Missing user profiles following registry problem

[Ro5SM]

Hi everyone.

The other day our PC refused to boot, presenting a blue screen with 'Stop c0000218 registry file failure'.

I followed this guide - http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_repair_a_stop.htm - had to do the 'harder method' as the first 2 had no effect. This seemed to fix the issue as the computer now boots successfully, however all our user profiles and personal files have disappeared! All programs seem to be intact, although Office applications won't open, instead just giving an error message (broken shortcuts?)

When I did system restore, the only restore point was from back in 2010, which surprised me - perhaps I shouldn't have restored from this point? There is no option to undo the restore for some reason. After I'd restored, Windows requested the validation key before allowing me to log in, which it accepted (wasn't expecting it to request this either).

I can see that all our files are still present on the computer (through Linux live disc), but they seem 'hidden' in Windows, along with our user profiles.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! 

[Superhuman]

I wonder if you had only the one system restore point from 2010 because of doing the procedure in that link, and it cleared your more recent ones.  When I looked in the folder it mentioned (C:\WINDOWS\repair) on my system, it had the registry hives dated the last time I did a full backup (with NT Backup), which was nearly 11 months ago.  Did you do a backup in 2010, or did you initially install Windows then?

My guess from looking at that procedure described is that it seems to either create a system restore point from registry hives in the above-mentioned directory, or from the Win install CD.  It's kind of a convoluted method, because there's a far simpler way to directly copy the registry hive files to the Windows registry (via a live Linux disc, as you mentioned).  I wonder if you wouldn't have been a lot better off having used a lot more recent restore point BEFORE having tried that procedure.  (Presumably they would've still been present then.)

If you would happen to have any backup of your files, that would be the easiest way to restore them to usability.

But if not, since your registry has been reset pretty much back to the start anyway, I'd suggest trying to repair your installation of Windows XP by performing an in-place upgrade.  You can repair a damaged Windows installation if you run Windows Setup from the Windows XP CD-ROM.  It's a shot in the dark, but it's possible it could do something for updating the registry to make your files visible again.  If not, it's not likely to make anything worse than already is the case with that old system restore.

[Superhuman]

Actually, a lot better suggestion to recover your files (than my last) is to try Recuva http://www.piriform.com/recuva/download.

[Superhuman]

In fact, what you were doing already of viewing your missing files with a live Linux CD, is also how you can restore them.  I saw some invisible-to-Windows files with a live CD recently too, and I noticed accessing them caused them to reappear to Win.  Particularly, if you copy the missing files/folders to some recovery folder you designate, then your Windows installation should subsequently be able to see them again there.

[Ro5SM]

Many thanks for your advice Superhuman - I will have another go at recovering files using the methods you suggested.