Hi Guys

I have a bit of an issue with my PC and any help is appreciated.  I am not completely computer literate but I will outline my problem in as much detail as I can:

The PC I have been using is about 5-6 years old and runs XP.  It is basically a spare one which I use to connect to the TV and is kind of used as a media centre of sorts.

Anyway, one day as I was booting up I got an error message along the lines of "system32\Hal.dll is missing, please resintall a copy ...".  After doing a bit of Google, I went into the Recovery Console and attempted to fix it there by rebuilding the boot file.  Having had no success there, I figured there were no options other than to reinstall XP.  I booted from the CD drive, went through the on-screen instructions and installed a "fresh"copy.

So I rebooted the PC, and sure enough the files I had on there were gone. (~70gb).  I was a bit bummed but it seemed reinstallation was the only thing to do so I sucked it up.  I went into my Computer and poked around a bit, and to my surprise the 150gb drive is still half full, implying that my files were still there in some shape or form. 

I then connected the HDD as an external drive to my computer using an USB cable, and sure enough the drive is shown as half full.  There is however no way for me to find them (these files were previously just sitting on my Desktop as folders).  After a bit more Googling, I tried to take ownership of the drive throgh Safe Mode, though still no joy after I have done that. 

I have checked the disk (right click My Computer, Manage ..etc) and it is showing the same information, i.e. a 150gb HDD which is half full.  Interestingly, if I go through the command line and do a dir/ha for that drive, it is only shown as having a capacity of 70gb.

So my question is, is there any way of recovering my files?  I am guessing that they are hidden somewhere in the system or just taking up space, but if there is anyway of recovering them then I would love to know!

Any help appreciated.


Thank you