PLEASE help! files missing

Just be sure to restart the PC before you start the dl / install of SP 1 and don't allow any other updates to install at the same time, just do the SP 1 by itself.

I know this post is old, just hope someone is still watching it. I have the same problem as above - as seen from my linux partition because I cannot boot into vista at all. From Linux I see the folders but they all appear empty - including system folders. I also have other partitions and they are all OK. Any ideas anyone??? ( Though I can see the Recovery Partition also - some system file within C: is required to boot it I think because I cannot get it to fire up.)

Thx gregrocker for your reply.

For now, I've installed PCLinuxOS on a partition I made some time ago believing the owner was wanting to update to Win7. So I've yet to actually touch the Vista partition hoping I'm not corrupting it further.

Though I've mentioned that I can see the folder structure and that they are empty - I've since discovered that the folder structure appears to be related to an original install as there are program folders I know I installed - missing and what's worse - user folders I know as the users are also MIA.

So right now I'm not sure what's happened and the 11 year old using this system is not forthcoming. Needless to say, his folks are distraught about possible losing all their personal records including some once only family photos.

I ran testdisk on the partition and it reported that there are no deleted files. That can not be good.

I've put an entry in GRUB for the RECOVERY partition on this HP Pavilion system and am able to access all the recovery tools from that now, ( Changing the partition table some time ago I forgot to update the system enviroment variablies to tell F11 where it was.

Another unhealthy sign is when I copied the whole partition onto a external HDD. I only got 1.14GiB of data.

I can only assume that the kid attempted to hide something ( we've since learned that he took mum's EFT-POS card and brought some Game online - he's just staying quiet about it ) and in doing so caused something to load into ram which was then able to delete everything. If this is not possible then maybe not understanding how to read HPFS - NTFS file structure is my problem - hence I'm holding off the 'Back to factory settings' full re-install.

In the meanwhile I'm coaching them in Linux (KDE) so that they can at least access their email. ( Thank the powers to be that I insisted they remain with IMAP and not POP.)

For now, I'll review your suggestions and otherwise continue to become conversant with the Vista File Structure to be sure I've left no stone unturned.

Any more words of wisdom? Anyone?

Try marking Vista partition Active, then from it's DVD or Repair CD Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times.
Partition - Mark as Active (Method Two)

Er.. there is no files for the system to boot with. That's the problem I believe. I don't even get the choice of safe boot. Since rebuilding the boot stuff ( command prompt - bootrec.exe - etc: ) there was only one change. By using ENTER at the fault screen I got to a choice screen with only 'Microsoft Windows' there.( This would be as a result of my efforts to rebuild the boot from scatch.) Using ENTER then simply dropped back to the fault page - and so the loop continued.... At this point the fault mentioned that it could not find the winload.exe file and using linux the view the files with a view of copying winload.exe into the root path.... well, as said: there dosen't appear to be any files left on the whole partition, just a default folder structure. And know, there was only the one OS (Vista) on the system at the time.

I can only think that the game he brought tried to turn the computer into some gaming machine???