# Heeelp!



## MW

The motherboard on my desktop blew up ... literally, smoke and sparks and all. I took the hard drive out and put it in one of those cases which turns it into an external hard drive (I know, how dumb that I don't even know the name of the thing). Well and good. USBed into laptop and Vista recognised it. Problem: all the text files were under MyDocuments on the old system, but when I look at the directories under the external hard drive no MyDocuments is there. Please would somebody tell me that all those text files aren't lost and I can recover them through some other directory like Windows or Program files or something ... anything.

Also, I would like to retrieve my inbox somehow, and transfer it to my laptop inbox. Is this possible?


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## Pilgrim

Of course there is no "my documents" in Windows Vista (I'm still trying to get used to it) but I don't know that that would make it impossible to access them. I would probably try to search for specific files, hoping if I found one it would lead me to the rest. But others on the board are much more knowledgeable than I and hopefully can provide some more specific help.


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## Semper Fidelis

Matthew,

First of all, help is spelled with one e. not sure if that changes due to the Coriolis effect.

Your files are there, you just need to know where to look for them.

If the old hard drive was in an XP machine then look for the My Documents folder under the Documents and Settings folder and then browse to the username for your old XP machine and you'll find the My Documents folder there.

For instance, on my XP machine at work the file structure is as such:

c:\Documents and Settings\Richard.L.\My Documents

Make sense?

As for your inbox, what program were you using?

If Outlook then you'll need to find the .pst file that had those entries. Use the search function and then search your external hard drive for all *.pst files. You'll be able to open the pst file with Outlook on your new machine and access all your old data.

Blessings!

Rich


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## danmpem

Okay, I have been up a very long time, so if some of this does not make sense, please ask me to clarify. Was it your motherboard or your hard drive that failed? If you hard drive is good then please do the following:

- Put your hard drive into an hard drive enclosure kit. I think it was the name of the device you were trying to think of.
- If your hard drive originally ran on a Windows system, then the directory of your My Documents will be C:\Documents and Settings\"User Name"\My Documents

Oh wait, Rich already told you that. Okay. Rule #1: Don't panic.


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## MW

Thanks folks. I've tried those suggestions. No success. I think I'll take it to an expert because the files are just too valuable to lose. Silly me for not backing up properly. Blessings!


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## Reformed Covenanter

armourbearer said:


> The motherboard on my desktop blew up ... literally, smoke and sparks and all. I took the hard drive out and put it in one of those cases which turns it into an external hard drive (I know, how dumb that I don't even know the name of the thing). Well and good. USBed into laptop and Vista recognised it. Problem: all the text files were under MyDocuments on the old system, but when I look at the directories under the external hard drive no MyDocuments is there. Please would somebody tell me that all those text files aren't lost and I can recover them through some other directory like Windows or Program files or something ... anything.
> 
> Also, I would like to retrieve my inbox somehow, and transfer it to my laptop inbox. Is this possible?



This sounds like something out of a comedy.  Sorry, but I can't help laughing. 

Something similar happened to us a few months back, you'd be best calling in a computer expert and letting them sort it.


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## NaphtaliPress

Matthew,
 I can't imagine they are gone; but just squirreled away somewhere? You might try searching for the contents of one of the files you know is in that folder; a phrase or some words, and look for a limited date range like yesterday if you know a file you worked on. Then note its location and browse there and move the folder to something easily found.?? I know nothing of Vista but hope that helps or that you find the files! Particularly the stuff you are working on for the Confessional Presbyterian! 

I do back ups; but not every day; I think I'm browsing to find one of those online backup services discussed here today.


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## Reformed Covenanter

> Matthew,
> 
> First of all, help is spelled with one e. not sure if that changes due to the Coriolis effect.



Talk about kicking a man when he is down!!!


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## TaylorOtwell

What folders do you see at the very top level of the document structure on the external hard drive? 

Also, what happened when you tried the suggestion of navigating to "Documents and Settings\*username*\My Documents" on the external hard drive?


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## DTK

I can't help you because I'm not a PC geek. But I did want to express my sympathy - this is every pastor's (and other folk too) nightmare! I do hope you are able to recover your important files.

DTK


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## danmpem

Matthew,
As an IT, it is my moral obligation to tell you that it may not be a good idea at this point to take your hard drive to a pro. They charge an arm and a leg. I am going to draft some steps you can take, and then I'll PM them to you.


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## Semper Fidelis

Daniel Ritchie said:


> Matthew,
> 
> First of all, help is spelled with one e. not sure if that changes due to the Coriolis effect.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Talk about kicking a man when he is down!!!
Click to expand...


I wasn't kicking him. I just had confidence that the files were still there based on the fact that he could access the drive.

I'm not unaware of how frightening this is. A number of years ago I had some unrecoverable losses of data.

