Freaking Out Here.....

I am rambling....
probably because anxiety is hitting me.

Back in December of 2004, I joined here because I was told I could get help. A nice man named Kodo ran to my rescue and managed to restore many of my precious photos...
Well here we are in 2009 and I am crying my eyes out.
My back up discs were burnt about 4 months ago in a fire and bad bad bad me I never re backed them up.
Oddly enough, this morning I hooked up my external and was going to start the back up since my computer has been acting a bit odd as of late.
I called my step dad who is a software designer/developer at his work and he came over. Two hours later I have no photos, a red compact screen, my configured outlook is gone, and no XP main user page to choose from
I even TOLD him to stop and I would find a way to get online and ask here before he continued, but he didnt.
He has been at this for years, and he is excellent at what he does, but somehow I ended up missing my photos. I suspect he did a system restore but I know the screen said that all data files would not be lost. Why on EARTH would he do that.
cutting to the chase....too late i know
The problems started in the XP main user page. I chose my user name, typed in my password, it quickly flashed to the desktop and then back to my user name saying logging off, then it ended up back to the main XP user page. I thought maybe there was something in the run menu telling it to log off insteaf of on. I told him this, he started in safe mode and went from there. I know the computer was off and on, off and on.
I have MSN and would love to chat with someone.
i will keep an eye on this post incase anyone is willing to take on what I know will be a huge job.
Then if/when I get photos back i will be plugging in the external and getting those photos taken care of. Noone wants to lose photos, nevermind 11 years worth.
Thank you in advance,
TRIE

 

Edit...replied BEFORE seeing DomLuc's reply...thank you.

I am truly sorry. I tried to find the edit button....but apparently I just cant seem to read.
Let me start at the beginning.
The problem started in the blue XP main user page. I chose my user name, typed in my password, it quickly flashed to the desktop and then back to my user name saying logging off, then it ended up back to the main XP user page.I have 5 user names and it happened to each one.
I had someone come over and he ended up doing a system restore which I thought isn't supposed to photos or email, you know the personal things...but OBVIOUSLY (lol) not a CLUE what i am talking about.
Upon restart.....there is no longer a blue screen with all my user name options but a red screen with no user options and about 30 programs on the desktop, some of which were mine, some of which are gone, some of which I thought I deleted years ago, and some of which I assume were presinstalled
i have to reconfigure outlook, no big deal that can wait.
I can go to the C Drive, Docs/Settings, and there are folders for the other 4 users, BUT my user name.
All I know is that there are no pictures anywhere under "my pictures" I am not sure if they have been moved, but I dont want to start poking around when I have no idea what I am poking for.
I even went to start/search/picture,music,video/and typed in some file name that I know I have named photos and nothiing came up.
So i have no photos, no existing emails, and lots of programs on the desktop.
Now of course, I am not having that log on problem anymore, since i dont have that blue xp screen anymore.
um, is there an UNDO button for system restore...LOL
I hope that is a little bit better, once again I am sorry.

 

I shut down, restarted and went to system restore, there were prompts but nothing that said anything about restore points or anything in bold.
There were no restore points for the day. There really werent any choices provided to me.
Was i even supposed to go to F10 in my startup screen? I did since that one said system restore.
I assume I went thru yet another restore by what i was reading on the screen and it ended with a thank you page for buying a Compaq computer, so I have no idea what I did, I dont mind if I have to start fresh, I just really want to try and get some photos back.
Gosh, I feel like such an idiot...If I had only come here before my step dad coming over, I could have read and fixed myself out of this mess....
*sigh*
what now please?

 

that helped. (now i know for future reference)
unfortunately, only TODAY march 20 is in bold and it doesnt list any restore points on the right hand side.
To an uneducated person like me, who thinks her computer is acting like she just bought it and hooked it up, of course there wouldn't be any other dates.
I shall sigh once again
Is there a next move?

 

You might be able to get some of your photos back( if not many programs have been installed since) by using ReCuva or FreeUndelete.
Best of luck.

 

It sounds to me that the f10 was a Compaq System Recovery to factory specs. With one user--so the automatic login.

Not good. I think triespice needs data recovery options from a formatted HD.

 

Yes, i did click on every day on the calander, there was nothing anywhere
To my knowledge I do not have the Win XP disc. As silly as this sounds, I dont remember getting one. Does it have to be MY disc, or can i try and find A Win XP disc?

Hope I answered your questions, as clearly, simply and basically as you requested.

1. The user account available are Owner (computer administrator) and Guest
When the computer boots up, it goes right the desktop, there is no choice of users.

