The data could also be backed up on a seperate hard drive in the computer which
could only be used for backup purposes.

But for bigger disasters - MoBo failure, fire, deadly virus, worm, a separate hard drive in the same computer will be as useful as dental floss in a beer-drinking contest.

lol, reminds me of the office fire that destroyed the computer and the secretary purse,no problem with lost data said the secretary i make backups to floppies everyday ,where are they said the boss ,answer was ! in my purse !

Lol, that's jokes, u know u shuldn't laugh (at other's misfortunes), but u can't help it!

Yeah.. it's all relative to the security you desire. RAID1 is just great, lessn someone nicks the whole box, or lightning stikes [it does]. External USB drive, plugged in just for backups, otherwise kept in a fireproof, concrete lined, dropsafe under the office floor.
Sure.

After deleting a profile in Windows XP / 2000 the only way to recover the files is by use of a undelete software, that will need to purchased or maybe gotten seperatly. I don't know of any free software that works well with NTFS. I have used with great success a program called EASUS http://www.easeus.com/

But it might be to late already. The more things that have been written to the Hard Drive since the files were deleted, the greater the chances are they are overwritten, and can never be recovered. In fact if you have performed such a thing as Defrag, it is probably impossible to recover anything at this point. System Restore may have caused the same problem.

The key is, once you realize important files have been deleted, turn off the computer right away. Take the Hard Disk out and install it as a secondary drive in another computer that runs XP or whatever already. Then install the undelete software on this computer, and try to recover the files.

Of course as many people have previously stated, backups are a good idea. And unfortuantly I don't think Windows XP or 2000 come with good backup software installled..
I could be wrong

may admin can help!
send a mail to admin

What will the admin be able to do that we have not already suggested? Wave a wand and the data will appear??

My policy is to backup to CD's or DVD's. I use nero and the software that comes with it, you could use Ghost, or Drive Image, or any number of CD burning software. It depends on what you are comfortable with using. I have 2 hard drives in my system, the C drive I do not back up, as that is just the windows software and the patches that you pull down, along with office and other standard software. All my data is on the second hard drive, and that is the drive that I back up as often as I need to. Sometimes once a week, sometimes more, depends on how much my files change.