User Account Missing??

[xxsilk109xx]

I have a newer dell laptop in here with Win 7.

It will not boot into windows, goes to repair and then restarts when it cant fix issue. I have slaved the drive and ran multiple antivirus programs, have found nothing. I have also ran multiple boot cd's to try to run various utilities, such as fixboot, resetting the mbr, etc.

I have decided to do a nuke and pave on this machine and before that I went to backup customer data.

The problem is that I dont see any user accounts listed, EXCEPT:
Administrator
Default
Public
All Users
Default User

I dont see the user account that they used listed, and when browsing these user accounts I dont see their pics, documents, etc.

I have getdataback loaded and it doesnt seem to see any other user accounts either that may have somehow been deleted.

Any suggestions to recover this data?

[732914TECH]

looks like default is the username that would be theirs, but it was empty?

[arrow_runner]

Did they try to do a factory restore and not tell you about it?

[xxsilk109xx]

yes default is empty, they are all empty

arrowrunner - this leads me to believe that they did, however it shows that the last time the folders in the root directory where modified shows 2010 or 2011.

however, I would think that getdataback would be able to recover that data.

I see some data in the system volume information folder, which shows a modification data of recent 2012.

I am going to try a system restore and see if I can recover the data and go from there.

[DanB]

I recently had a pc come in where the user files showed up as empty (0 files). I booted quickly into linux and the files were all there. Backed up. After removing the virus all the files showed back up in Windows.

This virus hid all of the user settings and menus.

[xxsilk109xx]

I attempted the system restore with no luck, there were only two restore points, and I tried both of them, just to fail at the end. I will try to give the linux disk another try...

[seedubya]

Originally Posted by DanB

This virus hid all of the user settings and menus.

Yep, have had this a couple of times.

[xxsilk109xx]

I opened it up with ubuntu and was able to see the user profile, however not all of the files are there. His downloads folder has items in it, but under pics, or docs, all I see is a desktop.ini file.

I see the downloaded files that he wants me to recover, but like I said, pics and docs are not there, but this is the farthest I have got.

[thecomputerguy]

Originally Posted by xxsilk109xx

I opened it up with ubuntu and was able to see the user profile, however not all of the files are there. His downloads folder has items in it, but under pics, or docs, all I see is a desktop.ini file.

I see the downloaded files that he wants me to recover, but like I said, pics and docs are not there, but this is the farthest I have got.

Sounds like you may have one of those " I know just enough to be dangerous " customers.

[xxsilk109xx]

yes your right about that.....

I tried a few different data recovery options to no avail. I just nuke and paved the machine. Advised customer to follow the backup options that I originally suggested, but sometimes its in one ear and out the other.

On another note, I am probably going to stop installing ccleaner and defrag programs, etc. Reason being is, that even though I put detailed instructions in a text file on the desktop on exactly when and how to use these programs, but when I get the computer in the next time, these programs have never been touched...

it will probably save me a little time too.