[kpm850]

I have an HP notebook with a 75 gig HD. I have always used XP PRO as the O/S. I was having problems and mistakenly deleted 5 registry files attempting
an MS boot up Advanced Recovery method.

When I booted with the XP CD, it gave an Advanced Recovery option
and a New Install option. After trying the Advanced Recovery directions from Microsoft and failing several times, I gave up.

Not knowing what damage it would do, I reloaded the XP Pro by booting with the XP Pro CD and proceeded with the install on TOP of the existing installation (maybe a bad idea). I also loaded the same business software that was on it before. Nothing more. Also, I did not set a new partition.

And began using the Notebook for about 1.5 days. I did not use it hardly at all and I have stopped using it altogether until after this recovery is done.

With the files missing I found RMF on the web and bought it. I downloaded it to the new XP install in the damaged O/S Notebook not knowing this is also not a good thing.( better to use a Writable CD with RMF loaded on it).

The only file types I need are the PDF and the Word files.

There were no pictures,audio, games, power point, etc files that I loaded.
The PDFs' and the Word files are the only important files I needed.

I was hoping I could get my emails. Only the ones in the Outlook 2000
inbox and some in Outlook Express.

I tried running RMF (Complete Format Recovery choosing manual input) looking for just the PDF files. 1071 recovered files with no file names. Most files were damaged or corrupt. All had the "Recovered File" extension. A small percentage were recovered that were OK.

( I am going to pause )
For any reader, RMF DID recover files for me! It does work. Just wanted that fact pointed out. A miracle in my book !

I read several posts and followed a post where a senior member directed
to do a "Complete Format Recovery" using only the default settings.

Chose C:\ as the search and it showed 75 GIG. After 15 hours it found the MFT table, recognized the NTSF partition ( the notebook always had just 1 partition) and found the default requested file types. There was a 0 drive with
75 GIG available to search but the post indicated to try C:\ first since
there is only 1 hard drive.

As I type this, ALL the 229,846 files RMF recovered (the indicator reads 52 GIG total) are being saved to a new WD external 160 GIG HD. My original install was, with all files, 14 GIG. Not sure about how it turned into 52 GIG unless the .Zip files are unzipped.

My question is, except my error for loading XP Pro over the existing XP Pro
installation and re-installing the software and loading RMF on the old
installation of XP Pro, have I missed a step at this point ?

In the event log it shows it is recovering the XP Pro O/S files and thier
names, but not the PDF and Word file names. The PDF and Word files
are the most important for my business.

Anyway, I thought the RMF program would rebuild after the Complete Format
Recovery using the default settings search and maybe it already has
but the PDF and word file names are not there.( I am reporting this from
what I see in the event log as the "save" process is saving the files )

If possible, please advise if I need to take further steps to recover
PDF and Word document quality and file names.


Thanks in advance.

P.S. I would like to recover the emails if possible after this "default" search and save.