Missing documents after multiple system restores

  • Thread starter Thread starter dnechols
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dnechols

I have a computer with XP that was not setup for user accounts, but rather
only the administrator with no password. I set up a user account with
limited access to allow someone to use my computer while on vacation. During
this process, I set up another user account with administrator rights. When
I returned, I logged in with the new administrator user account and realized
that I could not locate the files that had been stored in the
Administrator\my documents folder.

I tried to reset the password, but was unable to. I attempted several
system restores to get back to a state with only the original administrator
account, but did so without using the undo option after each restore.

The current computer state is one with all user accounts, an administrator
account without a password, all programs operating, but the my document
folders under all accounts only have the sample pictures and no original
files.

Of course there is no backup, I should have used undo after each restore,
and I should not have used the original administrator account to store
documents. That being said, is there anyway to get to my original documents?

Thanks you for any help that you can provide.
Darrell
 
dnechols said:
I have a computer with XP that was not setup for user accounts, but
rather only the administrator with no password. I set up a user
account with limited access to allow someone to use my computer while
on vacation. During this process, I set up another user account with
administrator rights. When I returned, I logged in with the new
administrator user account and realized that I could not locate the
files that had been stored in the Administrator\my documents folder.

I tried to reset the password, but was unable to. I attempted several
system restores to get back to a state with only the original
administrator account, but did so without using the undo option after
each restore.

The current computer state is one with all user accounts, an
administrator account without a password, all programs operating, but
the my document folders under all accounts only have the sample
pictures and no original files.

Of course there is no backup, I should have used undo after each
restore, and I should not have used the original administrator
account to store documents. That being said, is there anyway to get
to my original documents?

Thanks you for any help that you can provide.
Darrell
Click to expand...

Can you see the documents using win Explorer? If not they're probably
gone but that's not a 100% given.

Are you using EFS encryption? If so, and unless the exact account they
were encrypted with still exists, they are gone again.

Are you certain the other user didn't screw up and delete them?

"Of course there is no backup" is extremely stoopid<g>! You may have
just learned a valuable lesson. You not only should have backups but
they should be automated.

Have you searched the whole system for the folder name?
Have you searched the whole system for a filename or part of a
filename?
What should the path to the lost files be? e.g. C:\Documents and
Settings\...\fname.ext and so on. Include the complete path.

HTH,

Twayne`
 
Logon as an administrator and use Explorer to look at all the user profiles
you see under documents and settings and look at the My Documents folder for
each user account shown to see if you can find your documents. Windows
System Restore will not delete existing user documents. If you still can not
find then then use Windows search to search for a known filename or search
for known text in an file to see if that shows you where they are located.

If you still can not find your files then possibly someone who used your
computer in your absence deleted them either intentionally or accidentally.
If that did happen it is possible that they are still [some if not all]
recoverable with software that looks for deleted files that may still exist
if they have not been overwritten by new files created since the files were
deleted. If you are missing very important files I would recommend that you
shut down your computer and take it to someone who knows how to do data
recovery. They will pull your hard drive, clone it in another computer, and
then work off the clone to try and recover your files. You can try the same
yourself if you have such expertise.

Steve

http://www.snapfiles.com/Shareware/system/swdatarecovery.html --- example
of data recovery tools
 
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