Thanks to everyone who replied with suggestions.
Yup, hard lesson to learn and as much as I harp on everyone else to ALWAYS have anything important backed up, I definitely dropped the ball on this one.
The ironic thing here was that I was actually in the process of consolidating files I had intended for backup, so I could streamline the process, making a backup batch file that would run automatically based on a schedule. I had already formatted my (then intended) target drive to eliminate redundancy, so all of these files were only in one location at the time of the "incident". Perfect timing...:ack:
Anyway, as it turns out, I did NOT actually loose the files! :yeah:
What made me think they were gone was the fact that although the folder for my old profile was still there under "documents and settings", it was inaccessible when clicked on. Also; it indicated nothing was in it when I looked at the properties of the folder.
Although I has was in the "administrators" group with the new install, it still would not let me access the folder. Even logging on as administrator would not allow access.
In talking with my brother, he suggested booting to safe mode, THEN logging on as administrator.
This is what did the trick.
I was then able to access the security properties for the folder and replace the owner with "administrator" and was then able to see all of my stuff.
At that point I could copy everything out to a new location.
Crisis averted, and lesson learned.
I think I am going to get one of those new USB drives that I can just plug directly into my hub. Then I won't have to always have another computer running in order to back up to a different location.
Peace
