Where are the user files on an XP machine

[some_guy]

I am donating my time to help out an organization that is somewhat tech challenged. They have 2 old XP machines that are kind of unuseable. I was able to get the important files off of one of the machines by booting up Linux off a usb drive and finding the files and copying them. I recall they were in a directory called main. I am in no way claim to know much about windows.

The other machine did not have a directory called main. I looked around and I could not find them.

I would appreciate a basic explanation of where windows XP user files are kept as viewed from a perspective of the whole disks.

Thanks.

By the way, I did try to use windows to get the files but it was so so so slow to the point of being practically unusable, and it did not have window explorer under the accessories menu. Is it sometimes put somewhere else or was it deleted from the menu? If I could access that program I also might be able to back them up, however, it might be too slow.

I will not be with the machines until Friday so I will not be able to try ideas until then.

 

[Ketchup]

C\Documents and Settings\username

In XP, I almost always navigated through directories for the C: (or any drive) through the My Computer link located in the start menu. The Windows Explorer link does the exact same thing, so no huge loss there.

 

[some_guy]

Thanks.

I was able to back up directories in there that looked like they might have something.

 

[corkyg]

Ketchup79 shows the default location in C: drive. However, there is no lock on that location. XP allows the user to piut data files anywhere. I had all m ibne on a RAID1 array. Last month, when I killed XP, I was able to save one of those data drives and access it normally with 7 or 8.1. I suspect that those users used the default. So, as Ketchup79 says, look in C\Documents and Settings, and possibly My Documents.

I would pull the drive and place it in an external case. It could then be accessed extensively without fear of data loss.

 

[some_guy]

Ketchup79 shows the default location in C: drive. However, there is no lock on that location. XP allows the user to piut data files anywhere. I had all m ibne on a RAID1 array. Last month, when I killed XP, I was able to save one of those data drives and access it normally with 7 or 8.1. I suspect that those users used the default. So, as Ketchup79 says, look in C\Documents and Settings, and possibly My Documents.

I would pull the drive and place it in an external case. It could then be accessed extensively without fear of data loss.

That is a great idea.

Or perhaps back up the whole disk onto a big disk, for theses disks are only 40 GB for without me they may not know how to get the files from a ATA drive.

It is really hard to get them to sit down and think systematically about backups so that covers them to some degree.