When I logged on, my user profile was 'corrupted' and therefore Windows created a temporary one for me to log into. I logged into this, and copied the 'ntuser.dat' file from the Administrator Documents and Settings\Username folder, into my Documents and Settings\Username folder. I then logged out, and back into, and my profile was working fine again and My Documents was showing as it should. While I was logged back in, I deleted the Unknown or temporary file from the window that shows from right clicking my computer then clicking user profiles. When I later logged out, and back in to my shock all the directorys and files in 'My Documents' had vanished, all 5 GB of my data! I have tried system restore 3 times to 3 different previous dates, but after the PC had restarted, it says it was unable to restore to the selected date. How can I restore or locate my original 'My Documents' and get my 5 GB of data back? Please help, some of the data is important college work! Thanks in advance... Jim.

Is your file system NTFS or FAT?

FAT32. (I know I should have NTFS, I but I had to have FAT32 because I was going to do a dual boot with 98 SE. As soon as I sort this, I'm going to NTFS). Your going to tell me it won't be recoverable with FAT...

No no no, quite the opposite, FAT is a lot easier to recover from. Trouble is Jim, you have to pay for data recovery s/ware, you can search the web 'til you're eyes bleed, you wont find it free.........(unless you delve into the world of Kazaa etc.) I meant what I said yesterday, don't put all your eggs in one basket, I wouldn't trust Xp with 1 gig of data, let alone 5. It's quite appalling the amount of posts in here about Xp falling over, having to be reinstalled from scratch, which would mean loss of data, back it up whenever you can, wether it's to CD or another partition on your drive.

Having said that, lol, this looks promising............... http://download.com.com/3000-2248-10118664.html?tag=lst-0-29 It doesn't say anything about it being a demo only, so d/load it, have a look.......

Looks like I've learnt that you HAVE to backup the hard way! I have recovered some data with a data recovery program my friend sent me, although most the files recovered are corrupt anyway. I can download a majority of some of the software and videos again, but I've lost a lot of good digital photographs :( Luckily it's I've only lost a small amount of college work I've lost, so overall the damage isn't too bad. Any good data recovery software packages you can recommend? Thank you for your help. Jim.

Lol I was typing while you posted that, didn't see it. I'll have a look at that... thanks.