Installed fresh copy of W2K over previous instal

[Nepheligenous]

Hi,
I made the HUGE mistake of lending my 100GB hard drive to a friend. He had trouble booting from it, and he went ahead and "helped" me out by installing a fresh copy of W2K over my installation. Now I have lost everything -- all the programs I paid for, all my data, everything! Is there ANY way I can go back to my previous installation?

Please help!
Thanks,
Vic

 

[electronicsfreak]

If he just reinstalled windows 2000 over the old one and didnt format it, your data will still be there. Just look around in certain folders and you will see old ones or new ones that no one uses. You should find your data there. Now if you formatted there are programs for retrieving data but I dont know any so if thats what you need you will have to wait for someone else to reply.

 

[wolluf]

As electronicsfreak says - depends on what your friend did. But from your comments - 'Now I have lost everything - all the programs I paid for, all my data, everything', it sounds like he wiped the drive first (otherwise you'd still be able to see the data in the profile folders, and the program file folders would still have your programs in them (although they woundn't run if installed over).

Data recovery apps will retrieve some of the lost data - assuming a full wipre (the less you use the drive till you try them, the more you'll get back) - but most cost (GetDataBack is pretty good -

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm

is free, but is not so good with ntfs fielstore, but you can try it). They won't restore your installed apps however - haven't you got the install disks to reinstall from?

So check out exactly what's been done - post back if you need more info. GetDataback does run in 'demo' mode (ie, it will display list of stuff it can recover - but won't let you recover it until you pay for licence. This can be useful, as you should recognise filenames. But remember, not all files that are recovered will be complete - some will be partially overwritten by new install).

 

[tuco7]

If a repair install was done the best place to look is in windows explorer, documents and settings and where "Your main" user folder is, there should be old and a new, if not then the drive was formated, there is no need to look any further.

There is a program called WINHEX, it a very complex but through program, take your time and read everything.

http://www.x-ways.net/forensics/index-m.html

 

[wolluf]

tuc07 - if a repair reinstall was done, everything will still be in place.

 

[tuco7]

Yes wollf you are correct to a certain degree, that is what suppose to happen, BUT not everytime does the repair install fix anything or is everything is in place sir, it depends on the corruption that has taken place. We can only guess what is going on this board from the little information that we are given here!!!!!