computer question

I know this is not a SW question but lots of smart people here. I had
to have my Windows XP Pro reinstalled, computer problems.
Is there any way (i.e. Norton Utilities) or other software that I can
retrieve my lost data? The person that reinstalled windows did not
make a back up file or directory.

 

The short answer is no, unless, you just repaired the previous windows
install.

If this is not the case............................then,

The first person to be sacked, is you, for not having a backup procedure in
place and the second, is the person who re-installed xp windows for also not
making a backup.

Would I sack you or the other person? too dam right I would! lol


Any serious IT person will always make a backup and another and then
another.

If you have mega bucks to spare, you could try a data retrieval company, but
even then, it is very unlikely to get back the data that you want.

Sorry the news couldn't be happier.

 

Use the Boy Scout Motto: Be Prepared.

For the future, start reading and practice replacing your own hard
drives and installing OS's, and dealing with backups yourself. It
sounds like no one else is doing it, so you have a new skill set to
learn.

Bo

 

Mmmmm......how many of us just did a backup just in case?

F

 

Everyday. Lose one hard drive and you're data and you'll learn to
backup too.

 

And VERIFY THEM !!!!
I've seen fortune 500 IT departments making backups .. too
bad there was no actual valid data written to the media (or
filesystems were missed, etc.)

 

There is a good way to do a verify, that always attempts to be safe
without excessive expense, but I've not seen it described directly
before, so here is how BoDoes Simple Backup:

1. Duplicate Data Files from Desktop PC to an external Hard Drive
(FireWire in my case & I use Retrospect from EMC for now).

2. Duplicate External FW Hard Drive to my Laptop PC. I now use the
files on my laptop most of the time, so I verify that the latest
project gets transferred successfully (never had it fail in 15 years
with Retrospect, as long as it was to hard drives. I have had WAY TOO
MANY failures in tapes & tape drives so many times, I won't use them).

3. At this point the same files reside on 3 hard drives and the time
take to duplicate a typical days work manually like this is maybe 10
minutes to update each disk's contents (takes longer the first time to
load all data files to the external hard drive and then laptop HD).

The method above does NOT prevent corrupted files from being
transferred, and is not literally an archiving process, so you can't
go back to earlier versions of the projects' files. Retrospect will
do archiving of only changed files and I do that too onto other larger
500 GB external or networked drives. Retrospect uses a single
expanding data file containing all versions of all files, so there is
always the chance that a corrupted Retrospect Archive file might
become unreadable (though I've not had that happen). I would actually
prefer an archiving function that put the files into structured
folders with a browser that would let me find things manually if ever
needed.

Retrospect does a good variety of tasks, as other good Backup/
Archiving software programs do, and the good ones also offer timed
backups so you can have less manual labor to maintain things.

Bo

 

There are people who can recover data off a hard drive even in
situations like yours. The problem is they generally work for the NSA,
CIA or FBI. Search the net for hard drive data recovery services.
Of course if you are now using this machine you are only making things
worse. You may find it not cost effective.

TOP

 

Do a binary compare *from* the backup with the source.
But that does not assure that you backed up everything that
you needed to to begin with.

 

Disk images may not be a good way.
They are fine for some purposes but perhaps not for
reinstalling on a new (or repartitioned) disk or filesystem.
IF that's what you had in mind.

 

To date, every Retrospect "Duplicate" of an entire OS partition I've
done on the Mac has resulted in bootable disks. I haven't had reason
to try it on Windows.

Bo

 

Tried to reinstall on a different drive/partition size from one?
I've not tried to boot from one ....

 

Not what I had in mind. Read quick, replied quicker.

I don't use disk images. I do creates 'images' of one disk on a 2nd
so that 2nd will boot.

Bo

 

I did the same thing a long time ago, I thought I grabbed my SW
directory but didn't. I reformatted and reinstalled WIN XP. Thought I
was a dead man when I didn't find my files on DISC, did a quick search
on the net and found a program to recover deleted files, even from
formatted hard drives, NOT to hard. It took a half hour search and I
was able to recover everything, no problems. everything still
available. You can try a free program call RESTORATION or ACTIVE makes
one called UNERASER you could try. There are also a lot of cheap,
generic ones that contain spyware, adware and don't work worth
anything. Test out the trials till you get one that you like, use it
to find your files, then buy the software. Good Luck!

 

Most "Recovery" or "Unerase" programs work only if:

1. you did NOT overwrite the hard drive with new data
2. the hard drive has not had an electrical or hardware failure
3. the drive has not been scrambled by an electrical failure during
a write which can cause the drive to not be recognized or mountable.

Bo