Files in My Documents gone after System Recovery

[Wijono]

The DLL file in a PC running WinXP Home Edition was corrupted or missing, so that WinXP cannot start. The only option is than to do the System Recovery (F10).

The safe recovery was selected, and there was a message that said the data files will not be deleted. After the recovery is completed, indeed I found all the data files outside the "C:\Documents and Settings" are intact. But unfortunately all the files that were in "My Documents" which was located in the "C:\Documents and Settings" were completely wiped out!

Is that situation normal? If it is then the message that said the data file will not be deleted is really misleading!! Is there any way to recover those files that were in "My Documents" before? Or are they completely gone?

Thanks a lot!!

[firefoxthebomb]

nothing is ever fool proof. check to see if it did not move the files someplace else. Also check to make sure it did not create a new profile for you, if it did, then the files are in the old profile.

Also you could try some undelete software like File Rescue Plus, Get Data Back, file recovery pro, to name a few.

[Wijono]

Thanks for the hints.

As a matter of fact I have done those, trying to search the whole C: drive, even logon as Administrator in Safe Mode, nothing found.

As to the Undelete programs, I have tried not less than 4 softwares, and no single trace of the missing files are pointed out, be it the overwritten ones or the very good ones, all seem to be those that were really deleted from somewhere else, not from "My Doduments". As such I still have a tiny hope, that the missing files might still be hidden somewhere and need some trick (maybe with profile?) to reveal. Can somebody help please .....

[naughty]

brother go to system restore & restore ur system to that date when ur dll files have been corrupted And restore it a day before just like if ur files have been corrupted on the 20 march 2006 restore it to 19 march 2006 .u will get ur files there.this can be done only if u have a system restore point there.

may be this will help u.

if not then tell which softwares u try to recover ur files

[Wijono]

I firmly believe, if we could restore to a point before the System Recovery, those missing files will surely come back, hence I would have thought the same way too, but unfortunately the Restore points prior to the Partial System Recovery are also all gone, i.e., the oldest restore point available is right after the system recovery. What else could I do?

The software I have tried to recover the files are a.o. "Easy Undelete", "R-Undelete", "e-Data Unerase", "Recover My Files" and "Turbo File Uneraser", none of those gave any trace of the missing files in "My Documents".

[Wijono]

After doing "Error-checking" of drive C: in the Windows Explorer, not less than 380 tmp files are suddenly shown up in the folder "C:\Documents and Settings\Compaq_Owner\Local Settings\Temp", 2 of those have very large file size, one 9 MB and the other one 20.5 GB!

I can open the 9 MB one with Winzip, it contains <MsnMsgs.msi> and <bootstrap.exe>. Unfortunately Winzip is not able to open the one with file size 20.5 GB. Could it be that the large file is somehow sort of saved encrypted file of the previous "My Documents" or "Documents and Settings" before the partial system recovery? Any hint what software could possibly open that kind of file? Any kind of help will highly be appreciated.

[snafumaster]

I'm not certain of it's limits, but I have used winrar to open some pretty huge files before.

http://www.download.com/WinRAR/3000-2250_4...tml?tag=lst-0-1

*edit to add...

You should be able to at least browse the compresssed item and see what's in there without actually decompressing the entire thing.

Edited April 22, 2006 by snafumaster

[naughty]

I firmly believe, if we could restore to a point before the System Recovery, those missing files will surely come back, hence I would have thought the same way too, but unfortunately the Restore points prior to the Partial System Recovery are also all gone, i.e., the oldest restore point available is right after the system recovery. What else could I do?

The software I have tried to recover the files are a.o. "Easy Undelete", "R-Undelete", "e-Data Unerase", "Recover My Files" and "Turbo File Uneraser", none of those gave any trace of the missing files in "My Documents".

Try get data back it comes in 2 versions one for fat file system & second is for ntfs .i think u have ntfs file system that's why ur mentioned softwares cant recover the files.

[Wijono]

You are right naughty, the file system is ntfs, but it has nothing to do with it, cause those programs have revived many files that were really deleted before, however not those that were in the missing "My Documents".

Thanks to the hints from snafumaster, I tried the WinRAR, it could not open the 20 GB file, then I tried the Repair tool that comes with it, it said there are 2 errors in that archive file, it tried quite long to do the repair, but unfortunately ended up to no avail. Is there any software that could possibly repair that kind of archive file?

[Maelstorm]

What kind of archive file is it? What's the extension? I've used 7-zip on some pretty big files myself. Do a google on it. Do you remember how big your My Docs was? Does 20.5GB sound about right to you for all your data files? Remember, if it is your data, then it's going to be everything that was in all profiles that was on the machine, include everything in %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Application Data, and Local Data (Both of which includes the browser cache depending on which web browser you use).

That hidden restore partition IS a good idea, but you should also get the recovery CDs with the machine, or be able to burn them yourself, just in case the HD dies. At the very least, get a Windows XP CD. Then you can boot off the CD and have it try to repair the Windows installation. I've done that a couple of times on a WinXP install that wouldn't boot. You can also run the recovery console from the CD as well. But, since you have a Compaq, try contacting HP and have them send you the CDs. There was a recent (middle of 2005 I think) class-action lawsuit against them that they settled reguarding this very issue.

[OFF TOPIC RANT]

Granted, this is my personal opinion, and will probably get me in hot water with the mods here (not sure if this is against the posting rules or not (I didn't see it in the posting rules)), but when you buy a Compaq, you get what you get, and whatever happens, happens. And lately, HP has been going the same route, they are the same company after all. So my advise is to NEVER buy a Compaq or a HP. Cheap hardware, and even cheaper workmanship. You couldn't pay me to get one. And this is also my personal preference: Stay away from OEM's like HP/Compaq, Gateway, Dell, Sony, Toshiba, Leveno(sp?), etc. Alot of propriatary hardware and software. The best way to go is to build your own machine.

[/OFF TOPIC RANT]

[naughty]

Brother get data back for NTFS is specially for recovering files from new technology file system (NTFS). and can recovery files even if mbr is gone or rewirted by some virus attck or software.

GIVING A TRY DOES NOT HARM U.

If u really want to recover files from ur hard drive then dont write or save any data on that partition because if u save some data on that partition after system recovery then u will not be able to get ur data back from any software.

[firefoxthebomb]

Brother get data back for NTFS is specially for recovering files from new technology file system (NTFS). and can recovery files even if mbr is gone or rewirted by some virus attck or software.

GIVING A TRY DOES NOT HARM U.

If u really want to recover files from ur hard drive then dont write or save any data on that partition because if u save some data on that partition after system recovery then u will not be able to get ur data back from any software.

I am with naughty on this for sure, the more you add or modify files on your system the less you will be able to recover. Use the get data back for ntfs.

[Wijono]

Thank you all for your effort to help.

Answer for Maelstorm:

As mentioned earlier, the extension is .tmp, one of the .tmp files which is 9 MB I can open with Winzip. Unfortunately I do not remember how big "My Documents" was before.

BTW, I have tried 7-Zip, but it also cannot open that 20 GB file with the remark "GLC21.TMP is not supported archive", it can "Test" the 9 MB file successfully though.

As I said earlier, I believe that the previous "My Documents" must be in the 20 GB file, it might be a sort of file like one generated by CHKDSK lost clusters, there should be a program that may explore and extract the files from that file, can someone please help...

[tal ormanda]

You can just undo the restory and copy files to floppy etc and redo the restore.

[naughty]

Great idea by Mr. tel ormanda. this is also a simple way to get ur files back.