Anwser to restoring files after PC recovery

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djsmurf Posts 98 Registration date Friday January 9, 2009 Status Member Last seen April 30, 2011 - Jan 19, 2009 at 12:16 PM
 sidevalvebob - Feb 27, 2009 at 06:32 PM
Hello, I have seen this all over and am working on offering my help as it seems lots of us do it and want to die after we do. This works well on compaq computers xp/vista however im sure it can be efficitive with most computers running windows os

How to restore after pc recovery

I recomend printing this before moving your computer into safe mode.

--""Before you complete the process""

Click START

Click MY Computer

Double click the main hard drive (C:)

Click DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS

--mouse over all the user in this folder, the one that shows empty, and once clicked on does not give you premission to open is the folder you want to use when completing the process. This should be the user (user name) you had before the restore, is may have a .PC(with numbers behind it)

--write down and remember this folder name


1. Shut down the computer.

2. Turn the power on, and when the blue HP or Compaq screen appears, press F8 to display the Windows Advanced Options Menu .

3.Use the arrow keys to move up to Safe Mode and press Enter .

4.Press Enter on Microsoft Windows Whistler Personal or Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition .

5.Click Administrator and, enter your password (if necessary) or press Enter .

6.A window will appear to prompt for confirmation to keep operating in Safe Mode .

7.Click Yes .

8.Click Start and My Computer . Then, double-click the main hard drive ( C: ) and Documents and Settings .

9.Right-click the folder name of the user account and click Properties . (This is the folder you found and wrote down before starting this process)

10.Click Security .

11.Click Advanced . On the Owner tab,(third tab over) click the checkbox to select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects option.

12. Click Apply .

13.Click Yes to the security message.

14.Click OK .

15.Click OK again.(you should start to see the files being transferred that your trying to access)

--Restart your computer in normal operation.

--Login to your user name

--make a new folder on your desktop and name it "BINGO", open that folder and create a folder named "FOUND IT"

click START

click MY COMPUTER

Double click the main hard drive (C:)

click DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS

--from here go to any user that does not contain adminstrator, or all users in the file name

(if you don't find the folder your looking for exit out of that user and choose another until you find the Folder)

--once you open each user

click DESKTOP

--look through the desktop folder, your looking for the folder BINGO open that and you should see the folder FOUND IT, this is the user that you want to copy all your lost files from the old user to.

--Wirte down this user name

Exit back to the DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS folder

--- at this point you should see all the users folders again, however when you click on the user folder you used the process on (the first folder you have written down) that folder will now open.

--From here you need to move your files back from (the first folder you have written down) to your currently operating user name (the second folder you have wirtten down)

--you should see all of your desktop, my music, my pics, my movies, (in the first folder you have written down) however until you move these files from the old user to your current user the computer will not always find them in your basic progams(ie.--windows movie maker, media player, ext.)

--with some of the folders it may be easier to move them first to a desktop folder and then reorganise them from there.

This should work you will get your lost docs. back however you may still need to reinstall some progams that you lost. Moving your files back to your new user can be another interesting issue, however you should for now have all your lost info recovered. Feel free to e-mail me or post any questions or if you need more help.
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10 responses

Thanks you so much for saving my life. I erased all my wifes pictures, documents, music, work data, etc. and my life has been hell for the last eight hours. I should have looked at this information first rather than the downloading crap that took up hour of our evening. We ran into a few snags but after playing around with it we are back in the game. Thanks for helping everyone out there.
112
Just like to thank you for your advice regarding restoring files. I had pretty much given up hope of ever recovering my files and pictures out of my computer. the posted instructions worked perfectly. Thanks again your the man.
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adblockfreak Posts 2 Registration date Monday January 26, 2009 Status Member Last seen January 26, 2009
Jan 26, 2009 at 07:03 PM
I am having weird problems including all my "documents and settings" files being lost, so I tried this. Nothing happened after I checked "replace owner" and clicked apply. Shouldn't I see files being transferred?
Here are my other "symptoms" if it helps at all:
-- when logged in as administrator, if I go to Control Panel and go to Administrative Options, it's empty
-- Even as administrator, I don't see any of my files showing up in my main user's folder under Documents and Settings
-- As administrator or as my main user, changing folder options (such as show/hide hidden folders, or show/hide file extensions) doesn't work
-- although My Documents is wiped out, all the contents of Program Files is still there
-- Start Menu is empty except for a couple of basic things that come with Windows
-- Profile is gone; Windows said it couldn't locate it, and it's true because my usual colors and settings are gone

