File Recovery

[Dave]

I installed Windows XP Home over my Windows ME (new
installation -not upgrade). I don't know how to recover
any of my old files and programs. Have I lost them? All
of my efforts have been unsuccessful.

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Dave if you did a Clean Installation instead of a upgrade, it will
probably cost $ to get them back.
It is important not to do anything with the computer until a decision
is made.
Every boot and even every keystroke potentially permanently destroys
the data.

http://www.execsoft.com/undelete/undelete.asp
http://www.undelete.com/coverpage.asp
http://www.lc-tech.com/index.asp
http://pjwalczak.com/scaven/index.php
http://www.ontrack.com/
http://www.r-tt.com
http://www.drivesavers.com/
http://www.jufsoft.com/badcopy/
http://www.naltech.com/ (CD Data Rescue)
http://www.cddataguys.com/BadCopyPro.htm (CD-ROM's, CD-R's, CD-RW's,
and DVD's)

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
An easier way to read newsgroup messages:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/newsgroups/setup.asp
http://dts-l.org/index.html


"Dave" > wrote in message
...
> I installed Windows XP Home over my Windows ME (new
> installation -not upgrade). I don't know how to recover
> any of my old files and programs. Have I lost them? All
> of my efforts have been unsuccessful.

[Harry Ohrn]

It will be very difficult to recover much of anything useful off the system.
If you have a second computer then you might be able to do some recovery by
connecting the Hard Drive as slave to a second system and using a decent
recovery tool that can read NTFS as I assume you converted the file format
to NTFS during the clean install. Or if you have a second Hard Drive you
could remove the drive in question, attach the second drive a s Master and
install XP to it then connect the drive with lost data as slave. You see you
really need a second drive so you can recover lost data to. You can't
recover the data to the same drive it was lost on. Doing so will further
overwrite other files.

I've had some success with apps like Lost n Found from www.symantec.com or
Windows based programs like iRecover http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/

--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell\User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp


"Dave" > wrote in message
...
> I installed Windows XP Home over my Windows ME (new
> installation -not upgrade). I don't know how to recover
> any of my old files and programs. Have I lost them? All
> of my efforts have been unsuccessful.

[David]

"Dave" > wrote in news:1e6e01c3798a$49af9f80
:

> I installed Windows XP Home over my Windows ME (new
> installation -not upgrade). I don't know how to recover
> any of my old files and programs. Have I lost them? All
> of my efforts have been unsuccessful.

Re-install the apps and re-create the files. Perhaps you should have
learned what you were attempting to do beforing doing it.

A Clean install wipes the system. An Upgrade would have kept your old
Programs and files.

--

David

"Due to Viewer dicretion...
Graphic violence is advised"

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Pelly,

Well, that certainly wasn't the way to do it, and you may have made matters
worse. There are many freeware file recovery tools out there, here is one:
http://hccweb1.bai.ne.jp/~hcj58401/ Try using one of these, as they can
recover data that is not yet overwritten. If it is, or all you get is
partials, then data recovery at this point would require specialized
forensic tools used by someone who knows what they are doing.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Win98 Help - www.rickrogers.org

"Pelly" > wrote in message
...
> After correcting a computer problem I noticed that data was missing. I
had followed instructions from the Internet that indicated I should delete
my user identity and restart my computer setting up new defaults. The data
I lost was my documents, my e-mail account. Has anyone ever encountered
similar circumstances and recovered the lost data?
>
>

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Do you have a link to those instructions that probably hurt more than
helped?

See if this link can help:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/datrec.htm

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
An easier way to read newsgroup messages:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/newsgroups/setup.asp
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/


"Pelly" > wrote in message
...
> After correcting a computer problem I noticed that data was missing.
I had followed instructions from the Internet that indicated I should
delete my user identity and restart my computer setting up new
defaults. The data I lost was my documents, my e-mail account. Has
anyone ever encountered similar circumstances and recovered the lost
data?