SERIOUS PROBLEM WITH LOST DATA/FAIL TO COMPLETE RESTORE

[Guest]

My friend is an IT tech and on 8/30/07, he cleaned out some old files in the
add/remove, we did an explorer update, emptied out the recycle bin, defragged
and cleaned out other old files. at the start of it all, he did some sort of
copying of files to his computer and this took a few minutes, not sure what
it was. He told me at that time, that we need to go from the 256 megs to 1
gig of memory and this will cure my slow running. The next day we bought a 1
gig and also a wireless netcard for my dell desktop computer with windows xp
home edition. We installed this and everything appeared to work fine but the
next day when i turned on the computer. ALL MY BUSINESS FILES WERE LOST BUT
TWO. I did a search of 20 products and none of them came up, somehow the
complete files were deleted from the computer. I have been told by several to
do a system restore to see what recovers and go from there. AT THIS TIME, I
AM UNABLE TO DO A RESTORE AND THE MESSAGE SAYS "SYSTEM RESTORE IS NOT ABLE TO
PROTECT YOUR COMPUTER, PLEASE RESTART YOUR COMPUTER, AND THEN RUN SYSTEM
RESTORE AGAIN".
I have tried to restore a few times and nothing is working...
ANY IDEAS ON HOW TO FIX THIS RESTORE?
OH....I should mention that I installed a 40G hard drive in the same Dell
computer, this came out of an HP that the motherboard would not power up the
power supply and he cleaned out all the windows files on that E drive but one
windows file that cannot be deleted and a few of my business files.
Would cleaning out that E drive have deleted any files? Will these files
restore? there is only about 5% of used space on that drive, i was going to
use it for picture storage of products i am adding to my webpage.
THANK YOU FOR THE HELP. I AM DESPERATE
The other problem i am having after installing the wireless netcard in the
desktop, is that my wireless laptop two feet away is being interrupted but
ath signal and i can boot on unless i go back into laptop each time and have
windows reconfigure the system.

 

[JS]

Have you checked the Recycle Bin for the missing files?

JS

 

[Gordon]

I have been told by several to do a system restore to see what recovers

System Restore does NOT recover user-created Data files.
As you are running a business, restore your data from your last backup. ;-)

 

[Gordon]

System Restore does NOT recover user-created Data files.
As you are running a business, restore your data from your last backup. ;-)

And I suggest you get a "proper" techie to do your IT support...

 

[Guest]

well you see its like this...i did not have a data back up system now did i
ever suspect anyone would lose my files for me, especially him. But im
getting one now.

 

[Jim]

well you see its like this...i did not have a data back up system now did
i
ever suspect anyone would lose my files for me, especially him. But im
getting one now.

Anybody can lose files for lots of reasons. That is why the more business
like
people make backups.
What I wonder is what did your friend do that cleaned out all of your files?
A clean reinstall would do that.
Jim

 

[Gordon]

well you see its like this...i did not have a data back up system now did i
ever suspect anyone would lose my files for me, especially him. But im
getting one now.

If you keep ANY sort of business records on a computer then you MUST
have backups.......fire, theft of computer, lightning strike, Hard disk
failure, the list goes on and on....

 

[Gordon]

If you keep ANY sort of business records on a computer then you MUST
have backups.......fire, theft of computer, lightning strike, Hard disk
failure, the list goes on and on....

And if you are REALLY serious about this, the backups are kept off-site
as well....

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

well you see its like this...i did not have a data back up system now did i
ever suspect anyone would lose my files for me, especially him. But im
getting one now.

Unfortunately you've learned the hard way. And its also unfortunate
that you trusted the technical skills of a friend who it seems had
very little skill to offer.

Here's my standard post on backup, which perhaps will be helpful to
you:

First of all, almost everyone should be backing up regularly. It is
always possible that a hard drive crash, user error, nearby lightning
strike, virus attack, even theft of the computer, can cause the loss
of everything on your drive. As has often been said, it's not a matter
of whether you will have such a problem, but when.

Essentially you should back up what you can't afford to lose--what you
can't readily recreate. What that is depends on how you use your
computer and what you use it for.