I think Chris' suggestion above is a good one Matthew. Try searching on that particular drive letter for a name of a file you know should be there.

Wish I was there so I could help you. Walking people through things here is very difficult.

Also, do not fret if the hard drive is damaged. There are data recovery services that can get data off of really badly damaged disks. I doubt yours is that bad simply because the MB fried.

The thing you might be running into, if the drive was on an NTFS partitition is the inability to get to those files outside of XP or NT since the file system protects contents. That won't be very hard for an "expert" to get at for you.

Blessings!

Rich


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## Semper Fidelis

Just noticed danmpen above. Thanks Dan. If you even know of some utilities that can get him into the NTFS partition if that's what his drive was formatted for....


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## MW

Thanks, brothers, for sympathy and advice. Yes, Chris, the developed CP article is missing. Thankfully I have some of the earlier material from last year in backup. I also have alot of it in human memory -- I only hope that doesn't crash.  I've lost about two months work in general, including alot of typing from Perkins and Rollock; but one folder in particular is corrupted on the back-up disc and that includes personally written material from the last two years, including a book length enlargement of my Blue Banner article on Murray's Free Offer. Right now I'm starting to get some idea of how those Puritans must have felt when their mss. were burned or lost en route to the printer. I trust the Lord will give me their faith to see His providence in it.

Could one of the experts tell me if it's possible for XP to have created a mirror directory of MyDocuments? The reason I ask is because I followed the steps of Rich and Dan and I came across a MyDocuments folder, but it has material in it which would date from about a year ago. So basically all updated material must have been directed to another MyDocuments folder which was a mirror of the first, and which is now non-existent because the Windows operating system on the hard drive isn't functional. Am I making sense? If so, is there a remedy?

I've tried the search function. No success. And yet the hard drive space is equivalent to what was on there when the motherboard crashed. So the material must be there somewhere


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## Semper Fidelis

I've got to think this data must be there. What OS were you running when the board fried.

If it was XP there could be multiple My Documents folders in Documents and Settings. Make sure you check in all of those.

If it was Vista then look in the Users directory under the drive letter. Documents folders in Vista have this path:

c:\Users\L.\Documents


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## TaylorOtwell

armourbearer said:


> And yet the hard drive space is equivalent to what was on there when the motherboard crashed. So the material must be there somewhere



That's a good sign. 

I have kind of a long shot suggestion, but it may be worth a shot...

You could download a copy of Ubuntu Linux, burn it as an ISO disc, and boot into "Live" mode from the CD, which doesn't require you to actually change your operating system, it just runs "live" off of the CD. Then, you could try and access the files from the external hard drive in Ubuntu. Perhaps it is some weird Windows thing?


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## fredtgreco

It is possible that the jumper settings on the external hard drive are preventing the data from being seen. I had that happen to me once.

I can't post more now - on a conference call, but maybe Rich/Dan can use that information.


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## Semper Fidelis

He can read the data Fred, he just can't find the folder with his documents.


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## fredtgreco

Another possibility is that since Vista has a built in "shortcut" feature that takes you from My Documents to the new Vista folders, that maybe it is "skipping" the actual folder.


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## MW

TaylorOtwell said:


> You could download a copy of Ubuntu Linux, burn it as an ISO disc, and boot into "Live" mode from the CD, which doesn't require you to actually change your operating system, it just runs "live" off of the CD. Then, you could try and access the files from the external hard drive in Ubuntu. Perhaps it is some weird Windows thing?



Waaaay over my head!  Which tells me it's time to take it to an expert. Thanks everyone for your willingness to help. Paying an expert will be worthwhile if it retrieves the files. If not, then at least I know I've tried everything. Blessings!


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## MW

fredtgreco said:


> Another possibility is that since Vista has a built in "shortcut" feature that takes you from My Documents to the new Vista folders, that maybe it is "skipping" the actual folder.



Would that be so even though the files were arranged under XP on the external disc?


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## panta dokimazete

Matthew - go into My Computer and double-click on the external drive letter - you should see a list of folders, including a "Documents and Settings" folder - double click into that folder and search for a folder with whatever username you were logging in with - you should find a "My Documents" folder within it that has your stuff in there.

Blessings! 

after you have found them, either upload the important stuff to google docs or mediamax.com


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## Semper Fidelis

panta dokimazete said:


> Matthew - go into My Computer and double-click on the external drive letter - you should see a list of folders, including a "Documents and Settings" folder - double click into that folder and search for a folder with whatever username you were logging in with - you should find a "My Documents" folder within it that has your stuff in there.
> 
> Blessings!
> 
> after you have found them, either upload the important stuff to google docs or mediamax.com



J.D.,

brother, you really should read the help that has already been suggested.


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## TaylorOtwell

OK, I searched around on the net and found something that _may_ be useful...

