Where have my files gone

[Vette198484]

Ok, here's the thing. My brother was on my comp and downloaded a bunch of crap from various places. Needless to say he caused my computer to crash. So I went to repair my windows xp installation. So I get it repaired (or so I thought) and I start going through my files and realized it did a fresh installation. I never formatted the HD or anything like that and I know the files are still there because I have a 250gig HD, and all that is showing up is 233gig. So my question is how can I get to my old files? I have tried everything!!!!

[Zxian]

250GB drives will always show up as 233GB in Windows, since manufacturers and computers define a "gigabye" differently.

Manufacturers:

250GB * (1000 MB/GB) * (1000 KB/MB) * (1000bytes/KB) = 250,000,000,000 bytes

Computers:

250,000,000,000 bytes /( (1024 bytes/KB) * (1024 KB/MB) * (1024MB/GB) ) = 232.830643653 GB

So you're not actually missing any disk space - it was just never given to you in the first place. And yes - we all know it sucks.

Welcome to MSFN.

[awilliamson]

If you performed a factory repair using a CD, it is possible the drive was cleaned to a previous state removing your files. If not, you just used a Windows XP CD, and ran a repair, the files would likely be located in the C:\Documents and Settings folder, but under a different folder. If, for example, on your old setup, the username was JimBob, and you later performed the re-install, it is probable that if you re-created the useraccount JimBob on the new installation, it would look like this.

c:\Documents and Settings\JimBob

c:\Documents and Settings\JimBob.MyPCName (the PC name is tagged on the end.)

If not, try some disk recovery software such as EasyReovery or Recover My Files

[TheFlash428]

250GB drives will always show up as 233GB in Windows, since manufacturers and computers define a "gigabye" differently.

Manufacturers:

250GB * (1000 MB/GB) * (1000 KB/MB) * (1000bytes/KB) = 250,000,000,000 bytes

Computers:

250,000,000,000 bytes /( (1024 bytes/KB) * (1024 KB/MB) * (1024MB/GB) ) = 232.830643653 GB

So you're not actually missing any disk space - it was just never given to you in the first place. And yes - we all know it sucks.

Welcome to MSFN.

...just for anyone curious about an explanation for the above, most manufacturers (and telecommunications companies refering to network speeds) refer to a gigbyte as [10 to the power of 9] bytes, or 1,000,000,000. This standard uses a metric, or "powers of ten" rule for defining units of computer storage.

In terms of computer memory, however, and the way most operating systems, including Windows define it, units are based on binary or "powers of 2" rules, so a gigabyte equals [2 to the power of 30] bytes, or 1,073,741,824 bytes. By this standard, a KB = 2 to the power of 10 and MB = 2 to the power of 20.

As far as to why there is a difference, don't ask me.

Edited August 23, 2006 by TheFlash428

[recoveryguru]

I have visited many data recovery websites and evaluated their product.

But my experience with one data recovery is almost excellent.

Nucleus Data Recovery, the leading data recovery company having biggest range of professional data recovery software.

Their support is also excellent you drop a email for any help they will respond within 5 minutes.

To recover your data try Kernel Recovery for FAT+NTFS.

The DEMO allows you to preview the recoverable contents and you can check whether the file is recovered correctly or not by double clicking on it.

Edited August 31, 2006 by recoveryguru

[jaclaz]

I have visited many data recovery websites and evaluated their product.

But my experience with one data recovery is almost excellent.

Nucleus Data Recovery, the leading data recovery company having biggest range of professional data recovery software.

Their support is also excellent you drop a email for any help they will respond within 5 minutes.

To recover your data try Kernel Recovery for FAT+NTFS.

The DEMO allows you to preview the recoverable contents and you can check whether the file is recovered correctly or not by double clicking on it.

hmm......

5 reasons WHY does this post appear as ADVERTISEMENT to me:

1) It is written in "oversimplified" English

2) It is the first post of a user with name "recoveryguru"

3) The company is situated in SOUTH DELHI (see #1 above)

4) 2nd and 3rd sentence are clearly "self promoting" ones

5) most if not all references to the company you can find in a google search are from the site itself, from free sites, from "connected" sites like this http://www.recoverybkf.com/ (same registrar) or from similar posts on other boards, see this one:

http://www.theofficeexperts.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6469

strangely enough another 1st post by user "recoveryguru", you can find tens of similar posts on tens of other boards

I cannot say if their products are this good, maybe they are, but surely their advertisement policy is really poor.

jaclaz