How do u get to all the folders on a hard drive?

How do i get my old windows with my old hard drive back?

• Basically one day i accidentally deleted the C:\windows\system32\config\system Folder from my computer. Yes it was dumb i wasnt paying attention to what i was doing. It was fine for about a week till i restarted my computer then a black screen pops up telling me it cant find C:\windows\system32\config\system in my computer and i should repair it. So i got my windows CD and put it in. went thrugh the whole repair process but i had no clue how to work the MS-DOS type screen to repair it. So my genius brain thought, 'yeah i know. If its missing a folder from windows and i have no clue how to get it. I might aswell just install windows again on top of this' And thats what I done. When it came to the place where it asks you where on the hard drive you want to install it i said 'on top of the other Windows' and it said do you want to format your old hard drive i said no. So now here i am, with a really rubbish windows. and no files at all. However luckily i can see that everything on the old harddrive hasnt been erased but its on 'hidden folders' and i dont know what to do. I was thinking of deleting this version of windows that i just installed but i dont know how. Any help guys?

• Answer:

  my computer c: Windowsold(folder created during install to save previous windows files) All your old files will be there.