Im so lost. I have three different profiles on my dell laptop. I turned on my computer yesterday and my main profile was there but everything inside was completely deleted, gone just disappeared. I tried to do a system restore to a previous date and it didn't bring nothing back. Now it wont even let me do another restore. Im running on windows xp home edition. I have no idea what to do or how i can get that information back. i have been crying ever since. the things stored on that profile are very important to me. Someone please help me!!!!

Cheri,
Ca

Cheri I am sorry you have been crying over files did you ever back anything up? Now listen your saying only one profile is messed up and you can't log in. No worries log in on another user with access such as with administrator rights.

1. Double Click My Computer
2. Go to the local drive in your case probably the C Drive.
3. Once your there go to Documents and Settings
4. Open the user with the broken profile.
5. Now if you personal files were on the desktop go to the Desktop folder and everything inside of it, is on the broken profiles desktop.
6. My Documents is also there everything is there grab it and transfer it to your new profile of temp profile and seriously do a full backup.

Those are my two cents.

I tried that as well, it's completely gone. I have done some backing up but not much. I don't think I will make that mistake again. I feel so stupid, that was basically my life's work and now its just gone. I heard I can do like a data recovery thing but so far every place I have found costs a lot of money. Any more ideas would be greatly appreciated!
I also want to say thank you for responding.

Cheri

System restore only restores windows system file anyway ,not files you created like documents and stuff

I believe system restore is the only type of restore that not only "tries" to restore the system but, also recovers doc you have created but, this all depends on the time line.

Cheri probably best if you look for software that recoverys data but, don't do too much writing to the hard drive or you won't have a chance why didn't you backup anything?

Thank you for your guys help anyway! I guess I will just have to pay the big bucks to try and get those files back. I am not sure why I didn't back nothing up. Never thought about it. But I have REALLY learned my lesson and wont let this happen again. Although nothing was fixed, I want to thank you guys for trying to help me and for just being here. This is a great site!

Cheri

Cheri what state you living in take it to your local shop if you want to pay money and it's not the big bucks data recovery might be like $50 depends on what store.

I live in Cali, everything here is expensive! Laugh! I will check it out. Thanks again.

Cheri