recovery of docs of previous installation

You should be concerned that Norton's Speed Disk (aka
optimizer) adversely affected your PC. That software is
very good, normally checking that the moved file is the
same as the original before deleting the original.
However, you could get an error if you had a bad file
system and failed to run CHKDSK or WinDoctor to fix
things, or if the power was interrupted. Otherwise, I
would worry about the hard drive or its connections, or
maybe even the motherboard IDE controller.

As for your current problem, did you do a "repair"
installation of XP or a normal installation. If a repair
installation the files should still be there, but you
might need to loggin as an administrator and "take
ownership" of the files.

However, if you did a normal XP installation, it formats
the drive, so you then need third-party software to try to
recover files. If a quick format was done, you have a
chance. If a long format, the odds are about zero.

Try searching the web with key owrds "UNDELETE", "FILE
RECOVERY", etc. There are many programs that can do what
you probably need to do. Some are free, others are free
to try to see deleted files, but won't recover them unles
you buy the program. One good freeware program is PC File
Inspector:
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm
-----Original Message-----
I had to re install windows xp from the disk when I ran
Norton's Optmizer. I couldn't get to my recovery points
then, either.

I am wondering if I can somehow recover the previous word
documents and outlook express mail and addresses.

if you have an idea, drop me an email.

thanks

Bill
.