haumana 1,220 Posted November 25, 2008 Does anyone out there know of a way to undo the deletion of a user profile (user files also deleted)? A relative has asked me to try and recover his data - or more importantly, his contacts in Outlook Express. I've tried system restoration, but that useless tool doesn't work. I've tried running a program called "Restoration," and while I was able to recover many photo files, the OE info eludes me. It did get me some .dbx files, but none of them are usable. Prior to him deleting his profile, he said that he created a csv of the contacts, but I found no trace of it. He panicking and it's making me anxious (sigh). Any advice would be most welcomed! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jay2703 704 Posted November 25, 2008 There should have been a .pst and possibly a .pab file in this location before it was deleted. That is what I would try to restore. C:Documents and SettingsProfile nameLocal SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftOutlook Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
haumana 1,220 Posted November 25, 2008 Thanks for the advice, unfortunately OE sets up its email differently than regular Outlook. But I have tried looking into the hidden directories in the corresponding profile ... identities ... etc. (sigh) I fear that the data has been lost. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CCGraphics 0 Posted November 25, 2008 What exactly has he done as far as deleting his profile? Did he just delete one profile but the operating system remains intact and he can log in as Adminstartor or has he tried to reinstall XP and wiped the prior OS? Why did he delete the profile, was he having virus troubles? I assume he was using OE 6? If you could give me a little more info, I might be able to help. Data is never really lost, it has just forgotten it's way home. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
haumana 1,220 Posted November 25, 2008 Basically he bought a new laptop and moved all the personal data (documents, email, etc.). And before you know it, the new computer freezes. He contacted Gateway and they basically walked him through a reformat of the new laptop ... not telling him that he needed to back up his data. In the meantime, while the new laptop wasn't freezing, he then deleted his profile from his old laptop because he was going to let another family member use it. He was using OE6. The data was on the old (XP) - no reformatted, just profile and data deleted. The data was also on the new (prior to Gateway having him reformat) with Vista Home. I've scoured the both hard drives with Nucleus Kernel NTFS and Restoration. I could only recover a good number of the photos, a few .pdf's, but none of the .dbx OE6 files and I did find the .csv file, but the data on it was corrupt and the file opened up and was basically gibberish. (sigh) Any advice ... please!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CCGraphics 0 Posted November 26, 2008 Both of his laptops will require some good third party software to recover his data. I missed the part in your first post where he had deleted his old files also. You can try a trial version from here. http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/data-recovery-downloads/ I think it will let you recover everything but will but will only let you save one file. I use the full version of these and have always been able to get peoples info back. I usually install the hard drive into a enclosure and recover to my good machine. I have even recovered drives that has been reformatted multiple times. Let me know what else I can do to help. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
haumana 1,220 Posted November 26, 2008 Both of his laptops will require some good third party software to recover his data. I missed the part in your first post where he had deleted his old files also. You can try a trial version from here. http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/data-recovery-downloads/ I think it will let you recover everything but will but will only let you save one file. I use the full version of these and have always been able to get peoples info back. I usually install the hard drive into a enclosure and recover to my good machine. I have even recovered drives that has been reformatted multiple times. Let me know what else I can do to help. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I too, removed both the old and new hard drives from their respective laptops to run the recovery on my good machine. I will definitely check out that link and see if there anything fruitful. Thanks for the heads-up. Wish me luck Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
