Hi,
Need help here! All of my documents in my external hard drive was gone when I formatted and install a new Window Xp in my primary drive. All of my documents were disappered after I fully install the WinXP. Does anyone know any software that care retrieve back my documents? Thanks a lot!

What were ur documents? You had not put them in MyDocument folder, had u? Were they in hidden or encrypted folders?

Some words documents and mtvs, after I install the windowXP the partition is covered by "Windows" and "Recycler" now.

ur confusing me bad if ur documents were on a separate drive & u did not format it, they should be intact but now u say they are replaced by a windows folder! earlier u said u installed windows on the primary hdd not on the external one.
& u did not answer if ur documents were in MyDocuments folder.

So sorry man, I did formatted and install WinXP in my internal drive, but I've no idea why my external drive was covered by Windows file and my documents were all missing. By the way, all of my documents was in my external drive, it wasn't in my Document folder, and the internal drive was brand new before that. So I was wondering why all my files in my external drive were missing and the windows files were in the external drive. And now I would llike to retrieve all my documents back, but no idea how to do it.
Thanks a lot for replying me.

The answer is simple until i have missed sth. If ur new windows installation is now placed on the drive u used to store ur documents, then it's almost impossible to retrieve them.
Is it possible that u asked setup to format the wrong drive & use for installation?

I don't think so man, because I never try to format my external drive. And now the drive still "using" 70GB space in my external drive. That's mean I still have my documents and mtvs in there, but I can't find those docs back because it's covered by windows folder.

hmm...If you installed Windows using a Windows CD instead of a manufacturer's formatting CD (which sometimes format all partitions and hard disks), it's strange why Windows got installed on your external HD if you told it to install on the internal one.

On your external HD, what folders are listed under Documents and Settings?

Try logging in with Admin account & check if u can view ur files.
While u r there use the Search tool & look for multimedia files (if u have not yet) & make sure "search hidden files" is enabled in Advanced options.
Did u try "show hidden files" on Folder options > View?

Yeah! I did. and I did what u told me to... but still can't find anything yet.

Hi,
Try the following...

XP-Home



Unfortunately, XP Home using NTFS is essentially hard wired for "Simple File
Sharing" at system level.

However, you can set XP Home permissions in Safe Mode. Reboot, and start
hitting F8, a menu should eventually appear and one of the
options is Safe Mode. Select it. Note, it will ask for the administrator's
password. This is not your administrator account, rather it is the
machine's administrator account for which users are asked to create a
password during setup.

If you created no such password, when requested, leave blank and press
enter.
Open Explorer, go to Tools and Folder Options, on the view tab, scroll to
the bottom of the list, if it shows "Enable Simple File Sharing" deselect it
and click apply and ok. If it shows nothing or won't let you make a change,
move on to the next step.

Navigate to the files, right click, select properties, go to the Security
tab, click advanced, go to the Owner tab and select the user that was logged
on when you were refused permission to access the files. Click apply and
ok. Close the properties box, reopen it, click add and type in the name of
the user you just enabled. If you wish to set ownership for everything in
the folder, at the bottom of the Owner tab is the following selection:
"Replace owner on subcontainers and objects," select it as well.

Once complete, you should be able to do what you wish with these files when
you log back on as that user.



XP-Pro



If you have XP Pro, temporarily change the limited account to
administrative. First, go to Windows Explorer, go to Tools, select Folder
Options, go to the View tab and be sure "Use Simple File Sharing" is not
selected. If it is, deselect it and click apply and ok.



If you wish everything in a specific folder to be accessible to a user,
right click the folder, select properties, go to the Security tab, click
Advanced, go to the Owner tab,
select the user you wish to have access, at the bottom of the box, you
should see a check box for "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects,"
place a check in the box and click apply and ok.

The user should now be able to perform necessary functions on files in the
folder even as a limited account. If not, make it an admin account again,
right click the folder, select Properties, go to the Security tab and be
sure the user is listed in the user list. If not, click add and type the
user name in the appropriate box, be sure the user has all the necessary
permissions checked in the permission list below the user list, click apply
and ok.

That should do it and allow whatever access you desire for that folder even
in a limited account.

THanks man! I'm with WinXPPro, but after I did it all of my external hard disk only used 500mb now which contain only windows foler. And I think all of my documents are gone now.... Is it possible to get back my docs now?

Strange again. Winxp takes more than 1 GB.

Can u tell us what folders u have on the drive u asked setup to install windows on? (primary hdd not the external) any folders that relate to a windows installation?

I have Documents and Settings, Program Files, WINDOWS and WUTemp. Thanks buddy!

DOS can not access NTFS by default so it hides all NTFS drives & maps drives to available drive letters again. So if your D: is not NTFS (& is FAT32) it will appear as C: in DOS & the real C: will be hidden.

This COULD be ur case. I don't know if XP bootable CD can access NTFS (have not tried it). If it can not then u have actually formatted ur first FAT32 drive in the sequence when u asked the setup to format C:.
If it is true, then u may be able to retrieve parts of some of the files using recovery software (which i know none)

It makes sense for Text files & some types of videos. Anyone knows any data recovery software?

Is this any use from HERE

What i said about DOS is true but not about XP bootable.
XP bootable CD-rom CAN access NTFS drives.