Restore My Files : Information & Data Recovery

Hi everyone,

Can I get my data back when the hdd is formated? i actually installed windows again by using hdd recovery disk.i thought my recovery partition will be not be affected and my data will remain their but even that partition is being formated i guess.Can I get my data back?

Please tell me some way to get this data back any software something! I would be really thankful to you guys.

Thanks in advance

Regards

If you’d just reformatted the drive, but not written any new files to the disk, your chances of reovery would have been excellent. All the format really does is mark everything as usable.

But when Windows is reinstalled, that overwrites any earlier data on those areas of the disk. Anything overwritten is gone.

You could try some of the undelete utilities from download.com to see if they can salvage anything from areas that didn’t get blasted by the new install, or go with a professional data recovery service for best results… but they are expensive.

The question says it all. For example, when you buy a laptop, if it stuffs up you can format the whole thing putting it back to new by opening that partition. Some people have told me to use Norton Ghost but i’m pretty sure that just makes a huge backup file where you need to have an OS installed to recover it. I want to be able to run the recovery wizard using the BIOS post screen or an equivalent method.

Using acronis true image, and installing acronis boot manager can do the requirement for you. Note that acronis is not a freeware, and hence you may need to purchase it (If piracy is not an option). The software is easy to use and is self explanatory. The special are created on your HDD called acronis secure zone can store your critical system files.

A hard disk can fail any time, taking the recovery partition with it. However, you could use Acronis True Image 2010 to create a new partition on either an internal or external drive and then make it a recovery partition. It provides you many more options, to backup your recovery partition to DVDs or USB sticks.

Using Ghost is easy, but it may not serve your specific need to run the recovery wizard using the BIOS post screen. Anyway, here is the details to do it, if you get interested
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2014353,00.asp

Just in case, if you have windows 7, you have got one more option. Windows 7 when installed as the only operating system to it’s own hard drive creates a small separate System partition. On this partition it places the boot system files and access to a complete set of recovery tools, including Startup Repair, System Restore, Complete PC Restore and the Command Prompt. These and more recovery options are available WITHOUT having to insert and boot to a Windows 7 installation DVD. (Note: If one pre-creates and pre-formats the Windows 7 installation drive/partition and then on running Windows 7 setup, select the partition and press Next, this small separate System partition is NOT created.)

Or with windows 7 DVD, you can create your own recovery partition, but you may need a separate HDD!
Check this link for details:
http://en.kioskea.net/faq/4093-windows-7-create-a-recovery-partition

Hey guys, my laptop was recently dropped and the HDD was damaged because the system froze and wouldn’t reboot. It will go as far as the boot screen and a very quick flash of the blue screen of death before it restarts again. I tried re-seating the dimms and the hard drive but no luck.

I’d scrap it and get a new one if I’d backed up my data, which I didn’t. So I used the drive a a slave in my pc, hoping to retrieve my data that way. When I booted up, the drive appeared as raw. 100% free and in need of formatting! I tried doing a diskcheck but windows can’t access the drive.

Can somebody give me any fresh ideas. I’m pretty able-bodied when it comes to PC repair as I studied it for 2yrs so please don’t say "take it to the shop".

Thanks guys

Firstly you got to understand that data recovery is delicate especially in your case because you want to have the lowest amount of activity on the drive you wish to recover data from as much as possible. Any activity such as reading can reduce the chance of data recovery and writing will definitely reduce the chance of recovery. So I Guess you can try " Recuva ", it’s a simple to use, lite data recovery software. Juts point it to which drive to attempt recover and it will pick up all that it can from impossible to possible to recover. And remember, keep the amount of activity down as much as possible on the drive you recovering data from. Good luck

I have low disk space on recovery e, 5mb free of 14.6 gb, and on recovery c 145 gb free of 218 gb.Now i want to buy a hdd which can b used for recovery c also later on & in which i can backup every thing present in my pc precisely to be on safer side. Pl let me know which hard drive i have to buy & how much gb it should have also tell app. price in india. I dont know any thing about this. Os vista 3 gb ram 32 bit dual core. Thank you

Use an external HDD

There are lots of software but it must be use from bootable CD not in windows
You should bought a Partitioning software CD like Hiren’s bootable cd or any DM newer version. most likely your HDD manufacturer Disk manager software.
there are many HDD & Partitioning software in CD menu chose option Zero Fill format.

for more Information visit these articles.
http://www.computing.net/answers/hardware/zero-fill/12156.html
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/225193.html

Here’s the original question.

"How to recover data? / logical hard drive failure on previous PC?

My old PC had a virus slip by the free AVG antivirus protection program. The PC started acting extremelly odd with web pages opening all on there own, programs and windows becoming un-responsive. Even the task manager started denying my access as though I was no longer the system administrator. In my attempts to correct the issue I wound up wanting to try re-installing the operating system in an overlay install. Because of updates having been installed, when I went to install from my OS cd it would not let me indicating my current operating system was newer. I mistakenly thought I’d just remove the updates and then go from there. Once I did that it was an obvious wrong move and now the PC wouldn’t even boot up properly. Now, when I tried to run the OS install cd it was not going to offer an overlay install option. It wanted to start clean and erase all the old data. I did not have anything business related of huge importance, but I did have some pictures of sentimental value so I did not choose to proceed any further at that time.

