Deleted User Account in XP can I restore the files?

[nachogod]

Is there a way to easily restore the files that were in a user account that was deleted such as in "my document" and the destop of that user name? Must restore, might have months of baby photos that are lost.

 

[pscowboy]

I don't honestly know. But I would try this. Go to User Accounts in Control Panel, and recreate a new user with EXACTLY the same spelling.

See what happens.

 

[nachogod]

I'm a little affraid that it would overwrite the existing my documents and desktop files and make it more difficult to recover the files.

 

[pscowboy]

That won't overwrite anything - you're just creating an account which I hope will reconnect to those files.

After you recreate the account, go back to a Restore point BEFORE the deletion occurred.

You get there by Start - Help and Support. Look to the middle of the right side.

 

[sturm]

look in the documents and settings directory. the users folder should still be there. If you dont have rights, log into an Administrator account and take ownership.
XP does not delete the files when you remove an account.

 

[nachogod]

The folder isn't there. I also recreated the user using the same name and it did access the missing files either. I believe XP does delete the files. XP asked whether or not I wanted to save the files to the desktop of the user I was using. There was an error saving those files so I continued to delete the user without saving them. Is there anyway to recover without using a specialized data recovery program?

 

[sturm]

I'd say your screwed without a data recovery program. Now if the drive has been used quite a bit then its almost certainly gone but you can try if you want to.