New to this forum so I didn't know where to post this. Sorry to the mods or whoever have to move this. Anyways, I have a question. Here's a summary:

About 2 weeks ago I headed off to college and immediately noticed that there protection wasn't as secure as what I had as home. Within a couple of days I had some sort of virus. So I decided to do a system restore to clean out whatever I had. (Keep in mind I'm not a computer expert at all) Anyways, when I began to redownload some of my music after about 6 GB of it was back on the computer I got an error that says I have low disk space. This came as a shock because I have a 120 GB hard drive. What I'm wondering is how to I find the files that were on my computer pre-system restore? Any advice would be appreciated.

I'll provide more details if need be.

Ah, just saw the no help questions thing. My apologies.

Well lets see. First I moved the post to the storage forum for now, though this may turn out to be a windows problem.

Please tell us how you restored? What did you do exactly and were there any messages abour losing all of your data during the restore?

Well lets see. First I moved the post to the storage forum for now, though this may turn out to be a windows problem.

Please tell us how you restored? What did you do exactly and were there any messages abour losing all of your data during the restore?
Start>Programs>Accesories>System Tools> System Restore.

There were no messages of lost data. What I'm trying to do is delete everything pre-system restore.

System restore only replaces windows files. If the files were Windows related they were replaced. I suspect you have some malware problem.

Download, install, update and perform a full system scan with Adaware (http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html)
Fix all critical errors.

Download, install, update and scan with Spybot (http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10401314.html?tag=lst-0-1).
Fix all items in red.

Download and unzip into a permanent folder Hijackthis (http://www.subratam.org/main/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=41) . Choose the option to scan and create a log.

Post the contents of the log here for review.

System Restore in both WinME and WinXP is a very crude tool with unpredicatable results and success. It can delete stuff it is not supposed to and often or usually to not succeed in actually "going back in time".

I agree that malware could be part of the problem and that includes a virus - so if you don't have a good UP TO DATE a/v then get an on-line antivirus scan in addition to the above as well as ensuring your system is firewalled to give you some protection on your college LAN as well as on the internet.

What I'm wondering is how to I find the files that were on my computer pre-system restore? You could try recovery software such as GetDataBack from www.runtime.org.

Suggest that when you get your system sorted-out that you learn how to separate your system files from your data files by partitioning and of creating your own "system restore" by a good imaging and backup strategy.