Windows 7: Problem while trying to recovery files in Win 7

Hi,



I turned on my notebook and I saw a quickly "blue screen" (I couldn't read) and the notebook restarted. I tryed to use the Windows 7 tools to do a Startup Repair or a System Restore, but no success.

My father told me to install a Win 7 Pro version (my notebook is Win 7 home premium 64bits) overriding the previous installation, then I'll have my files back. So he installed the Win 7 Pro version.

Resuming: All my files has gone.

While looking in Disk Management, there is a hidden partition named RECOVERY, with 13gb size and 6gb free space.
So I looked inside the partition and there was nothing but a file named ADRInfo.xml and a empty folder named Recovery.
I guess my files is in this partition.

Can anyone tell me if I'm going crazy or my files can be inside this partition?

The problem is that I can't see anything there, and I don't know how to recover the files.

Can you give me ideas?

Notebook:
Dell Inspiron
500gb HardDisk
Intel core i3
4gb memory
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit (previous installation)
Windows 7 Professional (actual)

Thanks,
Marco.

What do you mean by "my files"???

None of your personal data files that you may have created are in that recovery partition.

All that partition can do is to restore your notebook to the state it was in when you bought it.

If that is what you want to do, you should be able to do that through built-in Dell tools. Consult your documentation or look in control panels or installed programs. There may be something called "Dell Backup and Recovery".

You could enter your Dell System Tag number at the Dell support site for more recovery details.

You might be able to access recovery through a boot menu accessed by hitting an F key (F8??) during the boot process.

But it won't help you to recover personal files.

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

By installing another version of Windows you will have lost any personal data you didn't backup first.

The recovery partition you mention is Dell's recovery partition, with which you would have been able to factory restore your Dell.

Whenever you restore your system or install a new operating system you must always backup your personal files first or you lose them.