2. The desktop automatically loads with a red Compaq background. There are 30 different icons on the desktop. Some are mine from before my problem (like lightroom, adaware, avg) some I deleted years ago (Norton 2004, Quicken 2004) and some appear like they came preinstalled on the computer as if it were new, (register with compaq, help and support, aol, trial of office 2003) etc)

3. While outlook is there, I am missing all my pre existing email accounts, I have to reconfigure.
Obviously I am missing photos. They were all in the 'my pictures' section of my user account (which no longer exists)
Upon looking deeper I did find SOME folders with photos, from 05-06. They are not in their original places so I am not sure how to describe how they got to where they are.
Some of my loaded programs are missing like Photoshop, PSP and Miscrosoft Office.

Like I said before, the computer appears to be 'new' but with bits and pieces of what it was like before the restore kicking around.

Hope I answered okay as it is NOT my inention to confuse those trying to help.
I will await more help until touching anything else.....
Thank You
TRIE

 

goodness you are RIGHT, it is recovery, and not restore.....ai yi yi
and with what I have said, and you saying factory settings, it makes PERFECT sense.
Um, how screwed am I?

 

triespice what is the model number of your computer? I want to see what the recovery options are but I am afraid your photos may be lost.

Do you have another working PC that you could put the hard drive from the compaq in (as slave) to attempt data recovery?

*the more you use the Compaq the less likely you are to recover the photos.

 

Compaq Pesario SR1112BD
I do not have another PC, my husband could take it to work and give it to his tech? Or might I be better off taking it in somewhere for a recovery attempt?
The only thing open on the compaq is a webmail (since i dont have my email) and this site. I will keep travel as little as possible.
Thank you
Trie

 

It looks like there are two recovery options:

You may have done a non-destructive recovery which means the photos could possibly be somewhere. Did you go to an advanced section during recovery? They do say back up My Documents for either type so I'm not sure what a non destructive repair actually means. You are sure C:\Documents and Settings\oldusername does not exist.

*******
I guess you have tried Start>Search *.jpg or *.bmp or whichever format your pictures were in.

 

yes of course i have did a file name search for the photos. There are SOME here, but they are from 05-06 nothing from earlier and nothing from 07-09

I have not created anything, and there isnt much in the My Document folder.
There are 3 folder
My music (1 subfolder with sample music)
My pictures (1 subfolder with sample photos)
My video (nothing)
So I am not sure what I should be backing up

Also, I am a tad confused as to what I should be doing between steps 1 and 5. Although the one thing you said below. I DO remember when first hitting F10 getting to the system recovery page I do remember clicking on advanced and reading that, I then went back and did NOT do that. I think I just basically did a non destructive, but it did say it wouldn't effect data/personal files....I guess what I am saying is I believe I have already done this

To perform a destructive recovery, click Advanced , (select Destructive Recovery ) and then click Next .
CAUTION: A destructive recovery will format the hard drive. This will delete all the information on the hard drive and reinstall Windows XP and the original software that came with the computer.


I dont mind paying an arm and a leg to take it in somewhere, since photos of course are priceless.

With that being said, I am done for the night and will hop on in the morning looking for a reply.

Thanks to those who have helped thus far, and I hope to see you aiding me tomorrow.

Trie

 

Sorry, I was not suggesting doing another recovery, just reprinting part of the instructions to show that there were two types of recovery one of which was supposed to be non-destructive. Thus giving hope that the photos may be there somewhere.

If you have searched for the photos and they do not show up then I really think looking into data recovery is your next move. Don't install any new programs on your Compaq and use it as little as possible until you decide how you are going to proceed.

Good Luck

 

Based on the reprinted instructions and the prompts I followed, I am positive that the non destructive option was chosen.

Is this the route I should be taking now?

Thank you
Trie

 

You have nothing to lose and possibly everything to gain by trying either FreeUndelete or ReCuva.

 

Wonderful. I just wanted to make sure that was the next route i should be taking.
Thank you
Trie

 

I have tried freeundelete and it recovered nothing.
I then tried recuva and it recovered a few files. More crap and junk that I have never seen than things I have seen.
I am going to take it in somewhere and have them look at it. I live in Canada, should I be going with places more commercial like the Geek Squad at Best Buy, perhaps Future Shop, or should I stick with more independent 'ma and pa' type computer shops?
Thanks again for everyone who lended a land this weekend. I am very thankful.

Trie

 

If you take the computer to a store like best buy, then it may be very expensive for them to attempt to recover the data.

Although, saying that, any data recovery service of the type you need will be expensive.