I did a system recovery and the files are still there but I can't find the location.

[stratogustav]

I did a system recovery on my Windows XP because I was not able to access my desktop because the password entry bar to access the desktop would not show up no matter how many times I restarted the computer.

When I did the system recovery it said that my files were not going to be deleted, all the programs were still there, but the pictures, videos and music were gone from My Documents.

So I tried to find them on the Drive C, I thought maybe they just got moved somewhere else. I even went to the folder options to be able to see the hidden folders, but the files are not in any of those folders.

However I know the files are still there because when I look the properties of Drive C with the right click of the mouse, it says that the Drive C is still full, as it was before the sytem recovery. So that means the files are still there but I don't know where.

I have a lot of family pictures and videos there that I want to recover. Those are the only things I care about to recover, and maybe my music files.

Any ideas how can I find those files or the folder that contains them? Maybe through MS-DOS or something like that? I already have external hard drives to copy them if I find them.

[stratogustav]

Any ideas? I'm still dealing with the problem.

[CherylG]

Check under C:\Documents & Settings for your old user account. Your photos/files should be there. Double click My Computer to open, then double click on C: to open, next double click on Documents & Settings to see all user accounts.

[stratogustav]

Yeah, that's the first thing I checked, but the files are not in any of those folders. Plus if you check the size of the folders it shows the files are somewhere else. For example here you can see that the size of the files is of 208 GB.

[stratogustav]

But if you look into the Documents and Settings folder. It only has 4.09 GB:

[stratogustav]

The only folder I don't have access to is the one that says Compact_Administrator.

[stratogustav]

But that one has 0 GB of size.

[CherylG · Accepted solution]

Maybe this will help:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&docname=nph00268

[CherylG]

What is in Compaq_Administrator.Your...

[stratogustav]

Thank you Cheryl G. My files are now there.