Re: system recovery/repair and retention of data on other drives

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"Katherine" <Katherine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:749C4A66-E1B8-4C82-A76B-6C485DB1959E@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I was unable to install and external harddrive until I contacted HP and
they
told me that my admin user account was corrupted, and I needed to set up a
new one and delete the old one. I think part of it may still be there,
because I was able to install the drive, but now am unable to do most
updates, install some programs and some programs are glitching. I fear I
may
have to do a system recovery, as there are no restore dates prior to the
user
account getting deleted. I have the original hard drive (C,D) and another
internal that has been added with no glitches, and the external which
performs correctly, it is the OS that messes up. I have copied all data
and
most of the programs onto the otherinternal hard drive. I will try a
repair,
but if I am in the program to repair/reinstall, and I return it to
original
settings from the recovery disks, will the data and programs I have on the
other internal and the external drive remain? There is about 300 GB total
on
the other 2 disks and I have no way to copy them anywhere but those other
hard drives. I cannot afford to lose my information and programs though.
Any
suggestions?

You have two contradictory statements in your post:
a) I have no way to copy them anywhere.
b) I cannot afford to lose my information.

If b) is true then a) is false. In other words, if you really
cannot afford to lose your data then it is a small matter
to purchase another disk and copy your data there before
you attempt any repair. This is, in fact, what you should
have done the moment your data became important: Back
it up every week to an independent disk. Important data
must ***always*** reside on at least two independent
media that are kept in different places. Everything else
is asking for trouble.

To answer your specific question: A repair attempt ***should***
retain your data. However, accidents do happen.

About your programs: It is not possible to "copy" them
across. They must be re-installed. This is why you must
always keep your installation media and product keys.
When you download programs from the Internet then you
must store the downloaded files on your backup disk.

Deleting a user account will not normally delete user data.
Have a look in c:\documents and settings\xxx - your data
should still be there. If you are refused access then you
must seize ownership of this folder. (xxx=name of
deleted account).


.

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