thanks so much for all your posts, they gave me some good ideas, but so far no joy...
21
In the beginning, when I am on this step:
------------
--mouse over all the user in this folder, the one that shows empty, and once clicked on does not give you premission to open is the folder you want to use when completing the process. This should be the user (user name) you had before the restore, is may have a .PC(with numbers behind it)

--write down and remember this folder name
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I have permission to view all of my folders (Administrator, Compaq_Owner, All Users, Default User) and none of them are empty (I installed a few programs today, so I don't know if that has an effect). Which folder should I choose for the first "step"? What about the second? Thanks for any help
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Hi,

I can do everything up to number ten, there is no security to click on?
I have an Asus A600 laptop with wndows XP home edition, I used the discs to recover to the first partition only and have lost all my documents photos etc. Can these be recovered?

Cheers
anders1364
16
Dear DJSmurf, great advice you are giving. I have a similar but different kind of problem. I have Microsoft windows xp. My friend did a partition of hard disk and has been formatted, afterwords i can not find any of my documents or my pictures plus there were three accounts containing the same important stuff. He did this because my computer became attacked by viruses. There's quite alot of sentimental photos of my family and very important documents is there any way I can retrieve them back again. plus before he formatted the disk he also did a system recovery. Please do help me I have become really sad that this has happened. your help will be greatly appreciated Thank you! Jesse.
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djsmurf Posts 98 Registration date Friday January 9, 2009 Status Member Last seen April 30, 2011 19
Feb 15, 2009 at 11:48 AM
Jesse, that is a much different problem, first of all if you can leave the computer off and not use it much do that. There is a chance you might still be able to recover your files but the process may take some time. Message me directly on here as this situtation will requier a different process, and well see what we can do.
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Hi, i let my nephew use the pc and after i went on it all the photos have disappeared from my documents, the folders are their but the pictures inside have vanished???
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I have permission to view all of my folders (Administrator, Compaq_Owner, All Users, Default User) and none of them are empty (I installed a few programs today, so I don't know if that has an effect). Which folder should I choose for the first "step"? What about the second? Thanks for any help
-----
I have the same problem
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djsmurf Posts 98 Registration date Friday January 9, 2009 Status Member Last seen April 30, 2011 19
Feb 15, 2009 at 11:55 AM
Sorry everyone I am currently out of the country so my responses my take a little time, I will try to get back to everyone.

If you are having problems finding the folder to use, remember it was the user name you entered when you did the set-up on windows before the restore, it may be hard to remember for some of you. You can preform the process on any of the folders in my documents, the worst thing that can happen is your computer catches fire......j/k, in which case you have a whole other host of problems to deal with, let me know if anyone else need assistance.
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ade > djsmurf Posts 98 Registration date Friday January 9, 2009 Status Member Last seen April 30, 2011
Feb 26, 2009 at 07:14 AM
Please help none of my files are empty and i can access them all what do i do in the first instance
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It appears my last post didn't go through? I'll repost:

Can anyone help me with the problem I described earlier?
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djsmurf Posts 98 Registration date Friday January 9, 2009 Status Member Last seen April 30, 2011 19
Feb 22, 2009 at 11:35 AM
siouxper,

Your computer may have already written over the information, Follow the process into safe mode but look at each folder be sure premissions are set to (your username)/admins, If you come over a folder the has premissions from anything different remove them and give premissions to your (your username)/admins, If your unsure how to do this let me know and Ill send you the process.
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Anyone have any advice to my previous post?
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