Compressed C: drive...uncompressing?

GBY

GBY

GBY

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18 Dec 2005
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Location
Surrey, UK
A friend of mine has come back to find her housemate has compressed the c-drive when trying to free up some memory.

Unfortunately she works from home and has a lot of work deadlines coming up...and she can't open any of her files or programs.

Is there any way this can be sorted and everything recovered?

Thanks in advance,
Graham
 
Urgent Help Required!

Hi guys,

I'm sorry to post in here but I (well, a friend of mine) have quite a big problem with the computer and I really need to find out what can be done.

I've already posted up in the Hard Drive forum but I wasn't sure if the majority of people who may know how to help are looking in there or not.

My friend's housemate did a C: compression without really knowing what to do, this was cancelled and she's not able to access a lot of her work or open apps.

She works from home and has tight deadlines due imminently - she's a writer/author - so this needs to be sorted out ASAP.

The thread in question is here. Again, I'm sorry for duplicate posting but we really need to get this sorted out tonight ideally as there's a lot of work she needs to get sorted out.

Edited to add: She's running XP.

Thanks in advance,
Graham
 
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Have a look at this program, see if that helps.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...snum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=erd+commander&spell=1

EDIT
Having read it again it looks like you can boot up the PC and access windows, just not her files?

In that case ignore ERD COMMANDER and go to system restore, if you can boot windows but can't actually access your files there's little hope, but try a system restore, you never know.

Start > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore
 
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Gaverick said:
sounds pretty serious, i don't think you can easily and quickly recover from it
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I was fearing this :( I was hoping it would just be a case of uncompressing somehow.

Kerplunk said:
System restore?
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She's tried that to no avail unfortunately :( I'm assuming that's because the system technically hasn't changed, it's just been compressed.
 
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Freeman said:
Please read my edit, sorry.

>.<

I don't think it will work for your problem.
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Ah. She can boot up the PC but I think it's the programs that aren't working. Everything she does tells her she needs a disk - Excel etc. So it's the programs that aren't letting her access the files. I'll try and find out more info when she gets in (she's popped out for a bit).

I don't know if it's just a case of re-installing all the programs but she tried a system restore which didn't work :(
 
GBY said:
Ah. She can boot up the PC but I think it's the programs that aren't working. Everything she does tells her she needs a disk - Excel etc. So it's the programs that aren't letting her access the files. I'll try and find out more info when she gets in (she's popped out for a bit).

I don't know if it's just a case of re-installing all the programs but she tried a system restore which didn't work :(
Click to expand...

Yup try and reinstall the programs, obviously keeping the files you need to open, then try again.

What's the error she gets, or does she get nothing?
 
You could try SpinRite, I have not used it myself but it is meant to have good data recovery abilities. Note cheap tough. :(
 
Has this performed compression on her data files or on the applications that run them? If the files are NTFS compressed they will show up in blue if you look in (for example) My Documents or C:\Program Files\Office. You may be able to get away with turning compression off on these files if they are indeed compressed (right-click, properties, Advanced, uncheck "compress files etc" if it is checked.

For fits and giggles Im now performing NTFS compression on my Microsoft Office folder to see if it has any effect on the applications running.

EDIT Word still opens if it's compressed

Of course the compression could be a complete red herring!
 
I'm hoping she gets in soon so I can answer your questions properly.

Thanks M0KUJ1N for looking at that, that's...interesting and baffling. I'll try and get some more info for you guys as soon as I can.

Thanks all very much!!
 
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