I think the shop kept my hard drive

Barneysmom

I had to take my desktop into the mender's on saturday for a reinstall of XP.
I got it back on Tuesday, it cost £30.
When I got it home ot still didn't work so I took it back this morning and picked it up again this afterioon.

Everything's gone.
I've lost loads of music which has upset me as it cost me a fair bit. I could cry.

All my pictures are gone off it (not too big a problem as I have them on memory cards and phones)

I had to phone Virgin to help me set up the internet and Outlook as they wouldn't work.

The man in the shop said that for my inconvenience he'd given me an extra memory card which I said thank you for and I was pleased.
Till I got home and switched it on.

My hard drive was a 70gb.
Now, when I look it's 80gb, most of it free.

I don't know what they've done, is there anyway I can get my stuff back.
I had a lot of hubby's medical records on there and a lot of work stuff which was very important.
Just loads of stuff gone, everything.
I'm gutted.
I've had an XP reinstall before and not lost anything?

Barneysmom

The only system restore point seems to be last Saturday when it broke down.

Hammyman

I have yet to see 70GB hard drives being sold. I've been building and repairing computers for two decades. More like it may have been an 80GB with a hidden partition.

Regarding the lost files. Restore the missing music and files from the backup you made. Let me guess, you haven't got one? I guess the lost documents weren't that important then. You've just learned an important lesson. There are data recovery firms which might be able to get it for you but you're looking at £500 for 20GB. You have no comeback with the shop - it is not their responsibility to look after your data, especially with an OS installation.

You've not lost them in the past because its not been a proper re-installation, merely a "paper over" job.

I have little sympathy - its not like the importance of backing up hasn't been shouted from the rooftops enough.

closed

Install recuva, run deep scan, if nothing found, try getdataback

Any professional shop should have warned you, asked the question, or backed up the data for you.

stevemcol

when i read your post i knew the next post or so would be some unsympathetic backup preacher and what do you know, bob's your uncle.
i have lots of sympathy. a bit of carelessness never deserves losing all your stuff. however, without a lot of specialist attention and a fair amount of money, you probably have lost it all.
so from now on, you don't need to be told how important backing up is.

hammyman, you could consider easing up a bit. not backing up wasn't a criminal offence last time i checked.

googler

Well, the OP will know not to take their PC back to this 'mender' next time.

OP; can I suggest that, having followed the advice on using recuva and getdataback, if you DO get your pictures, music and medical records back, that you investigate and learn (there's lots of Wikis, guides and youtube videos telling you how);

How to install a secondary hard drive in your desktop.
How to copy data from your primary hard drive to this secondary.

and schedule yourself a daily or weekly session to copy your important stuff from primary to secondary.

If the Operating System needs to be re-installed, then remove the secondary disc BEFORE taking the machine to any 'mender' to have the primary disc wiped clean.

debitcardmayhem

closed wrote: »

Install recuva, run deep scan, if nothing found, try getdataback

Any professional shop should have warned you, asked the question, or backed up the data for you.

PLease don't install recuva on to your hard drive , download it to a USB stick first because it may overwrite one or other files on the disk, and try to recover to another disk/usb first.

Also it may be that the recovery "The only system restore point seems to be last Saturday when it broke down. " still has some of the files in the system recovery area. It may be possible that you can recover some of them , depending on the way the shop restored your pc.

closed

recuva is tiny, the drive (if it's the same drive) has been formatted and partially overwritten and used (downloading anything is going to put it on the disk and overwrite data anyway). On a 80GB drive, the odds of recuva installation overwriting a recoverable and important file are very slim indeed.

debitcardmayhem

closed wrote: »

recuva is tiny, the drive (if it's the same drive) has been formatted and partially overwritten and used (downloading anything is going to put it on the disk and overwrite data). On a 80GB drive, the odds of recuva overwriting a recoverable and important file are very slim indeed.

Was not trying to disparage your advice closed , but was trying to ensure OP does not try to recover bits to the original drive

JasX

Barneysmom wrote: »

I've had an XP reinstall before and not lost anything?

100% incorrect, reinstalling XP completly erases anything on the drive you reinstall to, the guy you asked to wipe your PC and has done exactly what you asked, whatever you thought you did last time waqsn;t an XP reinstall.

Its always down to YOU to keep backups in good order, never down to anyone else.

aliEnRIK

Barneysmom wrote: »

I don't know what they've done, is there anyway I can get my stuff back.
I had a lot of hubby's medical records on there and a lot of work stuff which was very important.
Just loads of stuff gone, everything.
I'm gutted.
I've had an XP reinstall before and not lost anything?

Did you explain your situation to the shop?

As for the original XP reinstall, that was an install over the top so all other files remained
I too would have done what the shop did (formatted and started afresh), if you hadnt told me any different (that said, id have explained what I was to do before hand)