Restore My Files : Information & Data Recovery

my old computer was pretty old (2001/2 I think) it had a recovery partition which I used to reformat the hard-drive of my old computer to re-install windows XP many times, If I were to get a new computer without an OS, would it be possible to use that recovery partition on a completely new setup (old one went out the window >.<)

Very unlikely. Recovery partitions typically include an operating system pre-packaged with the drivers and software intended to run the system they were delivered with. ie: your old computer.

If you were to perform the recovery on a new system with completely different hardware, it is likely that it won’t even boot into Windows at all. You could get lucky of course, it may just boot. And if it does, it would only be a matter of running the Driver disk that comes with the new system, once you have Windows up and running. This might just get it going for you.

I wouldn’t bet on it, given the age of the old system, it is not going to have even one driver/hardware component that is similar to the new system. The only way to get this to work would be if the recovery process asks you each step of the way, giving you the option to NOT install the drivers. This would give you just a clean install of Windows and it would then work almost perfectly, after you run the new system driver disk of course.

And in case you’re wondering, none of this should harm your new system. Just remember to do a full format of the hard drive after it fails to be sure it’s clean, ready for a new OS to be installed.

Worth a try I guess. Just an hour out of your life if it fails

Good luck.

I has stuff on a hard drive that failed, i was wondering and hoping there are data clinics or any company that i can go to an recover the data in the state of Minnesota

I am quite sure that there are and I would Google HD recovery followed by your zip code to find such shops.
If your HD has physically failed, usually is making any clicking or jet engine type noise, It is usually not worth the cost to recover.
As a PC repair tech for over 13 years, I can tell you that the minimum cost of this type of HD recovery starts out at around $300.00 and can literally run into the $1000’s. This is because you have to buy an exact same type of HD and, in a clean room environment, the platters have to be removed from your HD and put into a new HD. If a platter is broken the cost will eaisly double or triple.

However, if your HD just no longer responds you can sometimes hook that drive up as a slave and copy the data from it. This costs considerably less but can still run into hundreds of dollars to have done.

This is why it is always a good idea to back up your data to an external source like a DVD or an external HD.

Good luck with your search and data recovery.

My old hard drive is corrupted and I want to salvage the files on it using a data recovery program I’ve downloaded. However getting the program to read it is difficult. Do I need to reformat the hard drive? When I go to reformat it says this will erase all data on the disk, but according to other websites I’ve read it should be fine and I should still be able to salvage files. Which is correct?

If you do a full format, all the data on the disk will be overwritten with the formatting data – and you will lose the data you want to retrieve.

There is a type of formatting called "quick format" but that erases all the folder data, and that means you will have even more problems finding the data you want.

You say getting the program to read it is difficult. If the hard drive is failing, then you will have enormous problems getting any program to work right.

If the only problem is corrupted folder structures, then a quick format *might* work to erase all of the corrupted data, leaving the other data. Then your data recovery program would have to scan the entire hard drive.

I use the free Recuva program from Piriform to recover data, but I don’t know how it would work in your situation. Recuva has the ability to scan all the hard drive sectors, it is an option. If you can get it to work, you will need another drive to have a place to copy the selected data.

http://www.piriform.com/recuva

Wikipedia article about Recuva:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recuva

There are programs available that will read the data directly off the sectors of the hard drive and present it in hexadecimal format, but that doesn’t mean you can make enough sense out of the data to be able to recover it. The better programs also cost money.

Monday, March 8, 2010

After having to force reboot my Asus laptop, I was unable to boot into Windows. I had it looked at by a professional and he believes that the hard-drive is finally dead. So I was wondering how expensive it is to get a professional to fix the physical hard-drive so I can recover all my files.

It varies – If it is not a hardware problem you can use a software recovery solution ( free to $200) Hardware problem- the repairs can range from simply replacing the internal control board (moderately expensive – a hundred dollars and up) to disassembling the drive to remove the disks and manually reading the data in a clean room (very expensive $1000 +)

I created Recovery discs to backup my hard drive. I was prompted to create a set of five discs but some error prevented me from creating the last one. Hope that won’t show to be an issue later.

Now, my system crashed and I need to get all my data back, but am unsure of the steps to take to do so from the recovery discs. Can you tell me how and anything things else I might need to know? Thanks so much!

Did you put the first recovery disc in the cd/dvd drive & reboot the computer & see if it allows you to boot off the cd? If nothing happens then you will need to go into the bios & see if its set to boot the cd first then the hard drive.

If this is set correctly, then you probably didn’t make the boot cd. Since you had an error, its possible you will still have issues.

I currently have a Compaq Presario 2000 laptop, and whilst reformatting my C: drive, I accidentally also deleted the D: (Compaq_Presario) Recovery Hard Drive, and now no longer appears after successfully having fully reformatted my C: drive.

What can I do to retrieve the D: (Compaq_Presario) Recovery Hard Drive on my laptop?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanx!

A programme like Acronis Recovery Expert (part of their Disk Director Suite) can help you recover even "fully reformatted" hard drives. I’m sure there are Freeware solutions too. Try http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/file_recovery/download.htm?language=1# for example.

The less you did after formatting the drive, the better are your chance of a full recovery.

I lost a lot of cherished family videos from my hard drive. Can I send it to microsoft for them to recover it (or some other official company, no guys who no one’s ever heard of or something, like a big name company). The hard drive was manufactured by western digital.

Physically damaged drive data can be recovered by recovery centers. If your drive is not physically damaged, u can recover them by yourself.

Undelete plus
Recover my files

are good in recovering lost files.

My hard drive crashed in my HP and i have another one that is blank. If i stick the blank hard drive into my computer and press F10 to do the system recovery will it put the windows files and things on the hard drive? Will it interfere with the other hard drive if it Magically starts working and i use it again?

The OS comes with HP recovery CD/DVD is an OEM edition of that OS. Of course you can install it on another hard disk but it will ask for a valid serial number; since the SID(security identifier) changes with the change of disk. If you can get a fresh serial number, you’re in.

My external hard drive died out of nowhere. I plugged it as usual and it didn’t detect. So I disassembled the external and installed that hard drive into the desktop. When I boot up into windows it detects the hard drive but it shows as an unallocated drive.

Is there any software (free or for purchase) that will allow me to see my data?

You can try to recover your files from external HDD with Easy Drive Data Recovery software:

http://www.munsoft.com/EasyDriveDataRecovery/

It uses unique modern algorithms to recover files that other software either recovers incorrectly or is unable to detect.

I recently fried my hard drive. Im thinking about using a data recovery center. The drive i need recovered has alot of unpublished and un-copyrighted material that i have created such as screenplays and manuscripts. Im worried that the company having access to these will steal them during the recovery and with no backup on my part i would have no way to dispute that they were mine in court if i needed to sue cause someone uses it. Are my worries valid ?, any way to deal with this situation.

I honestly doubt a group of computer nerds in clean suits are going to care about some scripts on a hard drive, unless they are particularly erotic. They make a lot of money and therefore it probably isn’t worth going to jail to steal something off the drive.