I got an error i attempted to repair with the windows disk by pressing R at the screen to repair it. i sucessfully extracted the missing file, restarted, but for some reason it started installing windows again.

nothing was erased, except for the files that setup overwrote, and all my previous data, user folders and stuff is on the hard drive. is there any way i can link all that information to the current instalation of windows? or do i have to format and start all over?

Can you physically "see" the old information on the drive?

yes, i sure can

Ok, I'm confused (not hard lol). What do you mean by "linking" the information?

prior to this problem, all my drivers were installed, had a bunch of programs installed, and bunch of icons on my desktop, and just basically everything set up how i wanted it, as far as preferences/options.

now i have what you get after you first install windows, no drivers or programs.

but everything is still on the hard disk, i can right click explore and see it all, or run the programs that way, just wondering if theres any way to like import my settings and drivers and stuff, tried the file transfer wizard thing, but its apparently looking for an export file, as i never created one, i dont have one, but all folders that windows creates when you create a user account is on my HD. i tried renaming the folder that its using as the default user now to the one that it used previously, but it wouldnt let me. is there any other trick, or way i can get everything back to where i had it, short of physically moving every file manually?

know what i mean?

You can copy your old user profile if you are using a new username..are you?

it created a new user profile, but i used the same name that i did before, but here it is.

the old name i used was P 4, the new name i used is P 4, but the new folder it created is p 4.p 4 wheras the old folder name is P 4

i tried renaming the old p 4 to p 4.p 4, but it wouldnt let me. how else would i do it?