Uh... Help!

[rowanberries]

Um. So.

My laptop froze about half an hour ago, after I'd been away from it awhile, and would not switch off until I forced it to (via holding down the power button.) When I turned it back on, I got a warning about 'not being able to access my user settings' or something to that effect when I signed on. I told it to continue anyway, to see what was going on, and when it loaded, all my files had gone. The programs were all still there, even the ones I downloaded (Firefox, GIMP, Second Life) but all the files frm Word or iTunes or whatever had gone.

Does anyone know what is the problem, and if it can be fixed? I mean, it's not the end of the world, but it is hella inconvenient to lose absolutely everything I had saved.

Um. Anyone? *Flails*

Comments

[misslucyjane]

Is your OS Windows? I did a little poking around and found this (which I haven't tried and I'm not a tech expert, so this is mostly hoping it works: open a DOS prompt and type "scanreg/restore" (without quotation marks) at the command prompt. When it asks for a date enter one before the crash (such as yesterday).

It's response 1 here if you want to look at the context.

[ex-ms-katoni171.livejournal.com]

I suspect it has deleted your user account on XP, hence the programs still being there, but the files (presumably formerly in your Documents folder) not being there. Try checking the Recycle Bin. Also go into My Computer and see if you can access all the 'My Documents' folders there. Try doing a file search for one or two files you remember the name of. Also try rebooting, it may be a temporary thing. It's also worth going into the Control Panel and having a look at the User Accounts settings.

Hopefully some of that will work, although I make no guarantees of success.

[ex-ms-katoni171.livejournal.com]

Also, if none of that works, if you are using XP, I think you can visit the last system restore point and restore the system you had then. But I can't remember how to do this. It's probably in the Control Panel or the Administrative functions bit of the Start Menu.

[djcati.livejournal.com]

Try logging in under safe mode.

Or, as a user with admin privileges (I think the default account it gives you when it can't find your user settings is one), go to C:\Documents and Settings and check whether your normal username still has a folder there, because even if it can't log in as you, your files should still be there.


Although to be fair, I've only had this problem under Windows 2000 -- WinXP is fairly similar, but there might be random differences I don't know about.

[aberration]

I... had a problem with a computer that had separate accounts on it, and so once when I was using it it just locked up the account all my files were on and wouldn't let me log into that user anymore.

And I... never could get them back.

Erm.