Files Lost After Windows XP Temporary Profile Zapped -- Any Way to Recover?
October 21, 2004 1:44 AM   Subscribe

Is there any way to recover files saved under a temporary profile in Windows XP? (MI)

Condensing my long and sordid story: after my father's profile was corrupted, my sister went onto the computer under a temporary profile. My father was confused about where his files were, so she moved the contents of his Documents folder to a different location (not sure where exactly). After a reboot, the files were gone. Disappeared into the ether. My guess is that she saved these files somewhere within the hierarchy of the temporary profile, and they were deleted (along with the profile itself) after she rebooted the computer.

My question: can I recover them somehow? Is there a magical utility out there that can scrape up recently deleted files? Cursory searches on Google show a few file recovery utilities, but I have no idea which ones are reputable. Would a data recovery service apply in this case (all the sites I'm seeing talk about crashed hard drives and disasters, while this was just a weird mistake)?

Exhortations to "backup, you fool!" will be duly passed on to my chagrined family.
posted by brookedel to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)
 
Best answer: Yeah, go here in IE ASAP. (Won't work with SP2; grab Restoration from here instead.)

Post if this fails. There are some other tools, not so free though.

--Dan
posted by effugas at 2:34 AM on October 21, 2004


Did you try to search for the files? They might be in some weird place.

This reminds me why I never put anything in the "my documents" folder.
posted by signal at 3:07 PM on October 21, 2004


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