98 to XP - files that were on the desltop?

Hi, Can anyone help? or at least put me out of my misery please?

I bought my parents a new laptop (installed with Vista). They had a PC with Windows 98se installed on it. I wanted to back up their files on the old PC to transfer them onto the new lapop but - long story short - I couldn't find anyway to do it (it was a really old PC).

I decided to put all the files in one folder and zip it before taking it into a store to get it done by a pro. I left the zipped folder on the desktop.

Then I had a brainwave and decided to install XP onto the old PC (thinking XP would recognise my memory stick and I could transfer the file that way). I installed XP, choosing to delete the old operating system (98se) in the installlation.

XP installed ok, but I can't find the zipped folder that I had left on the desktop. Everything else on the C: drive is still there, just not the zipped folder I wanted to transfer.

I have a horrible feeling that the folder was deleted during the installation of XP... but can anyone tell me if it might still exist?

Thanks in advance!

 

Use the XP search function to find it. Enter the filename and be sure to enable searching for hidden files and folders. If that doesn't work, try using one of the free data recovery tools here at Major Geeks... I've used Restoration in the past and it worked great; it will look for all removed files, or you can enter a filename. You can also try Recuva or Avira UnDelete.... if you need some in-depth scanning/recovery try PCInspector: http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm
Good luck!!

hd2k

:major Welcome to Major Geeks! :major

 

Thanks

I gave search a try but nada (didn't have hidden files set though). I'll try one of the recovery tools next.

Thanks for you help

 

You will find a list of everything that should be on the desktop for each XP user you have set up in c:\documents and settings\EACH USER\desktop.

Check each one of these as Windows Upgrade should have one that corresponds to your original 98 desktop, if you did an upgrade not a clean install. You had the option to do either. This is different from the option to delete 98 to roll back to. With a clean install you will obviously have a brand new desktop.