Thread: windows xp help

Sorry to say this, but "Probably not."

Use Windows Explorer and try to find the directories that held your files. If you can see them we can probably get bck your files.

Unfortunately, though, most vendors' restore disks don't actually restore Windows, they copy a pre-installed, pre-formatted copy of Windows that includes the vendor's crapware. If this was the case, your files are probably lost.

Pretty much what Ron said. I've also had problems using Symantec/Norton's Ghost to restore a copy of my HD - it just wrote corrupted rubbish over everything

What has worked for me, so far, is to use 'Freeware' such as Eudora for e-mail, Free Agent or Grabbit for usenet/.news, and Firefox for WWW browsing (I use IE as well for things it does better). By using 3rd party software you can usually avoid having MS install disks erase your files - the second line of defence is to get a second hard drive & have the 3rd party software & files installed on a different HD to Windows, or backup regularly to a USB hard drive - you will only loose what you haven't backed up if your main drive crashes or is virus-ed - most virii only go for the boot drive. You can just partition your hard drive into two drives if you don't want to buy a second drive, but a second physical drive is a bit safer.

Depends on how you reloaded Windows...

If you did a complete re-install (it asked you if you wanted to Format the drive and you said "Yes") the instructions are:

• STOP using that hard disk immediately. (I mean switch off at the wall plug RIGHT NOW and read this on another computer!!)
• Download (from a different computer) some data recovery software ( http://undelete-plus.com is currently offering a freebie)
• Run the data recovery software against your drive (you'll need another computer for this) and see what it can find.

The longer your computer is on/running, the greater the chance that your data will be overwritten...hence the switch off at the wall plug comment...you want that hard drive to stop all activity right then and there - no shutdown, no finish writing to disk...stop NOW!


If you did some sort of Repair install, you might find that your old documents are under a different user id that is simply not showing up in your new configuration.

Have a look in C:\Documents and Settings to see if there are any other ids hidden on that PC.

Attached pic shows typical content of C:\Documents and Settings with just one user - 'admin' - if there are other user accounts on the machine, there will be a folder with their name on. If not - proceed with the search for data as detailed above.

(And to stop your PC getting hosed by viruses/trojans...try this operating system instead - www.ubuntu.com)

Thanks chaps

Looks like i need to start from scratch again....

M.S. Would love to try a Linux based operating system but i get myself into enough trouble using windows ;-)

Frank

Best advise in a situation like this is to back up before you format

Hate to tell you but the problem is WINDOWS.
I have 10 months ago changed to Apple. I don't use or need antivirus, spam phising etc filters.
Everything just works. you don't need to upgrade your computer just to run your operating system.
Bill Gates knows this.
Bill Gates retired just as the iphone was being released worldwide.
he knows once people use the iphone they will upgrade to Apple.
PC users always have dramas(i put up with em for 18yrs cause i didn't know any better), if you talk to Mac users, they are always bragging about how great there machines are.(indirectly like now). After you buy you first Mac you will never buy a PC again.
Yeah sorry, no help now but call it preventative maintenance for the future, plus they keep the doctor away.

why did you do a re-install?, if you couldn't get on to the internet after removing the virus, your internet connection may just have needed redone on your pc, there are also other things that could have been checked...a re-install is a last resort, and certainly not before backing up your hard drive first.

Re-installing windows doesn't result in data loss. Data can be recovered using data recovering software.

But you must not save any data, as this would cause overwriting and permanent data loss

once it overwritten, it's gone for good...

so stop what you are doing and use another pc for now, or if you must, just use the internet and nothing else.

I see we have the usual rant against PC's when this sort of thing comes up, some people can't help themselves. What I want to know is how people get viruses and where from. I have been wandering around the net for many years now and have never had one. I was warned off Peer to Peer NOT torrent sites many years ago and certainly don't use them, the torrent sites I use seem to be ok. My son has managed to get a few trojans so he must look at sites that have them. I do not open attachments from email unless I am very certain of them and I guess most virii come in attachments is that right?

I pick up at least 1 or 2 viruses a month, but my AVG stops them dead in there tracks, i do a lot of web browsing for research and can end up anywhere on the web, i have had virus from major company sites, often when i clicked on an image or link, it could be the result of a a not so good web hosting, perhaps the better more expensive hosting companies have the resources to keep hackers of our sites from planting Trojans.

Originally Posted by Mini

I see we have the usual rant against PC's when this sort of thing comes up, some people can't help themselves. What I want to know is how people get viruses and where from. I have been wandering around the net for many years now and have never had one.

I am amazed you have never had a virus of any kind after years of using the internet. I wish I was so lucky.

Originally Posted by Frankmc

windows has wiped all my previous stuff such as emails ,pictures ,services etc.

Its a good idea to have your hard drive formatted and configured into more than one partition or install a second hard drive. If you had more than one partition, you could have saved all your stuff onto that partition and when you reformatted your hard drive to install XP, you only need to format the C: partition of your hard drive. (All your system files are stored on C: drive) your other partitions would have been left intact.

Hi Guys

Some good news,,,,,Someone suggested checking c:documents and settings ,a folder which i couldnt locate,,,anyway to cut a long story short the folder was hidden and when i enabled hidden files all my stuff was there ...;-)....

Frank

Originally Posted by Mini

What I want to know is how people get viruses and where from. I have been wandering around the net for many years now and have never had one.

It's called drive-by downloading. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive-by_download


And Frankmc - good that you got your files back!

Originally Posted by munruben

Its a good idea to have your hard drive formatted and configured into more than one partition or install a second hard drive. If you had more than one partition, you could have saved all your stuff onto that partition and when you reformatted your hard drive to install XP, you only need to format the C: partition of your hard drive. (All your system files are stored on C: drive) your other partitions would have been left intact.

Yep good idea, until some dumb tech doesn't look at the HDD directory and just formats the disc, it happened to me and I wasn't happy. The computer industry is full of cowboys, rip off merchants and people who think that just because they know a bit about the internet they are computer experts. It is worse than the automotive repair industry and that is saying something.