Member Avatar for kilnman

A relitive was told to delete his corrupt xp profile, he was not told to back up first,,, he says he can not find any of the digital pics he had saved under his old profile, so, has xp just deleted his profles association with the files or deleted the files too, are the files he can not find, gone forever? or are they just hidden somewhere, as he didn't see any warning about files being deleted.
Thanks for any help....Mike

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Short summary and what probably happened: if the profile was deleted from Windows XP the outcome depends on how it was removed. Deleting an account from the Control Panel gives a “Keep files / Delete files” choice — choosing Keep files moves Desktop and My Documents into a folder on the desktop; choosing Delete files removes the profile folder (the local copy under C:\Documents and Settings). Deleting a profile from the User Profiles dialog also removes the profile folder and its registry entries. (vdoc.pub)

Practical first checks (quick, safe, no tools): sign in with an administrator account (not the deleted user), enable viewing hidden and protected files, then inspect C:\Documents and Settings. Look for a folder named exactly like the old user or something like username.MACHINE (Windows sometimes appends the computer or domain). Also look on the administrator’s Desktop for a folder named after the deleted user (that’s where XP puts “kept” files). If those folders are still present you can copy the pictures out immediately. (flylib.com)

If the files aren’t there: stop using the PC immediately (don’t save, don’t install recovery tools to that drive). Stopping writes preserves the chance of recovery. For DIY recovery use read-only/portable tools run from USB and recover to a different disk — two commonly used options are PhotoRec (open source) and Recuva; both explain the “do not write to the same partition” rule in their documentation. If the photos are very important, contact a professional data‑recovery service instead of repeatedly running DIY scans. (ontrack.com)

Quick action checklist:

  1. Do not use the account/PC (avoid overwriting).
  2. Log in as admin and look in C:\Documents and Settings\ and the admin Desktop for a “kept” folder.
  3. If not found, remove the drive (or image it) and run recovery from another system or from a USB-boot tool.
  4. If the drive is an SSD with TRIM enabled, chances fall sharply — consider professional recovery. (ontrack.com)

Notes: ’s tip to check Documents and Settings was the right first step; ’s suggestion to try recovery tools is reasonable provided the “do not write to the disk” rule is followed.

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Member Avatar for suRoot

look in documents and settings and see if the old username is there... you;ll find the stuff in that folder, however if it was removed then you wont get it back sorry

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