[really fun urgent problem] Invisible files

  • Thread starter Thread starter Molikai
  • Start date Start date
M

Molikai

Okay.
so. My friend's laptop crashed, took down some files, so that i
couldn't start up again. (One of those nice dll's.)
after poking it for a bit, I decided that the simplest course of actio
would just be to reinstall the operating system, with the second repai
option, so it preserved her settings.

What I did not know, however, is that while I was putting in XP pro
she had been running XP home. so I never /got/ the repair option. Bu
the OS went in.
It now offers dual-boot: Home or pro. Both now work. (And I would lik
to remove one of them: First question: *How do I remove the dua
boot?*)

When we first logged in, there was an interesting detail. All he
documents and settings were missing. But that's not the interestin
bit. Selecting all the files on C: came to 8.1 GB or so.
Checking the disk capacity, it showed 31 GB or so in use. her stuff wa
there, we just couldn't see it. Couldn't be found with search.. eek
think I. I downloaded Pandora file retreival software, and today I wen
to have another look at it.

Pandora can see al lher files. It tells me they've not been deleted.
It can see the full file structure, too, although I'm still not sur
/where/ her Music et al is - it may just be showing the config we ha
after the reinstall.
however. Command prompt, or even just opening the window, reports tha
C: Is empty. There is nothing in it.
Funnier.
On the command prompt, if I type 'dir', it tells me there is nothin
there.
I can still type
cd Documents and settings
however, and it enters that directory. which it insists is empty. Yo
get the idea. Search can't find anything, either, now I think on it.
Somehow, windows has become unable to /show/ me where any of the file
on that disk are. I would /love/ to know why.
So my second question: *Why is it doing this, and more importantly, ho
can i make it /stop/, so my friend has all her files - including th
original pictures and music that's invisible - back?
 
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