lost everything

busterkeye

Long shot I know BUT

A few weeks ago my wife had a virus on her laptop and couldn't shift it, so she rung PC world and they told her to put the work she needed on a USB stick to save it, then do a format of the laptop, so she did, but she only copied the link to 'My Documents', (No I didn't laugh) She lost all the important things for her work. So my question is this, is there anyway of looking deep into the hard drive to get the stuff back? I'm only asking this because I have been told that when you format, the things don't completely get erased, bit like Gary glitters hard drive I suppose

intel

Try http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm for files

Try http://www.pcinspector.de/smart_media_recovery/uk/welcome.htm For Image Files

smckay

yes there is. i use ontrack recovery and it is very good.

when you delete, or format data it is not really gone, just the reference to that file on the hard drive is removed. until the data has been written over, it should be relatively straight forward to recover the data.

you can apply file extension filters so you only recover office documents and photos for example, but the file names will all be lost. it is a time consuming process but if the data is important it is definately worth doing.

http://www.ontrack.com/easyrecoveryprofessional/
http://www.recovermyfiles.com/

i do not know of any free recovery tools, but google is your friend

twe

depends on the type of format... if its a quick format you might be able to recover files, if its a full format then no u can't recover the data...

busterkeye

many thanks I'll give it ago for her and get back to you ASAP

matty_c608

I back up what Intel says!

Personally used it myself - Very Good.

Only worry is (this goes for all types of Software) that if the Operating System has over written the files that she needs, she won't get them back for free. She'd have to pay a File Recovery Specialist! This would be done with hardware, and is quite very expensive.

Good luck with recovering them!

Donnie

Would this work?; http://windirstat.sourceforge.net/

gunneradt

twe wrote:

depends on the type of format... if its a quick format you might be able to recover files, if its a full format then no u can't recover the data...

not true

even after a full format most data can be retrieved.

I use getdataback and it works very well.

busterkeye

when you say 'written over' how do you write over something like that? do you mean like redoing the work and renaming it the same thing
EG lost document = work rota 2006..... do it all again and name it work rota 2006 (but not the same rota cos you cant remember quite how it went) if you know what I mean

smckay

written over as in if the surface of the disk, that is read as digital (1's and 0's) information by the read head, is replaced by different data then if is not very easy to retrive.

if however the disk has been formated, or the file deleted and removed from the recyle bin, then the data is on the hdd but there are no links to the data.

when using recovery software if you recovered as you say "work rota 2006.doc" it would say file0001.doc, file0002.doc and you may find some of it is corrupt and the rest you have to sort through and name correctly.

it takes as much time as you are willing to dedicate depending on its importance to you.

busterkeye

cheers again