Old laptop hard drive going. Lost half stuff! Argh!

TonyMMM

The Windows.old folder indicates that the operating system has been updated (Windows 10 ?), that may account for things not working properly like your wifi/ethernet connections and could just be that new drivers need to be installed.

Existing data shouldn't disappear and is probably in a user profile somewhere, but you will need to work out where.

The best way, as previously recommended, is to remove the hard drive from the laptop and connect it to another computer and use that to extract the files you need. The more you mess about with recovery programmes unless you really understand what you are doing the more danger there is of wiping stuff permanently.

RebekahR

agrinnall wrote: »

Given that it appears you don't know what you're doing I would suggest that paying someone who does to retrieve your files for you might be a better option.

Yes I would just need a user guide for the above as it doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't seen you can preview stuff with that. It's nothing essential and i've clawed some of it back with the other program (used via a external hard drive with the programme on it).
Not worth paying someone for really. Thankfully as I am a messy buga most of the important stuff was just dumped on my desktop rather than in a folder and has carried over ok. This is mostly older stuff. I have half of backed up to my hubbys pc from before the baby. So its just stuff for the last few years non of which is essential. I am getting a hard drive of my own though so I don't have to rely on him :-)

Thanks everyone. I was up for the above but I just don't understand how to use it. There are no easy to use guides around.

Heedtheadvice

If you lose picture of your baby, for example, that you might easily recover then you would probably regret it later on.


The easy option is to take your pc to a reputable local engineer, get them to:
Physically remove the hard drive;
Backit up fully, only then;
Find all the pictures & documents that reside on it and copy them for you;
Find out what is wrong woth your laptop and fix (if possible) so that the problem is removed. It could be that the issue is just malware etc corrupting your disk or a host of other problems some of which have already been mentioned.



If you just continue to use it there is a possibility that you will just get further problems.......and you might end up just backing up duff data!


Getting an external hard drive to do frequent backups is a great move AFTER you have recovered everything you can and got your laptop working properly!


If you do not know a good local engineer post your town and someone might be able to advise you. Steer clear of the likes of pc world and cowboys!