Windows Crash

[adam wagner]

I have Windows XP Home Edition which came with my HP
computer. Last night for the first time in 16 months I
was unable to get onto my desktop and i was continually
being thrown into a loop which asked me to start normally
or Safe Mode but I kept getting back to that page. Anyway
after calling HP support they told me to do a PC recovery
by pressing F10 key. I did it and effectively it got back
to my orginal desktop of when I purchased my machine.
It seems that I have lost all my personal info like My
Documents and Spreadsheets that I had been using
regularly.
Have I lost everything or is there some way of retrieving
the info.
Thanks and very hopeful.

 

[MCR]

I have Windows XP Home Edition which came with my HP
computer. Last night for the first time in 16 months I
was unable to get onto my desktop and i was continually
being thrown into a loop which asked me to start normally
or Safe Mode but I kept getting back to that page. Anyway
after calling HP support they told me to do a PC recovery
by pressing F10 key. I did it and effectively it got back
to my orginal desktop of when I purchased my machine.
It seems that I have lost all my personal info like My
Documents and Spreadsheets that I had been using
regularly.
Have I lost everything or is there some way of retrieving
the info.
Thanks and very hopeful.

That depends on whether your recovery CD formatted the drive or just
reinstalled windows. Normally your account is in DOCUMENTS AND
SETTINGS, so I would look in there on C drive to see if you have your
current account plus your old one, like on my fictional machine

C:\Documents and settings\Mark coleman <<< Old account
C:\Documents and settings\m Coleman <<< New account

If all you have is Admin, your account and a guest (maybe) then in all
likelyhood the machine was formatted and you would have lost everything,
usually Windows will warn of this, but who can say about a custom disk?

 

[Yves Leclerc]

MCR, you are leading Adam down the wrong direction. HPs, and other, system
recovery process "restores" a complete image of the system when it was
shipped out from the factory. This wipes out the hard and restores the file
to the original state.

Yes, he more than likely lost everything!

Y.

 

[Dave]

Did HP ask you if your data was backed up? Did they tell you exactly what
they were telling you to do? By using the "Recovery" disk you have
completely wiped out all of your data and restored it to exactly the way it
was when it was new.