I used PC Inspector File Recovery software which was included in the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows. Although it read my damaged Windows XP drive when the other programs could not, it will not show the folders and files in the Documents and Settings folder. I tested this on two other PCs with fully functioning drives, PC Inspector File Recovery fails to show the contents of the Documents and Settings folder even when all other explorers will. Also the Find feature did not find files within the Documents and Settings folder on functioning PCs when the target files were accessible by all other means. Has anyone else had this problem? Is there a solution?

The program is setup to only show lost/deleted items ... not the items that also exist in normal browsing. I believe that in some cases it will also show an older version of an item that was modified... which should explain why if you use a regular file browser and see a certain list of files that are also shown in PCIFR... I believe the ones shown are then earlier versions of the same existing file ( ie the version before whatever modified them )

Thank you for responding. Your response makes sense, but how do I get the good files off my bad drive? I can't boot from it and no other explorer can read it. PC Inspector was the only tool in the UBCD4Win disk that managed to read the drive at all. I would appreciate any suggestion you might have.

Try TestDisk. It's also included in UBCD4Win.

Find and mount

If test disk fails try using find and mount if the partition is damaged.