Secondary hard drive's data lost, please help me!

[Hship]

Hi,

 

I have Windows XP, SP3 on desktop. I just moved my computer back home after visiting family. I got home and connected everything again.

 

When I turned my pc on, a windows .dll file was missing on the c drive and I had to boot with the windows disk.

 

After booting I looked in my d drive and found almost all my files missing. I ran TuneUp Undelete and it found more than 20 000 files (it can only handle 20 000) in a good condition.

 

What caused this, a virus or a bump during the move (my e drive has no errors (partition on the same hdd as the c drive))?

 

What should I do and in what order? Virus scan, disk check or restore?

 

When I restore, can I do it on the same drive without risking the files not included in TuneUp Undelete's 20 000 files, or rather on a external drive?

 

Is there a different program that I should use to restore that will work better?

 

Also, if I restore, will the files be in the same directory as it originally was or would I have to sort all of it?

 

Please help.

 

Thanks,

Hship

[RandyL]

So many questions.

 

Missing files on bootup usually indicate a corrupt program or hard drive. What was the missing dll file?

 

C and D drive. Is this a single hard drive that is partitioned or two seperate hard drives?

 

I'm not familiar with TuneUp Undelete nor do I understand why you are using it and how you are using it. 20,000 files is a huge amount if you are trying to recover missing saved files. If your drive is corrupt then saved files may be lost unless you take drastic and sometimes expensive steps. Undeleting doesn't seem to fit the bill here. What did it find on each particular drive?

 

Then you mention drive E which is a partition. What exactly is drive C, D and E? Is one of these a recovery partition?

 

 

Are you talking about doing a Windows System Restore or restoring/recovering your computer back to factory settings which is a reinstallation?

 

Since it seems you can boot into Windows the best thing you can do for now is backup all your saved files, bookmarks, emails, etc. to a media you can trust such as CD,DVD or a known working external drive.

 

After that and more clarification the next things to try depend on your answers. And yes a move may have damaged your drive but that's not my first guess since you can boot.