restoring files?

Psykicpup

I re-installed windows (XP)today but somehow it seems to have reformatted the drive :mad: & i've lost all my files - now it did warn that I might lose things in 'my documents' so I saved the whole file to desk top but everything has gone.
I'm sure the info is still in there somewhere & its retrievable but I havent a clue how

any help would be apprieciated:D

Conor_3

If you've reformatted it, it's pretty much lost. You can recover it if it hasn't been written over when you reinstalled but its a long tedious process.

Psykicpup

Conor wrote: »

If you've reformatted it, it's pretty much lost. You can recover it if it hasn't been written over when you reinstalled but its a long tedious process.

I didnt reformat it as such & when I ran a scan i noticed a lot of the 'missing stuff' was flashing up as it scanned through .....its in there somewhere:rotfl:

CHR15

Do you have another Windows folder appear?? (windows.000)

Try searching the C drive for
*.doc
*.jpg

and anything else you have lost.

latecomer

Try using a program called photorec. I used it recover some photos my brother had deleted from his harddrive but didn't limit the search to photo formats and it recovered approx 175,000 files. Now I didn't check anything other than the photos but it did a job of them so its got to be worth a shot:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

And remember that the more you use the drive the less you will be able to recover.

Freddie_Snowbits

I pays to use good old fashioned back up software!

CHR15

Windows doesn't format a drive on installation unless it is specifically told to.

I think the OP's files are intact on the Hard Drive but in the Old windows folders.

Take a look in Documents and settings, you may find a folder with your old logon name and files in (but may deny you access)

If you find a likely folder which wont allow access, follow this guide

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421