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"Geek" assistance required ASAP

• Snaike 3,678 Posts

  Sat, Aug 8 2009 10:13 PM

  Hello golfers and duffers alike... I am in need of assistance in a rather hurried manner.

  I know the base of this game contains many IT experts and I am desperately seeking your input and assistance.

  Earlier today, my tweenage children seemed to have downloaded a rather nasty virus.  (Yes, Norton was up, current, and running)... well, said virus completely destroyed my OS, WinXP Home.

  As a last resort, I have had to reinstall WinXP Home (from 2002).   When I got the machine back up and running, everything seemed to be gone.  Everything... All 5 users folders, email, 'net connection drivers..everything.. it was if I was looking at a brand new computer out of the box from 5 years ago.  Well, as I was installing (re-installing) all of the updates and whatnot, I "ran out of disk room". 

  I clicked on my hard drive and there are all my files.  But I can't get to them.  I have no idea how to recover the data from the earlier OS.  HELP!  I simply want to be able to access the folders and files from yesterday. 

  I have no idea what to do now.  I can't reinstall Win Office to read the .docs and .xls I need without deleting a bunch of stuff that I would really like to save.

  Is there any 'geek' out there who can be of assistance?

• Faterson 2,902 Posts

  Sun, Aug 9 2009 2:29 AM

  I ain't no geek, but to free up disk space, I'd connect an external hard-drive to the PC and copy those precious backup folders from yesterday to the external hard-drive, thus freeing up space on the main computer.

  (But there may be a more efficient solution.)

• Fuzzygazz 1,469 Posts

  Sun, Aug 9 2009 7:20 AM

   

  im no expert but if you reinstalled windows most likely it is like a new computer and you would need to run the cd's with your dififerent drivers and programs. Usually XP would find all this on a re-install. Everything usually gets deleted. Also there is a system restore point you could try without a complete format. Stop by the irc ch.  maybe theres someone there that could help you. (Night is better ) GL

• claremoreblue 2,322 Posts

  Sun, Aug 9 2009 7:54 AM

  May not work Snaike, but a simple system restore might do it! If you can get to it, and go back a few days, it has worked for me previously.

• salamii 1,058 Posts

  Sun, Aug 9 2009 10:53 AM

  Before you reinstalled the OS did you save and backup your files to a cd or key drive. If not, then they probably were deleted. What you see on your hard drive is just a ghost image of your files.  This happens often on older hard drives that will soon need to be replaced.

• cobra4 359 Posts

  Mon, Aug 10 2009 9:23 AM

  By reinstall, do you mean reformat?
  
  Because reformatting does just that, it formats your hard drive. In laymans' terms, it deletes everything on the hard drive, but you really should've asked for help before you took matters into your own hands.
  
  But if that is what you have done, then all your files are gone forever, sorry bud

  cobra 4

• Snaike 3,678 Posts

  Wed, Aug 12 2009 2:48 PM

  No backups.. no restore point.... didn't think it was necessary.. kids' computer and all.  (now I know better).

  And Cobra.. no, did not reformat.. simply re-installed the OS.  I can still get onto my hard drive and see the program folders that I had previously used, but the new operating system doesn't recognize them and I can't get to them from the 'Start program' file, nor the desktop.. unless I go in an manually add a desktop icon shortcut.

• AvatarLee 1,644 Posts

  Wed, Aug 12 2009 5:24 PM

  So basically, you have an installation of Windows that has no idea of any of the programs that you had before you reloaded.  All your registry keys, shortcuts, etc are gone.  What you could do, though it may end up messier than re-formating, is 're-install' all your programs that you had previously.  But be sure to re-install them into the same place they existed before, otherwise you will waste space on your HD.  This should restore all of the Windows registry keys and such.  You could probably look at the folder list in your 'Program Files' directory to see what you need to go get.  You may not be able to recover it all though.  Depends on the program really.

  Good luck,

  Lee