Lost My Documents

S@njay · 12 Apr 2006 at 16:38

My freinds computer has lost all of its documents or the location to documents.

He switched on the computer one day, and it came up with an error, something about his user account. And now he cant find his documents

It has happened to me once, but i had all my files on a different hdd, so i could re-format and start over again.

he has a laptop, windows xp home (all legal), his account still is there, with all his programs and what not, but his personal settings seemed to have dissapeared.

Its come at a really bad time, final year of uni, dissertation and stuff, so really need to get the laptop up and running again!

Anyone know of this problem and a solution? Windows restore comes up with a restoration error (selected a couple of dates), so cant do that

Any help much appreciated!

bledd · 12 Apr 2006 at 16:48

search the C:\Documents and Settings\ folder?

S@njay · 12 Apr 2006 at 16:50

Did a search, nothing there

Windows appeared to loose all of it

S@njay · 13 Apr 2006 at 15:24

anyone?! its getting on my nerve now! Why did windows do this?!

I guess he will need a recovery program if windows cant even find his documents 40gigs worth! Yet it still shows up that his hdd is still full!

vanandjuanunited · 13 Apr 2006 at 15:26

Is it logging him in with a temporary profile?
If yes go to the c drive in my comp. Look in documents and settings and find his profile. In profile look in my docs. Sorted.

S@njay · 13 Apr 2006 at 15:35

williamw11 said:
Is it logging him in with a temporary profile?
If yes go to the c drive in my comp. Look in documents and settings and find his profile. In profile look in my docs. Sorted.

Unfortunately it has loaded his own profile, its just lost all his settings and files.

Its very strange!

decmatt · 13 Apr 2006 at 15:42

tried system restore and set it back to say yesterday?

mad_allan · 13 Apr 2006 at 16:01

Can you not log on as the administrator? If it showing HDD Full, the docs will be there but not visible on this user id.

S@njay · 13 Apr 2006 at 17:54

mad_allan said:
Can you not log on as the administrator? If it showing HDD Full, the docs will be there but not visible on this user id.

Didnt think of that one! But i told him to try it, and still cant find any files

Tried system restore again, but the laptop keeps going in to scan disk after restart (and then the laptop reboots).

Running out of ideas

Simmy · 13 Apr 2006 at 18:22

Put the hard drive in another PC and run some file recovery software. Ultimate Boot CD has some partition/file recovery software on it I believe. Then see what you can recover.

I'm gutted for your mate

It's a good lesson to learn about backing up though and I can't bet he'll never let it happen again!

*Have you tried running a virus scan?

Puppetmaster · 13 Apr 2006 at 23:34

sounds like what happened to me almost about 4 years ago

i had all my work and loads of other stuff in a stuff folder on desktop, did a restart and it had gone, did a sytem restore, folders and sub folders came back but files were no where to be seen...

Etaqua · 14 Apr 2006 at 00:29

Make sure he can view hidden files and folders (Explorer -> Tools -> Folder Options -> View -> Show Hidden Files and Folders and Show Protected System Files, etc)

If that doesn't work, he could try searching for a specific filename he had before this happened. Probably best done when the search in hidden files and folders box is checked.