Virus has desecrated my hardrive

[mrblack]

Currently I am on another computer in the house. My other computer has been devasted by some virus I am assuming. At first it was only under my user name in windows xp, then it was also on my sisters user name. Now I can:t even access the Windows user log in screen, as my computer shtus down before it can get tehre.

It insists on a complete re installation of the program.

I want to recover my 10,000 or so music files and some media files along with other written files and photos. I used to have these very organized in sub directory folders by artist-album name- etc. Would I be able to get these same sub directory folders back while I am recovering the files, or will I simply recover a bunch of indiividual files at random and have to sort them out through a long and tiresome process?

I also read in another post how people aren:t able to fully play their songs and media files as once before. For instance, they:ll only play halfway through or some may not even play. What is up with that?

I am inept in computer repairing. Since my other crashed computer (with the lost files on it) will not even turn on , how will I transfer the files to this computer and how long would the process take? A lot of questions thrown out at random, any decent answers would be appreciated before i rush into buying the recovery software. thanks.