How to recover the files after restoring the PC to factory settings?

Hi guys

It's a cry (literally!) for help and I'd really appreciate if somebody can help.

My laptop was playing up constantly after the recent Windows 7 updates and eventually I couldn't get past a screen with system restore options. Having backed up my files on Seagate external hard drive beforehand, I've chosen the option to restore the computer back to the factory settings (which probably was a bad idea!).

After the system recovery, I went to access the external drive and encountered a massive problem: my files are not showing on the external drive (although the disk shows used space) and I can't access any files. I understand I might have to post this problem with not being able to access the files on Seagate drive as a separate thread, but my question is: Is there anything I can do to recover the files I've lost after I performed system recovery?

Many thanks in advance.

Hi

Thank you very much for your reply. Unfortunately, I couldn't get to use your link for the software as my Windows 7 crashed again whilst doing updates, even though I did system restore last week. I can't go past the Start Up Recovery screen at all.. When I run sfc scan, it comes up with a message 'Warning! F parameter not specified. Running CHKDSK in read-only mode'. F was the path I set for the external drive, the one I had problems accessing as per my original post. It makes me think that the fact that Windows 7 can't run updates successfully and gets stuck at the start up screen (Error C0000022) has something to do with the external hard drive?

Any ideas would be very much appreciated. Really need to get my laptop back in the working mode