[Terryl]

My daughter's laptop with XP has lost all her microsoft programs i.e both office 2003/2007, outlook express and all emails.
She said that there was a pop up saying to update microsoft xx which she started but did not complete, since then all the ms programs are lost even her my document. The internet could still be accessed.
Could this be a hard drive or virus problem ? the laptop is over 7 years old .
Your opinion would be welcome as I won't be able to access her laptop for sometime.
Thanks
Terryl.

[CFLager]

Have you tried a restore point? Not always the answer but....
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306084

[TheShooter93]

As CFLager suggested, try a System Restore.

That popup does worry me though. What did it say exactly?

Also, are you experiencing any other symptoms of malware (redirecting on the internet, random popups, abnormal sluggishness, etc)?

[Terryl]

Thanks for your replies. I will ask her to try a restore. i will visit her this weekend and try and get some more information and I would like to look at the problem instead of over the phone.
Thanks and hold tight and will inform you about outcome.
Terryl

[1002richards]

I'd suggest taking an Ubuntu live CD with you just in case you need to try to rescue any docs, pics etc that may be needed to external media.Take a spare flash drive or two to copy to, perhaps?
Guide here if needed: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...dows-computer/

[Terryl]

I did a system restore and it all came back. It transpired that when she started up, microsoft went into auto update but she knocked it on the head before it completed.
Thanks for all your help.
Terryl

[1002richards]

Glad to read it's solved!