My PC was fairly old and quite slow so to immediately solve the issue and allow me to continue some internet business I had been in the middle of at the time, I actually just went out and bought a new desktop. I had been overdue on buying a new one so no biggie there, and I’m extremelly happy with the upgrade to the new desktop I chose.

From looking into the hard drive issue it appears if I’m understanding correctly, and from communication with a local data dr location, that I’m dealing with a logical hard drive failure due to a possible worm virus and then my negative impact as well.

Is there a reasonably priced recovery software I could try???? Or could I perhaps take the hard drive out of my old desktop and plug it in as a second one on my new desktop and recover the data that way???? Ofcourse avoiding the virus jumping to my new hard drive. My new desktop has up to date Norton Internet Security 2008.

Any advice / help / input would really be appreciated. I’d love to be able to retrieve all my old pictures, and if possible I’m wondering if I could retrieve webpages I had saved to my IE favorites. I had not dealt with any issues with that computer in a long long time so now that I think of it there was also a ton of personally important research oriented info in there.

The hard drive I’d like to do a recovery from had Windows XP Home, and my newer desk top has Vista.

Thanks so much for any help, or pointing me in the right direction.

Laurence"

Here was the first answer that I didn’t quite follow, and I never did see clarification on it. Though it sounds like the easiest solution I should pursue.

Quote from jethrohoyt

"I really doubt that this is as big a problem as your advisers make out.

If you have bought a new PC and the old one was ‘an old one’, then you will have SATA drives on new PC and IDE drives on old PC. This shouldn’t stop you as you might have an IDE slot on new PC MoBo, but complications may ensue.

For $15 to $25 there is a better way.

Buy a IDE to USB (or even a SATA or IDE to USB) adapter. These are simple to use, just make sure IDE drive is master, plug in new device to IDE socket on HDD first (indicator towards power socket) then plug in power from wall power supply provided into IDE drive (in the $25), then plug USB from device into new PC and browse the old drive. The old drive comes up just like a USB external HDD (which it now is) in Windows Explorer and you drag and drop the files you want.

Clean it up with Norton and your old PC can then be salvaged.

I can see no pitfalls – I do this as a kind of second job. Its straightforward and it is regardless of the state of the MBR of the old drive.

Good luck

Source(s):
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/…
"

Here was my reply that never was replied back to.

"Additional Details

Thanks very much for the prompt reply, and help.

The old PC is a 4 year old Dell Dimension 4600.

OK, I’m halfway following you, but not 100%.

Off the top of my head I don’t know how to ID an IDE plug/slot or a SATA. So, I’ll have to do a Google search there so I know what we are talking about. Then, I’ll pop the cover off the Dell to see what I have there.

So, the I’m not following you here. Am I going to physically remove the hard drive from the old PC, and then hopefully have an extra plug on the ribbon cable that is on the new PC’s HDD that I can also then jump over to the HDD from the old PC. Then, hopefully also have an extra unused plug from the power supply and plug that into the old PC’s HDD to power it up. Then, isn’t there a little jumper plug that has to be moved on the old HDD to make it a slave and not think it’s the master????

More I think about it, I guess I’m not following you. As the above is what I was invisioning."

Anybody cap
OK, thanks much guys. Really appreciate the info/help.

Possibly the easiest answer would be to get a USB to IDE/SATA cable, or a USB hard drive caddy. Either option will be cheap, you’ll find tons of them on eBay, and many good computer shops will sell them too. That way you can plug the drive into a spare USB port, rather than opening your computer. The cable is probably the best option – they usually have connections for 2.5" laptop drives, 3.5" desktop drives and SATA drives.

IDE connectors have 40 pins in 2 rows of 20, while SATA is small, black, L-shaped and easily broken!

If the data was deleted off the drive, then you can download software to "undelete" files. If the drive cannot be read at all, then a data recovery company would probably charge around £600. Costs in other currencies will vary.

I used to have a ubuntu pc but the MB broke, i took the HDD and need the data, i have a windows pc now, and i would switch HDDs’ but the PC’s are totally different, the ubuntu came off of a AMD 3200 and the Micrsoft Winxp i have now has (Dell)Intel running it.

My question is how do i resolve my problem without losing any data or buy another AMD 3200? so that i may retrieve the data?

thx and please help

I usually use SystemResuceCD, which is a Linux Live CD that contains a number of tools for fixing and recovering data.

You would need to boot the Live CD, mount the hard drive, and then you could copy the files to a USB or wherever you wanted on your computer. If you want to copy it to your Windows Partition, you would also have to mount your windows hard drive.

use asoftech photo recovery pro, it helped me many time to recover photos, videos, documents.
http://www.asoftech.com/apr/

A few months ago I tried to install OS X on my Toshiba Sattelite.I got it fixed, but the guy said what I installed removed Vista.My question is, is the HDD recovery still there, and can I use it to get my laptop back to normal?

To install OS X on a hard drive that had Windows first means you would had have to reformat your entire hard drive (or whatever partition you are using). Everything you had on it before the formatting is gone. You will have to reinstall Vista from the DVD.

I want to format this HDD, and install windows 7,

But I was wondering, that if I wasnt happy with windows 7, would the recovery disks still be able to work (even though I have wiped the HDD before I installed Win7) so that I can install vista back onto the system?

Thanks!!

Okay I am assuming that you got a pc with a pre installed system(vista).
all right so the manufacturer made two partitions. "C:" and "recovery"
so if you’re planing to install the new system(win 7) try not to erease the entire disk just the partition where windows vista is installed in this case "C:"