Profile corrupted, lost desktop, documents, etc folders

[PenguinInfinity]

Hi,

I am sorry if similar things have been posted before. I am helping a friend of mine to solve the issue of corrupted profile. OS is Windows 7 Home Premium x64. My friend mentioned that he tried to install a Acer webcam driver/application and after restart, the profile is corrupted.

We have already agreed to re install the OS. However, I have noticed that under the User folder of that (supposedly, one and only) account, most of the desktop which my friend's data resides are missing. Namely, desktop, documents, etc.

Worse, I have tried to scan with a data recovery software and it could'nt find any of it. I am now trying to scan with another software.

Any suggestions I could try in the meantime?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Arc]

Does the machine work under safe mode ? If so, a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html will be the the best for such a situation .

Boot into http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/69585-safe-mode.html and try the repair install .

 

[PenguinInfinity]

Yes, the system is bootable. However, we decided on a reinstall as we are not sure what really caused the problem. Data is the first priority to recover if possible. Then reinstalling the OS.

Is the data really gone or it might still be hidden? I did check show hidden files settings. Is there any other locations Windows 7 may store the user data in an alternative directory?

Thank you.

 

[Arc]

My assumption is that the data are there, but not accessible.

If it is present there , you can salvage all the data .... follow http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/93347-copy-paste-windows-recovery-console.html .

Transfer those data to another partition, and then either perform a repair install, or a clean install, as you planned.