Korean Job Discussion Forums

[indytrucks]

Okay, this is a bit of a story, so here goes.

My computer has been playing up lately so today (I don't know what I was thinking) I put in the Windows XP systems disk and basically installed Windows all over again because I wasn't really sure of the Korean directions. To make a long story short, all my program files have diappeared ... Microsoft Word, Excel, the pic veiwer for my dig camera, not to mention all my saved documents and pictures, the list goes on. I nearly had a fit.

Does anyone who's a little more computer savvy know if I can retrieve all my old files, or are they gone forever? I already tried to reset the thing to a few days ago, but I can't.

Am I screwed? Feeling very stupid here. Please help ... I need to get back some of my saved Word documents, or I'm up the creek.

[eamo]

It sounds like you re-formatted and wiped your hard drive clean.

Is anything remaining?

We need to establish if you re-formatted your hard drive or not.

[Hater Depot]

It sounds like you only reinstalled Windows and didn't format anything. It is possible that an undeletion program can recover some of your files. I use one called Restoration, which is freeware.

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html

[Demophobe]

Your program files are probably still there, but with the new Windows installation, they aren't installed. Look in C:/Program Files and the folders will probably still be there, but siince re-installing Windows you have also re-installed your registry as well.

You will have to re-install the programs. If you like, you can copy the folder from the C:/Program Files/Microsoft Office (for example) to another location, install the program again, then copy the original folder back and over-write the new folder made by the install. Why? This will give you all your old settings back for say, Word, etc...

Finding your old Word files? Well, I have never in many years re-installed Windows without a format. I was under the impression that wwhen one does simply re-install Windows, it over-writes existing files, but doesn't do a format or anything. Now, if that is the case, your old "My Documents may still be there, assuming that is where the files were. Look in C:/Documents and Settings for your old folder. It may still be there...dig around and see what you find. It may be under "Administrator" or "indytrucks"...whatever your old log on name was.

This makes a good case for having partitions. C: is best kept as a program / OS partition, so in a case like this, other partitions (say D:/, for example) would be left totally unharmed by an operation such as what you did. A partiton is a dividing of your hard drive into smaller sections...like a wall creating different areas on the drive.

Good luck. Let us know how it goes...

[StAxX SOuL]

Ignore some of the above comments.

1. If you installed over your original Windows installation then you probably took the default options and reformatted your hard-drive as they recommend that you do so. However, formatting isn�t the data destruction tool that people think it is. All that happens in simple terms is that those files are still present, simply not indexed anymore, rather being grouped together in the part of the hard-drive waiting to be written over by new data. It may be that they have been written over in the new installation of Windows, but they may well not have been. Thus the data is recoverable through a little hardship.

2. If you installed a second OS then all your old files will be there, although My Documents will now point to the username with which you installed the new system. Just go to Documents Settings and find the folder associated with your old username in there. Open it and you�ll have all your documents.

3. As far as drivers, programs and the like it may be possible to transpose them to a new installation if you�ve not deleted them or have been able to recover the data. They won�t be listed on your start menu however. You�d have to tamper with the registry values and your system files and if it is at all possible, the hassle really isn�t worth it, you�d just be better off reinstalling the MS Office Suite and whatever other programs you had. If you don�t have the original discs or serials then simply download them from one of the torrent sites on the net.

[Demophobe]

Wow...why didn't I think of any of that stuff? Oh yeah....

[indytrucks]

Thanks for all the replies ... just got my computer back from the A/S bloke after 5 days without.

Turns out I actually did format Windows XP over the original OS, so the AS guy was able to retrieve some files, but not all.

Stupid is as stupid does. I won't be doing that ever again.

[ChopChaeJoe]

I've been using computers for 24 years and I am constantly reminded by my own actions that backing stuff up is very important.