normal one that
is. But all my settings are as if I had never even used
Windows. Not only that, but my entire My Files folder (or
whatever it's called in English, I seem to have forgotten :
) has vanished. All my documents, mp3s, everything in the
folder.


Games and such that were elsewhere on the HD are fine,
though.




Everything also works really slowly, for example bringing
up My Computer takes a minute or so.


And it seems I can't search the HDs, either.




I also get "Invalid BackWeb application id "4119343"" a few
times at startup.




I tried a few Recovery points that were taken a few days
ago, but to no avail.






I hope someone can atleast say if all my files are
hopelesly lost or not. Thanks.






And yes, I do feel like an idiot, thank you very much.






So thank you




-Asko

 

[Jimmy S.]

Hi Asko,

Look in the user profiles at: C:\Documents and Settings
to see if your old documents and media files are there.
Use an administrators account with full access to C:\ and
all sub folders in order to override any access lockouts.

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

 

[Asko]

Thanks for the advice Jimmy

I tried that and also searched through the entire drive
with my dual-booted Linux Mandrake (since Explorer now
crashes if I try searching in Windows...) but found none of
the missing files.

I've somewhat lost hope on getting my files back, which is
unfortunate, but I'd like to know why Windows decided to
remove them.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not actually blaming Windows for my
own stupidity or anything, but I'd just like to know.


Thanks again for your troubles!


-Asko

-----Original Message-----
Hi Asko,

Look in the user profiles at: C:\Documents and Settings
to see if your old documents and media files are there.
Use an administrators account with full access to C:\ and
all sub folders in order to override any access lockouts.

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite:

http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact

 

[Jimmy S.]

Hi Asko,

Yes, it sure is a mystery! You should also try the recovery
console (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307654) to
access the drive and search for those files, especially if you
used NTFS originally. Hope this helps, and good luck!

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

| Thanks for the advice Jimmy
|
| I tried that and also searched through the entire drive
| with my dual-booted Linux Mandrake (since Explorer now
| crashes if I try searching in Windows...) but found none of
| the missing files.
|
| I've somewhat lost hope on getting my files back, which is
| unfortunate, but I'd like to know why Windows decided to
| remove them.
|
| Don't get me wrong, I'm not actually blaming Windows for my
| own stupidity or anything, but I'd just like to know.
|
|
| Thanks again for your troubles!
|
|
| -Asko
|
|
| >-----Original Message-----
| >Hi Asko,
| >
| >Look in the user profiles at: C:\Documents and Settings
| >to see if your old documents and media files are there.
| >Use an administrators account with full access to C:\ and
| >all sub folders in order to override any access lockouts.
| >
| >--
| >Cheers, Windows XP MVP
| Shell / User
| >Jimmy S.
| http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
| >
| >Game FAQs:
| http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
| >Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite:
| http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
| >MS Support at:
| http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
| >My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I
| confer any rights.
| >_________________________________________________________
| >
| >
| >.
| >