Can't access files or programs

[Guest Mose]

Following the Oct 13 Windows Automatic Updates, I can no longer access any

data files or programs. I'm using a Dell XPS 1330 laptop with Vista Home

Premium.

 

I'm able to boot to Windows, I can "Search" for files and see a list but

when I try to open a file I get the message ""can't open the file because it

might have been deleted or is in a location that is not available." If I

right click on a file to view its properties, It show the first directory

below user\account, but the file name is garbled and file size is reported as

zero. If I try to do a directory listing from the command prompt, it can not

find any files, although the free disk space that is reported indicates the

drive still contains many files.

 

Steps taken:

 

Uninstalled the most recent Windows Updates

 

Tried system restore, but it "did not complete successfully" - received

message

"System restore failed due to an unspecified error. The transaction handle

associated with this operation is not valid"

 

Was able to run chkdsk (without any "fix" options), but only from a command

line after booting into safe mode. Result said "Chkdsk is verifying files

(stage 1 of 3) … 0 percent complete. (0 of 92480 file records processed)

Attribute record (160. $130) from file segment 450 is corrupt. 92480 file

records processed. File verification completed. 370 large file records

processed. Errors found. Chkdsk cannot continue in read-only mode."

 

Would the next step be to run Chkdsk /f or sfc? It has also been suggested

that I create another user profile and see if I can copy files from the

original to the new profile?

 

Most data is backed-up but I need to recover a few of the very latest

critical files and I don't want to risk losing them. Thanks - any advice

would be appreciated.