Restoring Windows XP

Hi,
I am using Windows XP Professional.It happened one day that my computer would not come up. It started to load windows and then again shut down and again started to load and again shut down. I tried several times to start it in the safe mode but didn't do it.

Finally without formating the Hard Drive I reinstalled the Windows. Now I am sure the old windows XP installation that i was using is still in there. I had lot of data , programs and stuff on it and wish to retrieve it. Is there any way to restore the older installation of my Windows XP that i over writed by re installing the OS.

Kindly Reply,

Thanks.

Gerry

If you did a Repair Install the old data should be right there and obvious.

If you did a Clean Install then you automatically formatted the disk and there is no easy way to retrieve your old data.

It is possible with other software and or a Data Recovery technician but if this is what you want to do the first thing to do is stop using the hard drive. The more you use a hard drive the more you overwrite it.

Thanks for the reply...

Well, I am sure the HD was not formatted , because all the data in the HD is intact and nothing has been lost...

I was only wondering , if I could restore the old Windows installations on which I had all the programs and stuff installed ( not on the HD).

HD is intact and nothing has been lost on it..

thanks.

Gerry

You will have to clarify what you have done. Sorry I am not following your process.

You say you had problems and reinstalled XP.

How did you reinstall? With a Microsoft XP CD? Was it a Repair Install? Was it a Clean Install?

Did you reinstall to a new or different partition? Do you have two installations of XP now?

Can you see the old partition or drive? If you can see the data you can access it. Programs will not work unless the old partition is bootable (which apparently it wasn't).