Restore My Files : Information & Data Recovery

Ive got a few Inspiron 1525 computers. They both have recovery partitions, but only one computer will recognize that there is one. I switched the OS harddrives and then the other computer then recognizes the partiton. What file needs to be on the OS hardrive to recognize that there is a recovery harddrive?

Sounds like the recovery partition is corrupt. It isn’t one specific file. The inspiron 1525 came with Disc’s thught if I remember rightly, at least the ones I bought here in the UK did.

I heard some body said no matter you formatted your HDD ,it would still have residue left in your HDD.

You have two choices: Try an app named:
Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics 5.3
Write Zeros to the HDD "Format C:\Replace data w\_Fill_000000000000000"
Please note: what accurs is, the HDD formated first then, its filled with random data (knowed as writting ZERO’s to HDD)
Then, it formats it again…
that makes data unrecoverable.
http://support.wdc.com/download/dlg/dlgdiag11.zip

It’s free by the way.

2) Destroy it! Just place the HDD in a Turkey pot (make sure the HDD is rapped in aluminum foil to reduce smell and, finally place the pot in the oven set it to 2 Hours and, HDD will be creamated. Hope it helps.

My Western Digital external started to not be reconized on my computers and I want to try to see if there are any free programs or software to help this out. I prefer not to send it into data recovery companies yet because I heard that it is expensive, but I have about 150 GB of data I need. Very important documents for my graphic arts projects. Thanks.

Try different USB port on your computer on your computer or try another USB cable. If those don’t work then unfortunately you are SOL unless you have backup or can spring for the recovery fee or you have backups in the future I recommend using spider oak (see the link bellow) to create extra back ups.

What do you guys think could cause this and what can I try to fix it? I’m helping out a friend and right now his harddrive (when put into my pc cause his nolonger works) comes up with the safe mode or normal windows options in DOS. Anything I choose causes the computer to reboot. He wants me to save the files on the harddrive so anybody know any good freeware harddrive recovery programs or something?
I took out my harddrive and am just using his as primary. i’ll try doing slave if it can.

You will never be able to successfully boot the OS of his hard drive on your PC because each computer has a different and unique hardware ID. His OS will keep on looking for his computer’s ID.

Just connect it as a slave and boot from your original hard drive then copy his data to your hard drive. Once you have copied his files, check his hard drive for errors. This can be done under Tools tab of the Drive Properties.

After checking for errors, you can put his hard drive back to his computer and reinstall the operating system. You may also want to reformat the drive prior to the re-installation so you can start clean.

Meanwhile, it is also a good practice to have 2 separate partitions on a hard drive: one for the operating system and programs and the other for data. This way, if something goes wrong with the operating system and you need to reformat, your data will not be affected.

When I reformated my harddrive, I tried to redownload java and other applications. it said there was a lack of disk space on my recovery drive. I dont want to delete anything on it because Im afraid my computer won’t work if I do so.

Im assuming you have windows. What you need to do when you download something, make sure your downloading it to you C: drive. You do not want to mess with the recovery drive since if something ever goes wrong then you wont be able to reformat using the onboard recovery tool. Also make sure anything your installing goes to your C: drive not your D: drive

I want to do a destructive recovery but cannot do so because i do not have the windows cd that came with computer. i also can not find a recovery section on the harddrive. i know that recovery console and sytsten recovery are 2 seperate things. what i plan to do is do a destructive recovery meaning that all files and data are deleted and the computer is fresh and new like out of the box. but i do not know how to do it without the cd and i cannot make the cds from my computer

You have no choice but to get a WIndows CD. Either borrow a XP cd from a friend and use your own license key (perfectly legal) or wait until Windows 7 comes out in October and buy a copy.

There is no other choice.

PS. If you borrow an XP CD make sure it matches your version:

XP Home
XP Professional

If you XP Media Center edition then you should have a restore partition because this is never supplied on CD.

i dont no what happened but i turn on my laptop and i cant get past system recovery none of the options will work and the only one left is to totally reboot my hardrive, i was wondering if there is a way to backup my harddrive onto my external because i got alot of shit on my harddrive and i dont wont any of it to be wiped. i can open up command prompt through system recoveery if that helps PLLEAAASSEEE HELLPPP

reboot means to restart your computer
are your sure thats what it says?

regularly, i have a 160 gig hard drive on my PC. I just reformatted it using vista recovery disks and now it is saying my hard drive can only hold 40 gigs. Does anyone know why this is happening?

Well obviously you didnt reformat the whole thing. Maybe you reformatted only a partition, you created a partition, or deleted a partition. In order for an operating system to see/use your hard drive, the entire thing has to be formatted. Any part that isn’t, is not usable by the operating system.

Dumb-ass deleted a file from my hard-drive and i have recovery-disks i made when i got the computer. Can i restore the file with the help of my recovery-disks?

Maybe. The recovery discs should put your system back to brand new – before you wrote any documents or set your email. Was the file on your computer then? Do you mind missing your own documents, tunes, and pictures?

If the file was part of the operating system, try Start, Run

SFC Scannow

That will replace any important system files that have gone wonky or missing.

The best way to do this is to partition your HDD (hard drive) which pretty much means setting off a little bit of room that you computer recognizes as where it should keep your data safe

After doing that you will need to make an image of your hard drive (which is in the .ISO) format.

If you are a little confused dont worry there is a program that can do it all for you for free, check out this website:

http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/backupandimage.shtml

This will successfully auto back up your data to keep it safe for another time.

The only problem that you run into is not having enough room to do the backup in this case i would recommend buying an external hard drive off this website:

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=414&name=External-Hard-Drives

If you decide to buy one feel free to contact me with any questions, my contact info is below and i would be happy to help you.