XP- user account missing

imaginarynumber

New Member
Hi all
and
I am trying to sort out a friends non booting laptop.

On boot xp falls over and whines about system32/software being corrupt. (Last known good config doesn't work or safe mode)

As it is an OEM I decided to use mini xp on the hiren boot cd to back up his photos etc before then doing a factory restore.

I navigated thru documents and settings but his account is no longer there. Other than the usual admin account and so forth there is a file with no extension called mick (his name).

The only proof that I can find that he ever existed is in the recycle bin where there are jepgs that came from documentsandsettings\mick.

Am I going to have to resort to using file recovery software? or should I just mount the drive in linux?

Additionally can i use the software hive from one of the system_volume restore points- I guess that this might not work though given that the user account is missing?

Thanks in advance
 
recuva.bat found some of the images but not all of them so whilst in mini xp I installed data recovery wizard by Erasus which found all of the missing file structures- backed up the jpgs etc and am doing the factory install
 
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