Try plugging in the external hard drive on your Vista laptop, then go to Start -> Computer to find out what drive letter the external hard drive is... 

Then, hold down the Windows logo key and press "R" to bring up the "Run" dialog. Then type in this drive path and hit enter: 

*YourExternalDriveLetter*:\Documents and Settings\*YourOldXPUsername*\My Documents

Example... E:\Documents and Settings\MWinzer\My Documents

For some reason, other people were able to open their Vista folders on XP by using the run command directly. I realize that this external drive was used in XP and you are accessing in Vista, but it might work...?


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## MW

I'm going to find an XP machine and access the hard drive there, and see if it makes a difference.



armourbearer said:


> fredtgreco said:
> 
> 
> 
> Another possibility is that since Vista has a built in "shortcut" feature that takes you from My Documents to the new Vista folders, that maybe it is "skipping" the actual folder.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Would that be so even though the files were arranged under XP on the external disc?
Click to expand...


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## TaylorOtwell

armourbearer said:


> I'm going to find an XP machine and access the hard drive there, and see if it makes a difference.
> 
> 
> 
> armourbearer said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> fredtgreco said:
> 
> 
> 
> Another possibility is that since Vista has a built in "shortcut" feature that takes you from My Documents to the new Vista folders, that maybe it is "skipping" the actual folder.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Would that be so even though the files were arranged under XP on the external disc?
> 
> Click to expand...
Click to expand...


Sounds like a pretty good idea. Did you catch that post I made a couple posts up about the Run command?


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## NaphtaliPress

I can relate; but it has been a very long time (my brother was trying to move my PC and it bumped and I heard the drive crash. That was the late 1980s I think and I lost an iteration of Durham on Scandal I think or whatever I was working on; I had some back up at least). It's hard for me to imagine the files are lost; but, as the Lord wills; its a hard lesson though to become obsessive about backups. I'll be praying for you and that much additional work is not needed. I recount a story in CPJ 1 (2?) about Nicholas Bownd who was working to do a larger second edition of his work on the Sabbath and the MSS was lost or something by the Printer. He had to do it all again and finally published again in 1606. 



armourbearer said:


> Thanks, brothers, for sympathy and advice. Yes, Chris, the developed CP article is missing. Thankfully I have some of the earlier material from last year in backup. I also have alot of it in human memory -- I only hope that doesn't crash.  I've lost about two months work in general, including alot of typing from Perkins and Rollock; but one folder in particular is corrupted on the back-up disc and that includes personally written material from the last two years, including a book length enlargement of my Blue Banner article on Murray's Free Offer. Right now I'm starting to get some idea of how those Puritans must have felt when their mss. were burned or lost en route to the printer. I trust the Lord will give me their faith to see His providence in it.
> 
> Could one of the experts tell me if it's possible for XP to have created a mirror directory of MyDocuments? The reason I ask is because I followed the steps of Rich and Dan and I came across a MyDocuments folder, but it has material in it which would date from about a year ago. So basically all updated material must have been directed to another MyDocuments folder which was a mirror of the first, and which is now non-existent because the Windows operating system on the hard drive isn't functional. Am I making sense? If so, is there a remedy?
> 
> I've tried the search function. No success. And yet the hard drive space is equivalent to what was on there when the motherboard crashed. So the material must be there somewhere


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## MW

TaylorOtwell said:


> Sounds like a pretty good idea. Did you catch that post I made a couple posts up about the Run command?



Yes. No success. I'll keep trying different things though, because the tech. can't do anything for a couple of days anyway.


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## danmpem

SemperFideles said:


> Just noticed danmpen above. Thanks Dan. If you even know of some utilities that can get him into the NTFS partition if that's what his drive was formatted for....



I'm not sure I understand the question. If his drive is formatted for NTFS, then Vista should read it and get into it just fine.


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## danmpem

armourbearer said:


> TaylorOtwell said:
> 
> 
> 
> You could download a copy of Ubuntu Linux, burn it as an ISO disc, and boot into "Live" mode from the CD, which doesn't require you to actually change your operating system, it just runs "live" off of the CD. Then, you could try and access the files from the external hard drive in Ubuntu. Perhaps it is some weird Windows thing?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Waaaay over my head!  Which tells me it's time to take it to an expert. Thanks everyone for your willingness to help. Paying an expert will be worthwhile if it retrieves the files. If not, then at least I know I've tried everything. Blessings!
Click to expand...


Would you prefer it if you could have someone get your files for a single flat rate? As opposed to paying an arm and a leg by the hour? Just ship the drive to me, and I'll get them for you. The only cost you would have to worry about was the shipping cost.


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## Semper Fidelis

danmpem said:


> SemperFideles said:
> 
> 
> 
> Just noticed danmpen above. Thanks Dan. If you even know of some utilities that can get him into the NTFS partition if that's what his drive was formatted for....
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I'm not sure I understand the question. If his drive is formatted for NTFS, then Vista should read it and get into it just fine.
Click to expand...


