Solve : Retrieving files after system restore?

1.	Solve : Retrieving files after system restore?
Answer» About a month ago I had to do a system restore because my computer was rebooting on startup. Computer is working fine now but I LOST some data that was on the desktop and the my documents folder. (I had assumed that since system restore said it protected data the my documents folder and desktop would have been safest since those were the default locations for saving things by software, but hey, that's what I get for breaking my rule to always read the manual) So there's two things I'd like to fix. First I'd like to get the contents of the my documents folder back if possible, though to be honest I've already written these off as lost so no big deal here. Secondly and more importantly, I had about 50 gigs of files that were on the desktop waiting to be backed up and archived on DVDs. While I don't care that much about whether or not I retrieve these (again, I've already written them off as lost), when checking for free space on my hard drive it says about 50 gigs more is taken up then I can find elsewhere on the computer. Thus I'm assuming that it was the files that were STASHED on the desktop. What is the easiest method of either retrieving these files, or getting my computer to acknowledge that they're gone so I can get my 50 gigs back? And by the way I'm using WINDOWS XP. Quote I had about 50 gigs of files that were on the desktop Was it a shortcut to some folder, or...?No it wasn't a shortcut. I had a bunch of files in a single directory that I wanted to archive so before archiving them I created several folders on my desktop so I could ORGANIZE them by simply dragging the files to the new folders on my desktop. The computer crash that caused me to do the system restore occurred before I was done backing up these files so they were all still in the folders on my desktop which now no longer appear to be listed on my computer. I have already tried searching for the files, no results are returned and I have included hidden files in these searches. http://www.recuva.com Before you spend any amout of time with that, wait for Broni's opinion of the idea. If nothing else, at least it is free. It's worth to try...Neat program, but unfortunately it wasn't able to solve the problem. That's strange because whenever I restore, my documents remain. What about trying the 'undo my last restoration' option within restore? I don't know if a month ago will be too far back, but it can't hurt to try (just get a restore failed message). If you can do it & the documents reappear, you could back them up externally then REVERT back to your current state. Create a new restore point, then backup all recently created documents (the ones you have made since the last restoration) just incase. Then try 'undo my last restoration' within restore. If your missing files are there, great. Revert back to the new restore point you just created either way... Good luck!Quote from: bf1453 on March 02, 2008, 08:52:34 AM when checking for free space on my hard drive it says about 50 gigs more is taken up then I can find elsewhere on the computer. Thus I'm assuming that it was the files that were stashed on the desktop. What is the easiest method of either retrieving these files, or getting my computer to acknowledge that they're gone so I can get my 50 gigs back? Could be an indication that the files are stored within restore?

Answer»

About a month ago I had to do a system restore because my computer was rebooting on startup. Computer is working fine now but I LOST some data that was on the desktop and the my documents folder. (I had assumed that since system restore said it protected data the my documents folder and desktop would have been safest since those were the default locations for saving things by software, but hey, that's what I get for breaking my rule to always read the manual)

So there's two things I'd like to fix. First I'd like to get the contents of the my documents folder back if possible, though to be honest I've already written these off as lost so no big deal here.

Secondly and more importantly, I had about 50 gigs of files that were on the desktop waiting to be backed up and archived on DVDs. While I don't care that much about whether or not I retrieve these (again, I've already written them off as lost), when checking for free space on my hard drive it says about 50 gigs more is taken up then I can find elsewhere on the computer. Thus I'm assuming that it was the files that were STASHED on the desktop. What is the easiest method of either retrieving these files, or getting my computer to acknowledge that they're gone so I can get my 50 gigs back?

And by the way I'm using WINDOWS XP. Quote

I had about 50 gigs of files that were on the desktop

Was it a shortcut to some folder, or...?No it wasn't a shortcut. I had a bunch of files in a single directory that I wanted to archive so before archiving them I created several folders on my desktop so I could ORGANIZE them by simply dragging the files to the new folders on my desktop. The computer crash that caused me to do the system restore occurred before I was done backing up these files so they were all still in the folders on my desktop which now no longer appear to be listed on my computer. I have already tried searching for the files, no results are returned and I have included hidden files in these searches. http://www.recuva.com

Before you spend any amout of time with that, wait for Broni's opinion of the idea.

If nothing else, at least it is free. It's worth to try...Neat program, but unfortunately it wasn't able to solve the problem. That's strange because whenever I restore, my documents remain.

What about trying the 'undo my last restoration' option within restore?

I don't know if a month ago will be too far back, but it can't hurt to try (just get a restore failed message).

If you can do it & the documents reappear, you could back them up externally then REVERT back to your current state.

Create a new restore point, then backup all recently created documents (the ones you have made since the last restoration) just incase.

Then try 'undo my last restoration' within restore.

If your missing files are there, great.

Revert back to the new restore point you just created either way...

Good luck!Quote from: bf1453 on March 02, 2008, 08:52:34 AM

when checking for free space on my hard drive it says about 50 gigs more is taken up then I can find elsewhere on the computer. Thus I'm assuming that it was the files that were stashed on the desktop. What is the easiest method of either retrieving these files, or getting my computer to acknowledge that they're gone so I can get my 50 gigs back?

Could be an indication that the files are stored within restore?

Solve : Retrieving files after system restore?

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