If you had Vista and not XP, your username should be in the Users Folder - not the Documents and Settings Folder (that folder is a junction point for backwards compatability only and won't help you recover your data). Check there in the Users Folder and see if we get lucky.
I've never used Google Chrome so I don't know how it works or what it saves or where it saves it. If it uses Favorites in your username sub-folder, then if that folder is gone most likely so too are your favorites - but Chrome may save it elsewhere where it can be located (see where it's saving the favorites now and look in the same place in Windows.old). I can't help you there. I find it extremely unlikely that it would have saved your other data files (like work (whatever that is) or music or documents or pictures or audio or any of the other primary categories in which you most likely saved your data and music files and whatever else - no browser I've ever used has ever had that feature).
I'm sorry to say that if your username folder is missing (hopefully you found it above, but if not and it's nowhere else in Windows.old), then somehow Windows.old did not copy that information for some reason (and we may never know why). Just to be sure, go to Start / Control Panel / Folder Options / View and click the button to show hidden files and folders, uncheck the box to hide system files, and uncheck the box to hide extensions of known file types. Then go back to Windows.old and see if you can find any additional information or folders (especially your username folder) - if it was for some reason hidden or mis-classified, this should allow you to see it though you couldn't before. Let's hope that's the case. If it still isn't there, then I'm afraid that data is essentially lost.
Since you didn't format (proven by the existence of Windows.old), there is a very, very slim chance that some of the data can be recovered. Probably not the favorites (since they aren't stored as files), but possibly some of the lost files (like the music files or any of your documents or pictures or whatever) assuming they haven't been overwritten (which is likely if not probable). You can try the following to see if you can recover any of those files (though again, it is very doubtful but remotely possible).
Files aren't actually deleted until they are overwritten (though they're no longer available through conventional methods). If you decide to try these recovery programs, you should stop using your hard drive immediately so you don't overwrite the data you are trying to recover. Slave it to another PC and run the recovery from that PC. Even now you may have permanently lost some of them if you're using that same PC. If you can't do that (slave to another PC), you run the risk of overwriting the data with every action you do on the PC (but you still may be able to recover some of the files - it's a matter of luck).
http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/system/fwdatarecovery.html(try Recuva ONLY - do not purchase any products that aren’t free – here or in any of the other links – I’m just suggesting the FREE options and have had problems with some of the commercial ones)
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/diskdigger.html(try this second - if it doesn’t work either chances of recovery are very slim but you can try the other options if you wish)
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/easusdfr.html
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html
http://www.snapfiles.com/downloads/recuva/dlrecuva.html
http://www.softperfect.com/products/filerecovery/
http://techpaul.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/how-to-recover-your-lost-files/
Only you can decide if the data is important enough to take the PC to a data recovery expert to recover the files (they will have better programs and equipment to do so than any of us do and than I provided above). Do NOT go to Geek Squad or any of those big store centers - they mostly don't know what they're doing - take it to a data recovery expert. It will cost quite a bit (I mean that) and they usually offer no guarantees. Frankly, if the above doesn't work, I believe it isn't worth the expense to even try, but that's not up to me. The decision is yours.
I hope this helps.
Good luck!
