How to recover files back to original folder/file structure

Neavesie

Honorable
Jan 7, 2014
2
0
10,510
HI Guy, I recently decided to install Unbutu14.04 to remove some nasty issues I had cause but I decided I would install it along side XP. My XP disk didnt want to run properly so I thought I would copy the files to a 'Windows' folder on an external USB3 1TB HDD.
While installing XP from the USB3 HDD I got to the reboot stage but this took me back to Ubuntu. I was no longer able to continue the XP installation from the USB3 HDD due to BSOD.
So I decided to install W7 and then Ubuntu, which worked well on my Presario C700.

This is when I discovered that my USB3 HDD was missing everything except for the windows XP folders. These were all my backups that were going to go back onto my laptop. I installed a recovery program 'Puran File Recovery' and recovered heaps but the issues is the 500GB + of 7zip folders and files will not open and are not recognizable by name, basically hardly any of the folder structure was recovered.

So Im hoping someone knows how I could go about restoring my unusable mess back to working order. :??: