Lost files or corrupt file system? Please help

[Guest]

I'm running Windows XP home edition and following a download from Microsoft
(security update) my operating system would not boot up.

I attempted to recover the operating system after booting off the Windows XP
cd, however this only resulted in a blank screen following a restart.

Finally, I reformatted the C: drive and reinstalled XP. Afterward, I
checked my other partition (D where my data files were located and my
entire file hierarchy was intact (folders, subfolders, icons) but every file
had 0 Kb of memory associated with it.

I've tried at least 4-5 different recovery tools and they seem to recover
files but they have names such as "A0001123.mcd", etc. Has my file system
been corrupted and is there anything I can do to recover my files?

 

[GreenieLeBrun]

I'm running Windows XP home edition and following a download from Microsoft
(security update) my operating system would not boot up.

I attempted to recover the operating system after booting off the Windows XP
cd, however this only resulted in a blank screen following a restart.

Finally, I reformatted the C: drive and reinstalled XP. Afterward, I
checked my other partition (D where my data files were located and my
entire file hierarchy was intact (folders, subfolders, icons) but every file
had 0 Kb of memory associated with it.

I've tried at least 4-5 different recovery tools and they seem to recover
files but they have names such as "A0001123.mcd", etc. Has my file system
been corrupted and is there anything I can do to recover my files?

This link may be of help :-

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the advice, but I am logged on as the administrator and so there
don't seem to be any security or permissions issues.

I'm open for any other advice though.