How do I recover my files and programs after a failed win 7 repair?

Hi,
Today I tried updating my win 7 Home Premium using the win 7 iso, following the instructions in tutorials here at 7 forums, and everything was going great until there was a power outage and my laptop ran out of charge before the update finished . On restarting my computer, I was caught up in the endless loop of windows 7 attempting to rollback the update but failing. I however managed to start windows, only to find that all my files and programs were missing. They are however somewhere in the hard drive, as my hard drive still shows that most of it is in use. So my question is how do I recover my programs and files? I have tried for the past 5 hours to no avail, and I just cannot seem to find the windows.old folder. I have looked in the c:/$INPLACE.~TR and C:/ windows-Q folders and copied and pasted the contents, but folders appearing on my desktop after that are all blank. Please help! I have a wealth of data I really need to recover. Thanks

Yeah, the Shadow Explorer worked for the files, THANK YOU!! What about the installed programs? They don't show under control panel, but their folders are there in program files and program files *86 folders.

What type of Upgrade was this of Win7 that uses an ISO? Win7 is only upgraded to other versions using Anytime Upgrade, unless a special workaround install is done which requires our assistance.

If you were instead doing an in-place same version Upgrade or Repair Install the files should be in their folders to browse or Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console.

Then you'll need to Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

Yeah, I was doing an in-place same version repair.. I have managed to salvage most of my files and documents, but the programs aren't working correctly, you were right whs. I guess I shall do a clean re-install of win 7. Was hoping it wasn't gonna come to this. But thank you.

Sky dreamer said:

I guess I shall do a clean re-install of win 7. Was hoping it wasn't gonna come to this. But thank you.

It sounds more painful than it really is. I was lucky as I was prepared and had all my drivers and installers lined up. It had nearly 180 updates but I used the old OEM disk without SP1. I suggest you download the proper SP1 disk from Digital River.

After a couple days I was back to normal.

Anyway, good to hear you got your valuable files back.