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re-installed windows - lost everything

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Comments

  • macman
    macman Posts: 53,129 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    A pen drive is a flash drive is a memory stick. All the same thing-a portable USB solid state drive.
    Why on earth did your friend think she needed to reinstall her OS just to get rid of a virus?
    No free lunch, and no free laptop ;)
  • macman wrote: »
    A pen drive is a flash drive is a memory stick. All the same thing-a portable USB solid state drive.
    Why on earth did your friend think she needed to reinstall her OS just to get rid of a virus?

    Bad advice but once we sort out her pc i will show her this site and get her to read the advice on here about security, virus checks etc, i've used this site for over a year now but never 'noticed' this technical thread before, i've learned a lot myself thanks to all the posts :)
    wouldn't it be nice if i won : car/cash/family holiday :)

    :j I am a winner! :j

    Thank You to all who post and who make this a great site!
  • enigma52
    enigma52 Posts: 642 Forumite
    the best way is to use software that you can boot from, ie a live cd. Now the cheapest one I have found today is HERE but it is still quite expensive. Using this method you do not load anything from existing hard drive therefore no risk of overwriting the files you wish to recover, assuming they are still recoverable of course as I do not know what use the hd has had since reinstallation of OS or in fact how many times the pc has been started.
  • her pc has only been switched on once so i could check to see if i could find her stuff, i told her not to switch it on at all if she wanted to get anything back :)
    wouldn't it be nice if i won : car/cash/family holiday :)

    :j I am a winner! :j

    Thank You to all who post and who make this a great site!
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