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Lost everyting

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6 replies

by christopher.vaughan1

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I've really messed up, Ive done a new install of windows xp instead of a repair install and now I've lost everything, As you can proably tell I'm a complete novice. Can I get the files back, is there anything I can do, any help will be very much appreciated

6 replies

by cmiller5400

How did you do the install? Did you wipe the partition or just install XP to another folder on the existing drive?

by christopher.vaughan1

I booted from the windows xp oem cd I have and was expecting to be given a chose as to what type of install I wanted to do but either I wasn't or I missed it. Then I saw a window telling me that the disk was being formatted and it was to late to stop.

by cmiller5400

An XP OEM CD will not do what you said unless it has been modified. Was it a system restore CD by chance? Any way, if it did format the drive, it probably overwrote and corrupted most of the data. I hope you had backups. If you really need the data, and are willing to part with several thousand USD, there are recovery firms that can do this; one is http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/

EDIT: Spelling

by l-mo

Is there no chance to use one of the many Ultimate Boot CD's that are out there?

Assuming the disk wasn't fully formatted.

by cmiller5400

It is possible that ubcd4win could help, but if the system was re-imaged, or even the sectors where the data was written, it would require specialized programs to recover the data if you could recover it at all.

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