Nothing happened! All r OK. "I've used Windows previously", how did u format ur HD. Did u completely format / just dual booting ur PC. If u completely format and fresh install Mint, there is no way to get back the Wind drivers. If u install Mint on other partition then u can see the dual booting options after GRUB loading..... If there is dual booting then fire the command on terminal: fdisk -l | grep -i ntfs (it shows the sda1 / sda2 as like & assuming ntfs). To mount NTFS as read-write it is needed the ntfs-3g utility. Now pass the commands in terminal: mkdir /mnt/windows
mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows (Keep in mind u can change as ur substitute as sda1)
mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows/E (same concept as above)
Now open Nautilus and go to /mnt/windows or /mnt/windows/E folder. If u want to make it auto-mount on start up, then open fstab file on ur favourite editor like: gedit /etc/fstab and write the below line at the last,
/dev/sda1 /mnt/windows ntfs-3g defaults 0 0
/dev/sda2 /mnt/windows/E ntfs-3g defaults 0 0
Keep in mind fuse is also required for read/write permission. If u only read, then simply pass as: mkdir /mnt/windows and then type as: mount -t ntfs /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows same for E drive. Of course u have to change as ur partition no /name.