Today I installed XP SP3. After installing it asked me to reboot which I did. The computer would not reboot except in safe mode. I tried several times to GET it to reboot normally, but it wouldn't. I tried one more time and hit the F10 key while rebooting to get assistance from Compaq. It asked me to do a restore and I did. Whoops! It did restore, however it came back just like a new computer with nothing on it except the basics. Upon investigation, some PROGRAMS I had downloaded were still there, but many lost. The worst thing was I lost all my items and downloads in MY Documents, all my favorites,  as well as the other person's who also uses this computer. Is there a WAY to recover those items as there are some very important items in those files.  Probably not, except for high priced recovery services.When you hit F10, you accessed Compaq's recovery partition. By continuing your action, you returned your computer to its original state. All data lost.
Little hope, but try this: http://www.recuva.com/
Warning! It'll take a while to run it.Oh, and think about developing a backup ROUTINE!!!!!!!The only thing I could think of is to use a recovery program (which might not recover every thing or anything for that matter). but is worth a try. just search google for some free recovery tool's but watch out some of them ar only free TRIALS which let u recover someany then stop working till you buy the full copy.

but try the one that was said in a previous post ^^^^.

and good luck