Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (
More info?)
On Tue, 21 Jun 2005 00:52:35 GMT, MCR <markcoleman10@ntlworld.com>
>Two things... if it is a two tone noise when the mouse stops working, it
>is in fact a hardware issue. Rather than the computer, I would suspect
>that it is the mouse.
Did you pay a silly premium for a wireless mouse, that maybe has flat
batteries? Did you pay an uber-premium for a Big Name wireless
keyboard and mouse that had rechargeable batteries in the mouse, but
no recharge for those in the keyboard? Welcome to retail...
>There is a possibility that your files remain on the PC. I will assume
>you did not reformat when you reinstalled. To check and see if you have
>in fact got them, do a search by file name to see and find the location.
Most likely you created a new user account - rather oddly, a "repair
install" prompts for new account names, and if you use the same name
as your old account, you get two accounts with the "same name" - and
the account you are in doesn't have your data in it.
By duhfault, data is held within "C:\Documents and Settings", starting
from a base directory with a name related your account name. When
account names are duplicated for one reason or another, the actual
folder names are changed so they are unique; a bit like the old
"WINDOWS" vs. "WINDOWS.000" days.
Within each account base directory, there are, among other things:
My Documents
My Pictures (large bulky image files and camera dumps)
My Music (large bulky music files)
My Videos (large bulky video files)
My Received Files (incoming files and malware from IM)
Application Data
Identities (maybe you'll find OE mail data here)
Microsoft (various MSware loseable data stores)
Address Book (your Windows/OE address book as .WAB file)
Outlook (not where your Outlook.PST appears to be)
Proof (where you may find your CUSTOM.DIC spelling dictionary)
Templates (where you may find your MS Office templates, maybe)
Excel (VBA malware dropped here will run when Excel starts)
Word (VBA malware dropped here will run when Word starts)
Cookies
Desktop (what you dump on "the desktop" may be here)
Favorites
Local Settings
Application Data
Identities (more likely you'll find OE mail data here)
Microsoft (more MSware loseable data stores)
CD Burning (wads of stuff you thought you'd written to CDR)
Outlook (not where your Outlook.PST appears to be, either)
History (not to be confused with "Recent")
Temp (wads of temp files that are often "in use")
Temporary Internet Files (hugely bloated web cache for IE)
My Recent Documents (not to be confused with "History")
Nethood (shortcuts to every LAN share the system ever saw)
SendTo (shortcuts to things you can "Send To")
Start Menu
Programs
Startup (any malware dropped here will autorun with Windows)
Templates (maybe this is where your Office templates may be)
UserData (red herring?)
Then there is the AllUsers "account", which applies some (Desktop,
tart Menu) but not all (SendTo, Toolbars) UI items to everyone's
account settings. The StartUp folder is yet another place that any
malware can autorun from if it drops itself there. I never did find
my Outlook.PST (contains *all* MS Outlook data in one huge lump).
Oh; half this stuff you can't see, unless you set Windows Explorer to
show hidden and system files, just as you can't see crucual
information that indicates file type and risk unless you set Explorer
to show file name extensions. But that's another story.
Oh, also; depending what account you are in, you may not see "My
Music" etc. but "Fred's Music" etc. instead. Or you may not see
anything at all, if on NTFS and the owner's "made private".
If you're on NTFS and make your files private, there may be extra
hoops to jump through ("how to take ownership") if that account is
killed. But if you *really* want to lose data forever, you'd need to
run XP Pro on NTFS, use Encrypted File System to really hide your
files, and then lose the "key". Gone For Ever, but securely so.
Now if you look at the above, you might be able to figure what the
problems will be, if you:
- try to safely share via network
- try to backup data
- try to recover data
If you full-share the whole of your user profile subtree, and you
allow write access to StartUp, then any malware on any system that can
"see" your share can drop into your system and run on next boot. Even
if you don't full-share the folder for that very reason, XP Pro will
do it for you, via the "hidden" (from you, but a nice known name makes
it perfectly useable for the bad guys) admin shares.
If you try to backup your entire user profile subtree to CDR, using
XP's built-in CD writing, it will fail because the temporary files
that the process creates will be within the subtree you are trying to
copy. You'd also encompass temporary files that may come and go
(breaking backup verification) or be "in use", stalling access.
If you try to backup just your "My Documents", you may find it's
bloated beyond your storage capacitry by all the pictures, music and
videos stored within there - plus polluted by any malware that may
have been sent to you via Instant Messaging. You'd also lose your
address book, and all sorts of other MSware data that's scattered
across two sets of "Application Data".
If you're trying to recover data, your first obstacle is NTFS -
there's no maintenance OS from MS that you can boot without writing to
the hard drive (and thus potentially corrupting it further) and there
are no tools from MS that let you control what errors are fixed and
what are tip-toed away from. But that's OK, because there are no
low-level file system repair tools for NTFS either - if NTFS kills you
(as it is a lot less likely to than FATxx) you stay dead.
If you get past the NTFS hurdle (or simply avoid the whole mess and
use FATxx instead, so your tech is sitting comfortably in DiskEdit
repairing the file system by hand) you van then start recovering
directories (folders) to get to the lost data. Notice how many of
these to need to recover, even assuming you know where to go
(Local Settings\Application Data or just Application Data?) and
how many of these are burdened with Long File Names that will
look odd as raw 8.3 (LOCALS~1\APPLIC~1\MICROS~1...).
For example, OE's data is not just in blah-blah-Identities-XXXX,
but within the XXXX there's still Microsoft and Outlook Express
to recover - two utterly needless extra folders, two extra chances
to be locked out of your data when things go wrong.
It's possible and IMO desirable to reorganize things more rationally,
e.g. D:\DOCS, E:\PICTURES and so so, but it's fairly hard work.
That's what some system builders may do for you.
>------------ ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
The most accurate diagnostic instrument
in medicine is the Retrospectoscope
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