I think the shop kept my hard drive

JJ_Egan

Keep a copy of Recuva as it works on many formats i just pulled 2gb of pictures off a friends USB stick . You can also use to recover accidental deleted files in windows . jje

[Deleted User]

JasX wrote: »

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.

You seem so confident, yet so wrong.

A simple reinstall of Windows XP will NOT erase ANY data, only settings within Windows (and even then it doesn't erase, it overwrites - including all application registries and install files/dependencies).

It sounds to me the first time you took it down he did a simple reinstall, however when you returned it back again it sounds he was forced to do a REFORMAT (which wipes the harddrive of all data/files).

Its VERY surprising you got ANY data back with that application due to the fact you were using the computer quite a lot so the operating system would have written over multiple times the location of the data you were missing so you should count yourself VERY lucky and now back your stuff up immediately!

closed

Anything that writes changes to the disk is going to overwrite some data, that includes a repair, and a reinstall

Use of a system with a large hard disk doesn't preclude recovery of data, unless the specific data area was overwritten, windows is a small part of the average hard disk

JJ_Egan

You seem so confident, yet so wrong. REFORMAT (which wipes the harddrive of all data/files). Well that's wrong as well REFORMAT does not wipe the data only the file allocation tables the data is still on the drive but their is no index to find it .It then requires recovery tools to recover the data . Format and install a new copy of Windows will overwrite parts of the drive but not all of it . If you have a 50gb drive with windows on the first 10gb and the other 40gb is data then a format and reinstall only writes to the original 10gb leaving the 40gb of data available for recovery . Not quite as simple as that as the original data/windows may be fragmented . I have personally pulled back data from a drive that has been formatted and windows installed and used at least twice . Not all data but a large amount . jje jje

Barneysmom

So now to my shopping list for Saturday.....
I external dvd writer (so I can also use it with my netbook) plus some memory sticks of some sort, and some blank dvds.

Is there anything else I might need?
I'm going to upload a lot to Flickr and maybe my Facebook page too.:)

redcard

JJ_Egan wrote: »

You seem so confident, yet so wrong. REFORMAT (which wipes the harddrive of all data/files). Well that's wrong as well REFORMAT does not wipe the data only the file allocation tables the data is still on the drive but their is no index to find it .It then requires recovery tools to recover the data . Format and install a new copy of Windows will overwrite parts of the drive but not all of it . If you have a 50gb drive with windows on the first 10gb and the other 40gb is data then a format and reinstall only writes to the original 10gb leaving the 40gb of data available for recovery . Not quite as simple as that as the original data/windows may be fragmented . I have personally pulled back data from a drive that has been formatted and windows installed and used at least twice . Not all data but a large amount . jje jje

The point is, if the guy in the shop had any clue, he could have installed Windows without formatting the drive.

Everything from the previous installation would be moved to a windows.old folder and all data could have been copied across.

No wonder people are turning to the Mac. They're sick of the service from two-bit-techies and the big stores.

aliEnRIK

JJ_Egan wrote: »

You seem so confident, yet so wrong. REFORMAT (which wipes the harddrive of all data/files). Well that's wrong as well REFORMAT does not wipe the data only the file allocation tables the data is still on the drive but their is no index to find it

Unless a FULL format is run in which case everything is removed

[Deleted User]

JJ_Egan wrote: »

You seem so confident, yet so wrong. REFORMAT (which wipes the harddrive of all data/files). Well that's wrong as well REFORMAT does not wipe the data only the file allocation tables the data is still on the drive but their is no index to find it .It then requires recovery tools to recover the data . Format and install a new copy of Windows will overwrite parts of the drive but not all of it . If you have a 50gb drive with windows on the first 10gb and the other 40gb is data then a format and reinstall only writes to the original 10gb leaving the 40gb of data available for recovery . Not quite as simple as that as the original data/windows may be fragmented . I have personally pulled back data from a drive that has been formatted and windows installed and used at least twice . Not all data but a large amount . jje jje

Wrong. Reformat function is dependent on operating system. A normal reformat using a Windows XP disc will write 0's - a 'Quick Format' will just remove the partition tables and create a boot sector.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_formatting

[Deleted User]

As a tip - go and buy an external HD and backup everything you care for..

Here's one for 33 quid - http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/9752934/Seagate-Expansion-Portable-320GB-2-5-inch-External-USB-2-0-Hard-Drive-Black/Product.html

Ironically it's 4 times bigger than your HD.. it will save the worry of loosing all your precious music and photos

JJ_Egan

A its worth reading that Wiki in full . B I have a drive that had windows 7 on it last week erased partitions and full format . Partitioned again installed windows and programs . As a test used recovery tools on one of the partitions to retrieve 90% of the data and it had a full format . Low Level Format from Wiki Today, an end-user, in most cases, should never perform a low-level formatting of an IDE or ATA hard drive, and in fact it is often not possible to do so on modern hard drives outside of the factory . Thats not available in windows its a low level boot utility > sure you will find that a Full Format does not do what you claim check Microsoft who will tell you the difference is full checks the whole disc for errors bad sectors .. jje