<<Come to think of it, the original installation was in F:\Windows. Perhaps that is fortunate for me? Probably not, just because I used "F:", it still probably installed the "C:" drive in the same location.>>
No. If it is now C:\Windows, then it has installed to a different partition. How many partitions did you have? How many partitions can you see in "My Computer"? If any, is data visible on them or are you getting "Access Denied" when you try to open files/folders. If this is the case then you just need to take ownership of the files/folders to access them.
Go slowly, consider every option.