HP recovery console obscured my documents

My HP Pavillion xp sp3 had a stop c000021a,error0xc0000005 error and would not reboot,so I ran the recovery partition ,which is not supposed to harm data, but now all of my documents files (incl. photos and videos) are not showing up.However, the hard drive still shows 200gb of contents,same as before.
I tried NTFS undelete ,but it did not reveal them either.

Any help would be appreciated.

I have tried HP support before and they are not only not helpful,but harmful.

 

Whom ever explained to you that running any kind of system recovery using the recovery partition would not destroy your personal files, has a few issues regarding facts, they need to work out.

It's true that running the recovery console might have been the easiest manner in which to get the notebook into a bootable state. But not the first thing that should have been tried. I do not know offhand what those particular errors were, however, IMO, what should have been done first was use either the installation disk or recovery console to check for errors that would prevent Windows from booting in the first place. Sometimes Windows can repair boot records on it's own. If the issue was a driver, perhaps going into safemode (F8 after bios post, I think) might have been helpful. If it that error was hardware-related, then you should have had a repair done.

Really, the mistake here, IMO, was not checking into the error Windows was throwing at you. It would have directed you to the correct course of repair. You may be able remove the HDD and place it in a USB enclosure (turning it into a USB portable drive) and plug it into another PC to see if your files are present, however, I am thinking that your files are simply gone. Though perhaps the recovery did something to your user profile? Check C:\Documents and Settings and see if there are any odd folders there. I dont recall the default folders offhand. I believe there might be two or three. "All Users", "Default" and the folder of your user ID.

 

Thanks Iza
But I did try safe mode and all the options there several times. I could not even run a virus scan for more than a few minutes before complete shutdown occurred again and again.

The "whomever explained to you" that running the recovery partition would not harm data was HP.Is that an unreliable source?

The files are clearly not simply gone. They are there as 145GB that I cannot access.The folder they are in r clicks as "empty",but I scanned it with Avast and it showed 145 GB,and I could see all the file names as the Avast scan was running.However,when I search for them including hidden files and system files,nothing shows up.

 

If the computer was still working (albeit unreliably), you should always try backing up the data before you do anything else. Recovery usually shouldn't damage data files, but it is never guaranteed.

That said, if Avast can see them, then they're almost certainly still there. Boot up a Linux Live CD/DVD and look in the folder using a terminal. Windows is too automated for its own good.

 

I was fairly well backed up for maybe 140gb of the 145 gb,but really could not do anything once the stop c000021a occurred.

Could you explain a little more about using linux and a "terminal"?

 

Linux (or any other flavor of UNIX) provides tools that work far closer to the hardware than what comes standard with Windows. If Avast can see your files, you should also be able to find them with Linux. The easiest way to do it is a "Live CD" which is just a disk from which you can boot without affecting your hard drive. There's a bunch of them out there, here's one of the more popular ones.

Once you've booted from it, you can look for your files. The most powerful way is with a command line terminal, but it might work even with the graphical interface. If you find it, you can copy the 5GB you are missing to a flash drive and move it back to Windows.

 

Well, HP is notorious for giving their customers "suggestions" without knowing/understanding all the facts. Like every other call-in center, they go through a series of "first steps". An order. For example: you call your ISP about a connection issue. Their first reply is to always powercycle your networking equipment. You have a software issue: the reply is to reboot the machine. Pretty standard stuff before they get ito the real technical aspect of taking care of your specialized/individual situation. Though it's not always the case that everyone doesn't understand your particular problem. It just depends upon who you get at HP to reply to your problem. It's a "crapshoot", IMO. I just do not like the odds of getting misinformation.

The Linux approach sounds like a good idea. Though, I am not real tech-savoy, so I don't know a damned thing about it. Perhaps a more amateur approach would be to see if those files can be seen/found on another PC. You can place the laptop HDD into a USB enclosure (sells for around $10.00USD on eBay) which would turn it into a portable USB drive. Then peruse on another PC. I mean are you receiving any error messages when you try to browse the folder? Does it have a different name than what your Windows user ID is? Was anything encrypted?

 

It is not encrypted. It does have the previous user ID name which I changed after the crash. I do already have an enclosure.There is an "access denied 'error when i try to open the file.I am downloading the ubuntu iso now

 

You might alsowant to try using a deleted file recovery software such as recuva...
Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download

 

So it sounds, to me, like you may have had a password attached to your previous userprofile. In XP, attaching one, also gives you the option of protecting those files, so that other Administrators/Users cannot see their contents without removing the password altogether. My guess is that the folder belongs to an account that nolonger exsists (pointed to a profile that it doesn't know is not there). Did you change the name of the user ID on your current profile in question or did you create a new user account altogether because of your crash?

You may be able to do a simple registry edit to get access to those files. Or you may even be able to simply "take ownership" of the folder and files.

 

The previous user name was admint and there was a log in password.The 145gb file is under that name.

After the recover, I did use a different user name and there is no log on password yet.

So I think you have found the issue? Thank you.
What do I do next??

 

Can you log in with the old account?

 

I dont think so. I tried setting up a 2nd account post recover with the old name "admint" but that did not work.

How to take ownership of this file? Software is XP Media center edition.

 

I have used NTFS undelete before with great results,but nothing this time.
I tried recuva,also no helpful.
I have PC Inspector ready to try next.

 

I have read a bit about "taking ownership"of a folder,but when I R click,there is no security tab.

 

tHIS WORKED:
Many thanks to Roger:
The Security tab does not appear by default in XP Professional, either. But you
can enable it by going to (in Windows Explorer) Tools, Folder Options, View and
Un-check "Use Simple File Sharing"



Then I was able to change ownership (and be sure to check the box for all subfolders)

Thank you all for your help.
Everything was there in good condition

 

Good. Nice to hear of a "happy ending" every once in awhile.