A few days ago, my ten-year-old computer (running XP) would not boot. I could not even boot in safe mode. I also couldn't back up my files. I was advised to run a system recovery, which would refresh my OS, delete all my programs (returning it to close to factory condition) but keep all my files. I did the recovery successfully, but now I can't find my files. They must still be in the hard drive, as the drive shows that it is almost full (about where I left off). The files must also be in "hiding", as I can right-click on the folders, look at the properties, and the total GB space does not equal the space of the drive. I also can't do a search to find the file names.

Does anyone KNOW how I can recover my files? I'm afraid to reboot my machine because I don't want my files to be DELETED. That's what I really want to preserve. I tried looking for a restore point, but there doesn't seem to be any. Maybe they were deleted.

Can anyone please advise me about how I might recover my files?

I would be very thankful for any information you could give me.

Thanks,
BPLook under disk management (winkey + R "diskmgmt.msc") and see if there is another segment that isn't showing properly. I doubt it's that... so you'd also look under C:\Documents and Settings for ant other user profiles. Other than that, you can just browse around the whole file system and see if you can find anything... you could also do a search of the C:\ drive for a specific file name. If you know just 1 file that has a totally unique name (and you remember it EXACTLY) then you may be able to find it...

however I honestly don't know what KIND of "system recovery" you did... so the files very WELL could be gone. Sorry.

kyle engineerI fear you were advised improperly...
A system restore retains all data and takes the OS back to a previous date...

A factory restore...which is what it sounds like you did wipes the whole HDD and returns the PC back to Day 1 status.