At least I've run into the issue before that if you're not logged into a specific account on a machine with NTFS that you only have access to your user account folder under Documents and Settings and none of the others.


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## danmpem

SemperFideles said:


> danmpem said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> SemperFideles said:
> 
> 
> 
> Just noticed danmpen above. Thanks Dan. If you even know of some utilities that can get him into the NTFS partition if that's what his drive was formatted for....
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I'm not sure I understand the question. If his drive is formatted for NTFS, then Vista should read it and get into it just fine.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> At least I've run into the issue before that if you're not logged into a specific account on a machine with NTFS that you only have access to your user account folder under Documents and Settings and none of the others.
Click to expand...


Oh, yeah, I know what you're talking about. Since his hard drive is an external, and he not booting from it, he should be able to view his files and folders just like he's looking at a flash drive.


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## danmpem

Matthew, do you have Skype or GoogleTalk? Or does someone you know use one of them? I could ask you some more questions if we could speak over the phone/internet. (And Skype & GoogleTalk are free)


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## Amazing Grace

Check the air in the tires and make sure it has oil....

Matthew. Bring it to a comp person. Call and ask them if they can help you first and make sure you agree on a price to fix it, not only diagnose it. I had one try to bang me over the head with an hourly diagnosic rate and said it took him 10 hours to find the problem. He did not get paid...


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## MW

Thanks, Dan, for your generous offer, but I'm happy to pay the fee for a tech. to work on it. So far I've been given a hopeful diagnosis, so I'll wait to see what the outcome of the surgery is.

BTW, after having read various pages to find a solution to my problem, and been confronted with the technical language used, I don't think I'll take anyone seriously who dares to suggest that theology employs too many technical terms. I'll take Rutherford and Witsius with their Hebrew, Greek and Latin any day.


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## Semper Fidelis

armourbearer said:


> Thanks, Dan, for your generous offer, but I'm happy to pay the fee for a tech. to work on it. So far I've been given a hopeful diagnosis, so I'll wait to see what the outcome of the surgery is.
> 
> BTW, after having read various pages to find a solution to my problem, and been confronted with the technical language used, I don't think I'll take anyone seriously who dares to suggest that theology employs too many technical terms. I'll take Rutherford and Witsius with their Hebrew, Greek and Latin any day.



 You should try being a Marine.


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## fredtgreco

SemperFideles said:


> armourbearer said:
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks, Dan, for your generous offer, but I'm happy to pay the fee for a tech. to work on it. So far I've been given a hopeful diagnosis, so I'll wait to see what the outcome of the surgery is.
> 
> BTW, after having read various pages to find a solution to my problem, and been confronted with the technical language used, I don't think I'll take anyone seriously who dares to suggest that theology employs too many technical terms. I'll take Rutherford and Witsius with their Hebrew, Greek and Latin any day.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> You should try being a Marine.
Click to expand...


 Or a lawyer!


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## Semper Fidelis

fredtgreco said:


> SemperFideles said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> armourbearer said:
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks, Dan, for your generous offer, but I'm happy to pay the fee for a tech. to work on it. So far I've been given a hopeful diagnosis, so I'll wait to see what the outcome of the surgery is.
> 
> BTW, after having read various pages to find a solution to my problem, and been confronted with the technical language used, I don't think I'll take anyone seriously who dares to suggest that theology employs too many technical terms. I'll take Rutherford and Witsius with their Hebrew, Greek and Latin any day.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> You should try being a Marine.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> Or a lawyer!
Click to expand...


Very true. I've been a Convening Authority in the Marine Corps before so I learned some of that stuff. I've said this before that a lot of times people in certain professions are really "shells" when it comes to understanding something but it takes a while to learn their vocabulary to see if they don't know what they're talking about. DoD is just a monstrosity that they have huge volumes of acronyms.


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## MW

SemperFideles said:


> As for your inbox, what program were you using?



Outlook Express. Any idea what files I'm looking for and where I might find them on the old XP file structure. Having done so, how does one import it into Vista's "Windows Mail."


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## Semper Fidelis

armourbearer said:


> SemperFideles said:
> 
> 
> 
> As for your inbox, what program were you using?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Outlook Express. Any idea what files I'm looking for and where I might find them on the old XP file structure. Having done so, how does one import it into Vista's "Windows Mail."
Click to expand...


They should be at:

C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{GUID}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

where {GUID} is the Global Unique IDentifier (technical jargon for a unique long number) used to specify an Identity.

Each folder is it's own file (.dbx I think). You can move those to the new hard drive and then bring them back into Outlook Express on your new hard drive.


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## MW

Thankyou Rich, especially for explaining the nonsensical jargon.


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