XP SP3 Disaster ! Help !!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steve
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Steve

Both my computers haveWindows XP Pro on them.

This morning they both decided to auto update to SP3, and it seemed to
go OK on both computers.

Both have Master / Slave IDE drives.

On one computer everything is OK... on the slave drive everything is
fine, I store programs, videos and some mp3's that I have converted on
it, but it only a small drive (80GB), so as far as videos & mp3's are
concerned it is mainly (but not wholely) work in progress !

On the other computer ... TOTAL DISASTER !

Where there was about 6 GB of home movies, my entire CD collection
into mp3's (took ages and ages to do !), word documents etc. etc. and
also programs that were installed there .... ALL COMPLETELY GONE !!!!!

When I click on properties there is only 188 MB (yes, MB not GB !!!)
All the folders are there, BUT EVERY FOLDER IS EMPTY... even the .exe
files for programs and text files HAVE GONE !!!!

Please help !!! .. or attempt an explaination .. it was all there
before the upgrade !

If I "Roll Back" before the upgrade will they re-appear ?
Please don't say I should have backed up ... I know that ... but it is
a new HD (2 months old) ...... and I didn't expect this to happen !

Thanks in Advance,

Steve
 
the mft, master file
table probably became
corrupted.

that is why it is important
to run chkdsk on a regular
basis to ensure that the
mft reconciles with the
file system.

at this point it is unclear
if you had been operating
the system with a corrupted
mft.

if so, then files created on
your disk after the mft became
corrupted may not be recoverable
if you run chkdsk.

on the other hand, files created
on the disk before the mft became
corrupted will likely be restored
without problems.
 
| Both my computers haveWindows XP Pro on them.
|
| This morning they both decided to auto update to SP3, and it seemed to
| go OK on both computers.
|
| Both have Master / Slave IDE drives.
|
| On one computer everything is OK... on the slave drive everything is
| fine, I store programs, videos and some mp3's that I have converted on
| it, but it only a small drive (80GB), so as far as videos & mp3's are
| concerned it is mainly (but not wholely) work in progress !
|
| On the other computer ... TOTAL DISASTER !
|
| Where there was about 6 GB of home movies, my entire CD collection
| into mp3's (took ages and ages to do !), word documents etc. etc. and
| also programs that were installed there .... ALL COMPLETELY GONE !!!!!
|
| When I click on properties there is only 188 MB (yes, MB not GB !!!)
| All the folders are there, BUT EVERY FOLDER IS EMPTY... even the .exe
| files for programs and text files HAVE GONE !!!!
|
| Please help !!! .. or attempt an explaination .. it was all there
| before the upgrade !
|
| If I "Roll Back" before the upgrade will they re-appear ?
| Please don't say I should have backed up ... I know that ... but it is
| a new HD (2 months old) ...... and I didn't expect this to happen !
|
| Thanks in Advance,
|
| Steve

Sorry but no chance that the system restore will bring back your personal data.
That is not the function of the System Restore. If however you had a program like "Go Back", then
yes.
This is why we "preach" Backup - Backup - Backup.
If you don't use the disks affected until you get a file recovery program, there is a slim chance
that the data can be recovered by a file restoration program. If you continue to use, or look at,
the affected disks, the % chance of recovering files decreases with every mouse click.
 
I had a problem where one computer took SP3 just fine (my old one) but the
other one (my new one) blue-screened after installing SP3 and wouldn't even
boot up in Safe Mode.

I did a Repair Install of WindowsXP Pro and that worked fine, except I had
to install IE7 separately afterwards because the IE6 it came with stopped
working after the Repair Install (I had to download the installation file
onto my old computer then copy that file to my new computer and install IE7).

After that it worked ok except now it's stopped accepting Windows Updates. I
have a separate thread where some folks here gave me some advice I need to
try.

I don't know whether a Repair Install will help you given the notes here but
if you've really lost everything wrt accessing it anyway, then it might be
worth a try unless someone here can help you repair your drive some other way.

Best to you,
Robert
 
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