Re-installing Windows Question

I recently re-installed windows through f9 and it's all working fine, my question is, I have a 80gb HD, and I have roughly 40gb of items on the HD, but they no longer show up in the start menu or in the add/remove programs window, is there any way for me to refresh Window's memory of what's on the HD?

 

Sounds very much that what you did was a "clean" install wiping the HD clean of what was there before.

To get your applications back, they will have to be intalled again, and any user data, unless backed up to removable media, is gone.

What's puzzuling here are the numbers. A new install shouldn't take up 40GB. Are you sure its not 4GB, because that would be about right.

Download Belarc here http://www.belarc.com/Download.html and run. You will get system info - HD size, among things, plus info on any applications installed.

Regards - Charles

 

Oh, I'm sorry, I sort of worded that wrong.

I didn't format my HD, I just re-installed windows into the same folder since it was missing some critical file, I think the name was "NTLDR ". I now got everything working fine again, and the 40gb of files is STILL on the hard-drive since I just re-installed Windows, but Windows isn't recognizing the fact that they are there on the HD, I just wanted to know if there was a way to get all the previous folders back onto the start menu.

 

here

so how did u re-install it?
u didn't enter windows and re-installed it,right?
when u re-installed it,windows deleted the previous system files,and then set up a new one.
so the information associated with the softwares in the regedit has been removed.
so have u used the software ghost.exe?u can set up all ur necessary programmes and then back the c-disk(system disk) using the programme ghost.exe
next time when u feel ur windows is not stable or u can not enter windows,u can restore it..
then i will take u only approximately 15 minutes to re-install 1 new windows?
good luck!!!

 

daoguang33 - welcome to the forum. I think you may be our first PRC member.

Good suggestions and thank you.

 

thanx
hopefully we can be good friends!!!
and the 2008 Olympic games will be held in Beijing,China,I hope u can come here to enjoy the wonderful games!!