Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

  • Congratulations SkipVought on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Lost data, need help quick! 2

Status
Not open for further replies.

SeanGilbreth

Technical User
Oct 24, 2004
77
0
0
I had to do a system recovery and now I've lost all of my data, is there any way I can recover it?

Thank you very much!
 
Was it a rescue from an OEM Rescue / Restore CD? The one that came with your system?
 
It was the System Recovery program/setup that came with my HP computer.
 
Your drive has been repartition, reformatted, and overwritten by the Restore.

You should look here: Thread779-744465
 
Hate to say it DakotaXS... but you're probably out of luck if you want to ever see your data again. The recovery 'program' formats your hard drive and basically sets the system back to 'brand new'.

bcastner - I think that thread reference was mis-pointed.
 
wooglin, see my posting in that thread. I just clicked above and it showed:

**********FreeWare Recovery Tools**********

Deleted File Analysis (NT/2K/XP)

PC Inspector (FAT 12/16/32 NTFS)

OnTrack (Also have a Netware version - NOT FREE)


**********TrialWare Recovery Tools**********

Undelete 3.0 (30 Day trial available)
(NT/2K/XP) - Can run direct from the CD

File Recover (95/98/ME/NT/XP)

R-Undelete (FAT12/16/32 NTFS NTFS5 and Ext2FS)

Recover My Files

**********Shareware Recovery Tools**********

File Scavenger (NT/2K/XP) - Supports Reformatted Volumes -Limited to 32Kb file size!

GetDataBack for FAT (FAT) Works Even After FDisk and Format, Can run Over the network.

GetDataBack for NTFS (NTFS) Works Even After FDisk and Format, Can run Over the network.

Active@ UNDELETE (FAT 12/16/32 NTFS) Runs From MMC Console

Active@ UNERASER (FAT 12/16/32 NTFS) Runs from DOS Bootdisk

FinalData Plus (95/98/ME/NT/XP)

************Commercial Products************

File Restore ($39.00)

HDR Data Recovery ($485.00) Trail available

Some of these products claim to be able to recover from a reformatted drive.
 
Sorry bcastner... I only scanned the first couple of posts regarding deleting files to the network.... my bad. Good post!
 
DakotaXS,

Just wanted to see how things went with your data restore. Did any of the products recommended work?

Thanks
 
It turns out I hadn't actually lost the data, just the program.
 
I've gotta add a note in case it helps even one poor soul.

First and foremost, don't assume your data is "lost" -- even if the PC vendor says it is.

Try a product called "Restorer2000" -- I have used it for several years with good success.

I do software development and "trashed" my registry. HP said my only option was to restore using their recovery utility, so I backed up all data to my second hard drive. After their utility ran, I noticed the C:\ drive looked just like the D:\ drive (I forgot to unplug!). Their utility formatted and installed XP on BOTH drives. When I called HP, they said "your data is gone and there is no way to recover..."

After testing a few recovery products, I was able to recover over 95% of my data! (Since I frequently reimage my machine, I install ALL products, then restore a backup of all data files. Since the data always goes on last and their restor doesn't put any 3rd-party software on the system, their image is always smaller, thus low risk of writing over my data.)

If you THINK you have lost your data, DO NOT do anything that will possibly write over your now-hidden data. i.e. do not install recovery software on that disk! Take your hard drive to another machine (as a secondary drive) to recover.

Bad advice from vendors is not unusual, so be wary and get a second opinion first (kinda like when HP told me I had "damaged" my hardware by installing software and would need to ship the pc back to them for repairs!)

Good Luck to ALL!


"Have a great day today and a better day tomorrow!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top