Guest SantiagoErvin Posted August 12, 2007 Posted August 12, 2007 I own a SONY VAIO desktop. Pentium 4 about 5 yrs old. It is a great computer. When it was new the XP software crashed. I used the restore CD and it only restored XP, not any of the software it comes with. five days ago, when I turned on my computer it asked for an administrator's password, I never set one. It would not let me log in. So about 1 hr. ago I tried the restore CD again and this time it erased all my filed on the C partition, it did not touch or change the D partition. I need to recover the files from that C partition. Is there any way to undo the restoration? Is there anyway to recover the old settings. I do not think it was hacked or hit by a virus (I am the only user of the system, I had Norton Corporate running, I am invisible on the net, and my system in not on a network). My brother in law is an IT tech at a local company, I can ask him for help if I cannot perform your instructions. Please help. Thanks for your reply and assistance.
Guest Pegasus \(MVP\) Posted August 12, 2007 Posted August 12, 2007 Re: XP Login Problem "SantiagoErvin" <SantiagoErvin@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:2DF03D51-DE26-444E-816A-F1CD00D8303F@microsoft.com... >I own a SONY VAIO desktop. Pentium 4 about 5 yrs old. It is a great > computer. When it was new the XP software crashed. I used the restore CD > and it only restored XP, not any of the software it comes with. > > five days ago, when I turned on my computer it asked for an > administrator's > password, I never set one. It would not let me log in. So about 1 hr. > ago > I tried the restore CD again and this time it erased all my filed on the C > partition, it did not touch or change the D partition. I need to recover > the > files from that C partition. Is there any way to undo the restoration? > Is > there anyway to recover the old settings. I do not think it was hacked or > hit by a virus (I am the only user of the system, I had Norton Corporate > running, I am invisible on the net, and my system in not on a network). > My > brother in law is an IT tech at a local company, I can ask him for help if > I > cannot perform your instructions. > > Please help. > > Thanks for your reply and assistance. > Have a look at the folder "C:\Documents and Settings". What folders can you see in there? If you cannot see a folder that corresponds to your previous login name then the restore CD you used was of a type that is totally destructive. Your chances of recovering any files are very slim - ask a service that specialises on data recovery to assist you. To put your computing activities on a more robust foundation you should adopt the following principles in future: a) Accounts. How many sets of keys do you have for your car? More than one? Why? How many admin accounts do you have for Windows? Just the one? Why? b) Passwords. Every account has a password, even if it is a blank. Make a note of them on a sheet of paper that you keep in a safe place. c) Backups. Important files must reside on at least two independent media. They must be backed up regularly, e.g. weekly, and most certainly before a major change such as a repair effort. A 2.5" disk in an external USB case is a low-cost but excellent backup medium. You must keep it well away from your laptop most of the time. d) Backup Check. Check your backups immediately after setting up the backup scheme, then twice each year. We hear lots of sob stories about backups that failed to deliver when the crunch comes.
Guest Uncle Grumpy Posted August 12, 2007 Posted August 12, 2007 Re: XP Login Problem SantiagoErvin <SantiagoErvin@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: >I own a SONY VAIO desktop. Pentium 4 about 5 yrs old. It is a great >computer. When it was new the XP software crashed. I used the restore CD >and it only restored XP, not any of the software it comes with. Doesn't sound right to me. Using such a disk almost always returns the system to the same configuration it was in when you bought it... maybe you had very little new items on the drive at the time so you didn't notice they were overwritten? > >five days ago, when I turned on my computer it asked for an administrator's >password, I never set one. It would not let me log in. So about 1 hr. ago >I tried the restore CD again and this time it erased all my filed on the C >partition, it did not touch or change the D partition. I need to recover the >files from that C partition. Can't be done. If you had merely formatted the partition, then there would have been a way to recover it, but lacking any backup, you're stuck.
Guest Ron Badour Posted August 12, 2007 Posted August 12, 2007 Re: XP Login Problem Regarding the files on C: drive. Do not use the PC until such time that the files are recovered or else you take the chance of overwriting them. You will need recovery software that can recover files from a formatted partition. There are several available models--this one works great: http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/ I would hook the problem drive into another PC that has the recovery program installed on it and then recover the files to that PC. Once the recovery is complete, you can go ahead and restore XP to the problem PC. -- Regards Ron Badour MS MVP 1997 - 2007 "SantiagoErvin" <SantiagoErvin@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:2DF03D51-DE26-444E-816A-F1CD00D8303F@microsoft.com... >I own a SONY VAIO desktop. Pentium 4 about 5 yrs old. It is a great > computer. When it was new the XP software crashed. I used the restore CD > and it only restored XP, not any of the software it comes with. > > five days ago, when I turned on my computer it asked for an > administrator's > password, I never set one. It would not let me log in. So about 1 hr. > ago > I tried the restore CD again and this time it erased all my filed on the C > partition, it did not touch or change the D partition. I need to recover > the > files from that C partition. Is there any way to undo the restoration? > Is > there anyway to recover the old settings. I do not think it was hacked or > hit by a virus (I am the only user of the system, I had Norton Corporate > running, I am invisible on the net, and my system in not on a network). > My > brother in law is an IT tech at a local company, I can ask him for help if > I > cannot perform your instructions. > > Please help. > > Thanks for your reply and assistance. >
Guest mark.d.mars@gmail.com Posted August 14, 2007 Posted August 14, 2007 Re: XP Login Problem To recover your data and partition you can take the help of Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Software a file and partition recovery utility it helps to recover data from formatted hard drive or data lost occur due to software malfunction, viruses or even sabotage. What you can do, just download the demo version of this partition recovery utility from http://www.stellarinfo.com/partition-recovery.htm , scan your hard drive by attaching as a slave and running the recovery software on different machine. Scan result will show you the preview of your lost data. If you can see your data through demo then can save them by getting the full version.
Guest Malke Posted August 14, 2007 Posted August 14, 2007 Re: XP Login Problem mark.d.mars@gmail.com wrote: spammer Malke -- Elephant Boy Computers http://www.elephantboycomputers.com "Don't Panic!" MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
Recommended Posts