I run an OEM XP Recovery (HP) on my PC where I had a password protected user account and two more accounts without password for log in.
After the recovery I am not able to find most of my old data on the password protected account but only able to have access to files on the other two accounts that are not.
This lost data is all under My Documents and some under Desktop.
Part of the data that has been saved under the c:\ folder has come to be visible after I logged in Safe Mode and add Administrator to give it access to the folders on the root drive.
Is there a way to reinstate this lost profile back or at least be able to get access to my data.

Thanks in advance.

T.

Home or Pro?

If Home, in Safe Mode, you used the account "Administrator" and still could not find everything?

XP Media Center.
none to be found, no luck so far. running out of steam. need help please.
Thanks jephree.

T.

This is listed for VISTA MCE but I see it linked to XP as well.

Worth a try:

1- Click Start, and type “secpol.msc” in the search area and click Enter.
2- You may receive a prompt from UAC, approve/login and proceed.
3- In the left list, choose “Local Policies”, then “Security Options”
4- Set “Accounts: Administrator account status” to Enabled.
5- Set “User Account Control: Admin Approval Mode for the Built-in Administrator account”
to Disabled.
6- Now log-off, and you’ll see a new account named “Administrator” will be available,

click on it to login.

Point being every Windows OS has a "built-in" Administrator account which is generally hidden and only used for issues such as yours.

The account should be named "Administrator".


Just as a side note: if your data is very valuable STOP using that hard drive and perhaps a Recovery Program can find the data via another computer.

The more you use a hard drive with "missing" data the more likely that data is being buried via being written over.

Thanks jephree ,
Yes I have stopped using the PC and considering using a third party Recovery Program via a different PC at this time as you sugested. But first I am going to give the method you quoted from VISTA MCE a shot as soon as I get home.
Question: I am away from the PC for the moment but I believe as I have "Administrator" as my log in already and so
... "6- Now log-off, and you’ll see a new account named “Administrator” will be available," would mean the same log in "Administrator" with more privilege. CORRECT?

In general the account named "Administrator" is never seen by end-users.

This depends on how the OS was installed but generally a personal administrator account is created upon install but it is not "The" "Administrator" account which is usually hidden.

If indeed you are using "The" "Administrator" account then that is as privileged as it gets.

I have second thoughts about the Vista method on XP MCE but won't hurt to try. More likely it resembles XP Pro where you access this account via the following:

On the Welcome Screen (or when Windows starts to load) press Ctrl+Alt+Delete (sometimes twice is necessary).

This should bring up all your accounts including "Administrator".

Within Windows you can verify all accounts via:

start > Run... > control userpasswords2

5- Set “User Account Control: Admin Approval Mode for the Built-in Administrator account”
to Disabled.
The above step does not apply for XP MCE, there is no place to set it!

Any ways thanks you for your time. I used a Puppy Linux Live CD to boot from and was able to locate and retrieve my files!!!

Glad to hear it.

Let us know if we can help further in the future.