[stifler]

hi guys im a new member and i really need help
im in a desperate situation.
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basically, i lost all the files after i deleted some small files in the windows folder on my 200gb hard disk,
but i used this recovery tool to recover all the files, (even though the hard disk was formatted) and saved them onto a brand new 250gb hard disk.

then i went on to install a fresh copy of xp onto the first 200gb hard disk, so im running windows now, but without all my files in the correct place.

now the problem is i have the choice of trying to fix the windows folder on the 250gb drive but idont know how as microsoft doesnt recognise the xp OS that was installed on it, because i had deleted some important files from the windows folder.


or i can copy all my files from the 250gb hard disk to the newly installed 200gb hard disk with xp on it.
only problem is its easy copying the PROGRAM FILES FOLDER and the DOCUMENTS & SETTINGS FOLDER.
but im worried if i copy over the windows folder, then i may mess things up again.
and when i am copying files over using copy and paste, it is taking ages. i need to copy around 100gb of files over, and i left my computer on all night, but its only transferred like 4% which is rubbish/ is there any faster way or any other way of doing this.

anyone out there that can help, please do.
i would really appreciate it

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First of all let's deal with the files from the 'Program Files' folder --- you should not copy any of these to the new Windows XP installation by any method because those programs to which the files belong simply won't work properly, if at all. You must re-install all those programs (except the one's built into Windows XP of course) onto the new XP by using their installation discs or by downloading them again, whichever applies.

When you install a program, apart from files being created in several different folders, various entries get written to a special database called the "Registry", without these entries the program won't work. That's why simply copying program files across will not restore a program. You must re-install those programs like you did before this problem occurred.

So do NOT copy anything from the old Program Files or from the old Windows folder -- that will mess up your new XP installation!

Now for the old "Documents and Settings" folder.
If there are any of your own documents on the 'old' drive , they should all be in folder called "My Documents" here 'Documents and Settings->[Account Name]->My Documents. Open that "My Documents" folder and select everything inside it and copy/paste it to the 'My Documents' folder in your new XP installation. DO NOT copy/paste the entire 'Documents and Settings' folder from the old drive -- or again you will mess up your new Windows XP!

If your new XP is working okay, in future DO NOT delete any files from the Windows folder unless instructed to do so by the malware forum when cleaning up from a malware infection. Normally, the only files safe to delete in the Windows folder are at 'C:\Windows\Temp', and only then if they are at least a day old.

Edited by pip22, 15 July 2007 - 10:33 AM.

[pip22]

First of all let's deal with the files from the 'Program Files' folder --- you should not copy any of these to the new Windows XP installation by any method because those programs to which the files belong simply won't work properly, if at all. You must re-install all those programs (except the one's built into Windows XP of course) onto the new XP by using their installation discs or by downloading them again, whichever applies.

When you install a program, apart from files being created in several different folders, various entries get written to a special database called the "Registry", without these entries the program won't work. That's why simply copying program files across will not restore a program. You must re-install those programs like you did before this problem occurred.

So do NOT copy anything from the old Program Files or from the old Windows folder -- that will mess up your new XP installation!

Now for the old "Documents and Settings" folder.
If there are any of your own documents on the 'old' drive , they should all be in folder called "My Documents" here 'Documents and Settings->[Account Name]->My Documents. Open that "My Documents" folder and select everything inside it and copy/paste it to the 'My Documents' folder in your new XP installation. DO NOT copy/paste the entire 'Documents and Settings' folder from the old drive -- or again you will mess up your new Windows XP!

If your new XP is working okay, in future DO NOT delete any files from the Windows folder unless instructed to do so by the malware forum when cleaning up from a malware infection. Normally, the only files safe to delete in the Windows folder are at 'C:\Windows\Temp', and only then if they are at least a day old.

Edited by pip22, 15 July 2007 - 10:33 AM.

[stifler]

hi pip22
thanks for your response.
well i understand what you mean,but i kind of already copied the whole of the DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS folder to the new installation. whoops.
anyways thanks for letting me know, il take that on board.

well this is abit off topic but its bugging me already

see before when i had windowx xp, i had 2 accounts, there was my main account administrator (the name of the account was also Administrator) which i always used.
then there the guest account which was turned off.
so everytime i switched the pc on, i would need to log into my administator account which i was happy with..

now however when i fresh installed win xp, it asked me to create an administrator account, in the middle of the win xp setup which i thought was weird. but after the installation. this step process screen came up, and it asked me to create another account, and i wasnt allowed to call it Administator or Guest?
therefore, now everytime i log in, it logs me in as stifler, as thats the name i chose. i understand the stifler account had admin privledges, but i prefer to have only 1 account, which has the name Administrator.
do u know how i can go about doing this?

Edited by stifler, 15 July 2007 - 11:09 AM.