My book essentials

I HAD TO DO A SYSTEM RECOVERY ON MY WINDOWS XP, REINSTALLED MY BOOK AND CANNOT RETRIEVE ANY DATA .  TRIED EVERYTHING AND STILL NOT DOING SOMETHING RIGHT.  MY BOOK SHOWS IT’S ABOUT HALF STORAGE LEFT TO STILL USE AND THE THERE IS DATA AVAILABLE AND CANNOT RETRIEVE.   HARDEST EXTERNAL DEVICE I’VE OWNED TO USE.  SOMEONE KNOW WHAT I’M DOING WRONG?

are you trying to retrive the files to the original folder or to a specific location?