Files Are Gone But...Not?

Ok, well, long story short my computer got rebooted, and everything seems to be gone at first. But I looked at my programs and it all still seems to be there, of course it all needs to be reinstalled, but the files are still there. I also looked at the amount of free space still on the C Drive and it's still basically the same amount before the reboot, which leads me to believe that my other files, the pictures, videos and such that weren't in the program folders, are still on here, somewhere.

My mom's files are all still there though, as she was a different user on the computer. But I don't know why it would get rid of mine and not hers, even more so if the there's still the same amount of disk space being used.

I'd really like them back, so is there any way to do this? Or if it's impossible to get them back, then can I at least wipe them out so I can at still have my file space back? (I'd really rather not though, I have a lot of files on the computer and really want them back, so I want that to be a last resort only.)

I using Windows XP, I don't know what other kinds of information you'd need to answer this, so ask and I'll try to answer as best I can.

Have a look through all of the subfolders of C:\Documents and Settings\[your username] for "My Pictures/Videos/Received Files/whatever" and for the files you had on your desktop.

By rebooted, do you mean reinstalled?

Yeah, I tried that but my username is gone. My mom's is still there though.

I guess so. When it restarted it had all this "Welcome, thanks for buying our computer" stuff and I had to go through that process to get it back up.

If your username is gone then it means that any files you had in the My Documents folder or on your desktop will be gone too, unfortunately. You could try scouring all of the folders in your C:, but I doubt you'll be able to find them.

And yeah, Windows was reinstalled.

try getting in to the admin account by hitting f8 lots during start up. should get a list of start up options enter the number for safe mode. that will begin to load so you select the admin account which should have complete access to all files so you could recreate you account and then dump your lost files into it.

short answer that just came to me. if you know the name of one of "your" files us the search function to find its location.that should give you a location for all you files

Well, that's what I assumed at first, but it's still taking file space on my computer, so they've got to be somewhere. That and some of the programs that are still there were only on my username, and yet they're still here.

The F8 thing didn't work. Maybe it's a different button on my computer? I can try other ones. I've tried the search function thing before as well, nothing showed up.

If they're still here, they're probably hidden. If they're gone I have no clue why it's still taking file space.

Are you positive that it couldn't be something else (like Program Files or system restore points) that is taking up the space?

Bear in mind that my last post only applies if you stored your pictures, videos, etc. in My Documents, one of its sub folders like My Pictures or on the Desktop. I'm not positive, but it also may apply if you stored them in C: or a subfolder of C:.

There isn't any reason they would have become hidden but you could try searching like namelessfengir said and be sure to check the "Include hidden folders and subfolders" check box.

By any chance is there an active account on the machine with the same name as your old account that was created after Windows was reinstalled, ie. with the same username?

Yes, because my files were taking up a huge (and I mean huge because I have a habit of saving everything.) chuck of the computer, and I think there was about 47GB left before, and now there's like 57GB, and I know my username took way more than 10GB. My videos folder was bigger than that. xD If the system restore points were added afterward, then maybe. But they take alot of room if that's the case.

I stored everything in folders that I had on my desktop, so...

I'll try the search thing again though. (Annnd...Didn't seem to work.)

No, it was originally called Sarah, but when it restarted there weren't any usernames. My mom's files are still there, but her username is gone. I did change this current one to Sarah for like two seconds and then changed it again, but that was after I noticed the files were missing. Thing I found interesting was that this new one is using the picture I had for my account, and mine was the admin one, so I guess some of the stuff carried over. Just not my files. xD

When you turn on your computer, you should be able to press delete and have it go into the BIOS. In the BIOS, you probably have a "Boot" section, which probably has a "Boot menu" option.

If you set the computer to always display the boot menu, then you will be able to see if there's a duplicate installation of XP (since reinstalling it installs it parallel to the previous install by default, not over the top) and do various other things like boot into safe mode, etc. You most likely won't be able to find anything in safe mode that you can't find in normal mode, but it's worth a try.

If it does turn out that you have two installations of XP then boot each one separately and see if you can find anything different in either (though this is also unlikely).

Failing that I can't think of anything other than to scour the drive for the files.

Are you sure it's delete? It doesn't work when I try it. There is a button for boot menu are the bottom when it starts loading, but it doesn't seem to do what you say it does. But then, I don't really know what it's supposed to look like, I've never used it before... I can't find a safe mode or anything.

I'm thinking it might be better just taking it to someone who knows more about computers than I do, because I admit to being very bad at this. If they can't find it, then I don't know what. I need my file space back though. xD

Thanks for trying to help me though, I really appreciate it.

bios is the settings that control your board (harddrive processor, graphics)
if you are using a dell i think you need to be hitting f12 right at the start.
you don't want to really touch anything in there but just look around and see what the settings are at.

but yeah it cant hurt to have it checked if you can figure it out yourself

goddamn it just remembered you can set the boot options using the properties on the my computer right click

right click on my computer select properties hit the advanced tap then in the starup and recovery section hit settings the first option to change is default operating system its a drop down menu if there is more then one windows os on there it will be listed. (i cant believe i didn't think of this sooner.... for a at school we were running boxes with two OS's and had to switch constantly )

so see what the shows you

[q=namelessfengir]right click on my computer select properties hit the advanced tap then in the starup and recovery section hit settings the first option to change is default operating system its a drop down menu if there is more then one windows os on there it will be listed. (i cant believe i didn't think of this sooner.... for a at school we were running boxes with two OS's and had to switch constantly )[/q]
That only displays what is contained in your boot.ini file, which the Windows bootloader NTLDR needs to reference every time the computer starts. If there were any more entries in that file then they should be displayed on boot.

This is what your boot.ini file should look similar to:

Code:

---

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

---

You should check your C:\boot.ini file for any more lines under the [operating systems] heading. More than one line = more than one operating system.

Also, check C: for the Windows folder. Do you see any others named WINDOWS.1, WINDOWS.2, etc.?

I'm using an HP computer, not a Dell, so...

Yeah, I looked and there's only one line, and I only have WINDOWS here, so I guess there's no second one. All things seem to point that they're gone, but the space is still being used. I don't really understand that at all.

download a program such as windirstat and see if you can find the space taken up in other folders.

Try running a search. If you're using Windows XP, then in any regular folder, a search function should be available from the tool bar at the top of the window.

Ah, windirstat seems to say that much less of the space is being used, so I guess My Computer is wrong. That or they are there just way in the back and I'll never find them again, but I doubt it, as I don't know how that could happen. Gah, oh well. I can get most of the files back if I really want them, but I miss all the photoshop work and pictures I had.

Well, thanks anyway guys!