Colin

Rick,

Remember when we were at Darths place at the last get together and I asked about reinstalling XP? Well FYI, the pro version WILL overwrite all the contents of the My Docs folder! So yes, the entire HD with all my pics from all the events, not to mention quite a lot of documents are lost. Sadly my last full back up of that drive was over a year ago. Once I realized the extent of the damage I removed the HD and did not install anything else, hoping to not overwrite any new sectors. I've been meaning to ask, do you have any data recovery programs?

rstark

Not sure if Norton Systemworks can do this especially if you had to re-install XP. The installation alone would probably wipe out most of your data files, so you're probably SOL. Why'd you go with XP Pro and not Win2k Pro?

Colin

Well not sure really, I guess since XP is newer and 2000 uses the same (right) kernal I just went with XP. I was hoping that since I was reinstalling XP over a 1 month old version it would add it to the end of the written part of the disc (or does NTFS work differently). I did not choose the "re-format" option when reinstalling. If this is so, then the data should still be there. Systemworks does not have a data recovery modual, only the unerase which is different. We are surmising that since this is the Pro version vs. the Home version the reinstallation overwrote the data files since in a network application the data files would not normally be on the local drive, but rather on the server. Cnet has several shareware data recovery programs but I was wondering if you (or someone you know) has one they know works well?

rstark

I don't know why XP would overwrite the Document and Settings folder since Win2k doesn't. If you are re-installing an operating system, it erases the original system files which in turn becomes free space, then copies the new files over (using a lot of temp space for storage too). Since you've re-installed the operating system, it's highly likely that you've lost most of your data. The pro and home version of XP should not be much different since they use the same kernal and the pro version only contains added features.

Regardless, the pro version and Win2k pro does not assume you are storing files on a network share, they both default to the C drive in the documents and setting folder where the profile is stored. I don't have any data recovery utilities so your best bet is to find whatever's out there. Just make sure it works with NTFS or whatever file system you used on your drive.

rstark

Colin, I split this thread from the other one to keep it on track.

rstark

Not that this is going to help, but I did read a document from Microsoft that deleting existing ID's and profiles is a new feature when you re-install XP. Keep that in mind for future re-installs.

rstark

Colin, what kind of M/B, processor speed and ram did you end up getting?