Sorry this is a computer geek question not necessarily a electronics repair
type. but I figured this would be the best place to ask with all the
knowledgeable people here....


Ok I was installing a printer driver on a computer (HP pavilion, 450 mhz,
quantum bigfoot hard drive, running XP pro)
and for some reason I got an error and it gave me a blue screen saying ti
couldnt read from the cd and there was an error or something, and then was
checking files and said there were bad files and converted the lost chains
to files. NOW when I rebooted after this error the drive is "empty" meaning
all the windows files and folders are not there. I suspect they were not
deleted but something happened to the drive that they are missing in action.
doing a chkdsk shows the drives capacity and the used and free space. its a
8gb drive and shows a little over 1 gig free.... when I put the drive in
another windows machine as a slave to look at it. the same thing, no folders
or files. there are however 2 folders with file names FOUND.000 and
FOUND.001 I assume these are the lost chains that were converted to files.
so what I ned to know is... what the hell happened, and is there a way to
recover any actual data? I dont care about restoring it to boot windows. I
just need to get documents, and settings for IE and some email client
settings of it. I already set up another computer with XP thats a fresh
install. but I want to recover the important stuff off the old drive so I
can copy them to the new system. is there any hope???? thanks in advance!

It sounds like FAT (file allocation table) is corrupt. The only fix i
know of is to format it and install it again.

The "Found.XXX" (xxx = number) folders are chkdsk data. It sounds like
what happened was that either the printer drivers setup program
malfunctioned or chkdsk (the file check that you said ran, thought
everything was bad and converted it to files. I may be able to help if
you tell me what is in the "Found.XXX" folders. nvic

"Heavy G" wrote in message
. ..
Sorry this is a computer geek question not necessarily a electronics
repair
type. but I figured this would be the best place to ask with all the
knowledgeable people here....


Ok I was installing a printer driver on a computer (HP pavilion, 450 mhz,
quantum bigfoot hard drive, running XP pro)
and for some reason I got an error and it gave me a blue screen saying ti
couldnt read from the cd and there was an error or something, and then was
checking files and said there were bad files and converted the lost chains
to files. NOW when I rebooted after this error the drive is "empty"
meaning
all the windows files and folders are not there. I suspect they were not
deleted but something happened to the drive that they are missing in
action.
doing a chkdsk shows the drives capacity and the used and free space. its
a
8gb drive and shows a little over 1 gig free.... when I put the drive in
another windows machine as a slave to look at it. the same thing, no
folders
or files. there are however 2 folders with file names FOUND.000 and
FOUND.001 I assume these are the lost chains that were converted to files.
so what I ned to know is... what the hell happened, and is there a way to
recover any actual data? I dont care about restoring it to boot windows.
I
just need to get documents, and settings for IE and some email client
settings of it. I already set up another computer with XP thats a fresh
install. but I want to recover the important stuff off the old drive so I
can copy them to the new system. is there any hope???? thanks in advance!



You should be able to recover most of the drive with a data recovery
program, I've had good luck with Norton DiskDoctor but that was years ago.
I've also seen a few demos online that you can try before you buy.

On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 00:13:39 GMT, "Heavy G"
wrote:

Sorry this is a computer geek question not necessarily a electronics repair
type. but I figured this would be the best place to ask with all the
knowledgeable people here....


Easy Recovery or similar might work.

Tom


Ok I was installing a printer driver on a computer (HP pavilion, 450 mhz,
quantum bigfoot hard drive, running XP pro)
and for some reason I got an error and it gave me a blue screen saying ti
couldnt read from the cd and there was an error or something, and then was
checking files and said there were bad files and converted the lost chains
to files. NOW when I rebooted after this error the drive is "empty" meaning
all the windows files and folders are not there. I suspect they were not
deleted but something happened to the drive that they are missing in action.
doing a chkdsk shows the drives capacity and the used and free space. its a
8gb drive and shows a little over 1 gig free.... when I put the drive in
another windows machine as a slave to look at it. the same thing, no folders
or files. there are however 2 folders with file names FOUND.000 and
FOUND.001 I assume these are the lost chains that were converted to files.
so what I ned to know is... what the hell happened, and is there a way to
recover any actual data? I dont care about restoring it to boot windows. I
just need to get documents, and settings for IE and some email client
settings of it. I already set up another computer with XP thats a fresh
install. but I want to recover the important stuff off the old drive so I
can copy them to the new system. is there any hope???? thanks in advance!

"Heavy G" wrote in message
. ..
Sorry this is a computer geek question not necessarily a electronics
repair type. but I figured this would be the best place to ask with all
the knowledgeable people here....


Ok I was installing a printer driver on a computer (HP pavilion, 450 mhz,
quantum bigfoot hard drive, running XP pro)
and for some reason I got an error and it gave me a blue screen saying ti
couldnt read from the cd and there was an error or something, and then was
checking files and said there were bad files and converted the lost chains
to files. NOW when I rebooted after this error the drive is "empty"
meaning all the windows files and folders are not there. I suspect they
were not deleted but something happened to the drive that they are missing
in action. doing a chkdsk shows the drives capacity and the used and free
space. its a 8gb drive and shows a little over 1 gig free.... when I put
the drive in another windows machine as a slave to look at it. the same
thing, no folders or files. there are however 2 folders with file names
FOUND.000 and FOUND.001 I assume these are the lost chains that were
converted to files. so what I ned to know is... what the hell happened,
and is there a way to recover any actual data? I dont care about
restoring it to boot windows. I just need to get documents, and settings
for IE and some email client settings of it. I already set up another
computer with XP thats a fresh install. but I want to recover the
important stuff off the old drive so I can copy them to the new system. is
there any hope???? thanks in advance!

Clone the hdd and then analyze the clone for the data.
Set the defective drive safely aside and do not spin except to clone.

There are many cloning software apps available, some are free.

On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 00:13:39 GMT "Heavy G" wrote:

Ok I was installing a printer driver on a computer (HP pavilion, 450 mhz,
quantum bigfoot hard drive, running XP pro)
and for some reason I got an error and it gave me a blue screen saying ti
couldnt read from the cd and there was an error or something, and then was
checking files and said there were bad files and converted the lost chains
to files. NOW when I rebooted after this error the drive is "empty" meaning
all the windows files and folders are not there. I suspect they were not
deleted but something happened to the drive that they are missing in action.
doing a chkdsk shows the drives capacity and the used and free space. its a
8gb drive and shows a little over 1 gig free.... when I put the drive in
another windows machine as a slave to look at it. the same thing, no folders
or files. there are however 2 folders with file names FOUND.000 and
FOUND.001 I assume these are the lost chains that were converted to files.
so what I ned to know is... what the hell happened, and is there a way to
recover any actual data? I dont care about restoring it to boot windows. I
just need to get documents, and settings for IE and some email client
settings of it. I already set up another computer with XP thats a fresh
install. but I want to recover the important stuff off the old drive so I
can copy them to the new system. is there any hope???? thanks in advance!

Did you run chkdsk within XP?

What OS was on the system that was able to see the 2 FOUND files?

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Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
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