It takes time and effort to backup, but it also takes time and effort
to recreate lost data. If you back up daily, you should never have to
recreate more than one day's worth of last data. If weekly, there's
potentially a lot more to recreate. You should assess how much pain
and trouble you would have if you lost x days of data, and then choose
a backup frequency that doesn't involve more pain and trouble than
that you would have if you had to recreate what was lost.

Some things (photographs, for instance) can never be recreated, and
more frequent backup may be wanted for them.

At one extreme is the professional user who would likely go out of
business if his data was lost. He probably needs to back up at least
daily. At the other extreme is the kid who doesn't use his computer
except to play games. He probably needs no backup at all, since worst
case he can easily reinstall his games.

Most of us fall somewhere between those extremes, but nobody can tell
you where you fall; you need to determine that for yourself.

Should you back up Windows? Should you back up your applications? Most
people will tell you no, since you can always reinstall these easily
from the original media. But I don't think the answer is so clear-cut.
Many people have substantial time and effort invested in customizing
Windows and configuring their apps to work the way they want to.
Putting all of that back the way it was can be a difficult,
time-consuming effort. Whether you should backup up Windows and apps
depends, once again, on you.

How to backup? What software to use? There are many choices, including
the Windows-supplied backup program. Which choice is best for you
depends at least in part on the answers to some of the questions
above.

Finally what backup media should you choose, and how should it be
stored? There are many choices, including CDs, tape, zip drives, and
second hard drives.

I don't recommend backup to a second non-removable hard drive because
it leaves you susceptible to simultaneous loss of the original and
backup to many of the most common dangers: severe power glitches,
nearby lightning strikes, virus attacks, even theft of the computer.

In my view, secure backup needs to be on removable media, and not kept
in the computer. For really secure backup (needed, for example, if the
life of your business depends on your data) you should have multiple
generations of backup, and at least one of those generations should be
stored off-site.

My computer isn't used for business, but my personal backup scheme
uses two identical removable hard drives, I alternate between the two,
and use Acronis True Image to make a complete copy of the primary
drive.

I also use a pair of 1GB thumb drives for making more frequent backups
of my most critical data (like financial information). For that I just
drag and drop.

 

[Gerry]

Bill

Can you remember the file name of one of the missing files. If yes you
can use Windows Explorer to search "My Computer" for the file. If you
can find one the chances are you wil find more in the same location.

If the search does not work you can try Restoration:
http://www.snapfiles.com:80/get/restoration.html

When files are deleted the files are not deleted only the pointers to
files. Without pointers the system cannot see / read the files.
Restoration works until such time as new data is written over the disk
space where the deleted files are. It is therefore important not to use
the computer until you have decided the files cannot be recovered. Even
the act of restarting the computer results in data being written to
disk.

Otherwise data recovery in the commercial world is very expensive.

An experienced computer repairer would have placed data files in safe
place before undertaking such repairs.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute

 

[Gerry]

Bill

Something like this is easy to use and very portable.Capacity up to 2
gb.
http://www.data-bar.com/

These are easier to use than CD/DVD disks.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Guest]

My friend is an IT tech and on 8/30/07, he cleaned out some old files in the
add/remove, we did an explorer update, emptied out the recycle bin, defragged
and cleaned out other old files. at the start of it all, he did some sort of
copying of files to his computer and this took a few minutes, not sure what
it was. He told me at that time, that we need to go from the 256 megs to 1
gig of memory and this will cure my slow running. The next day we bought a 1
gig and also a wireless netcard for my dell desktop computer with windows xp
home edition. We installed this and everything appeared to work fine but the
next day when i turned on the computer. ALL MY BUSINESS FILES WERE LOST BUT
TWO. I did a search of 20 products and none of them came up, somehow the
complete files were deleted from the computer. I have been told by several to
do a system restore to see what recovers and go from there. AT THIS TIME, I
AM UNABLE TO DO A RESTORE AND THE MESSAGE SAYS "SYSTEM RESTORE IS NOT ABLE TO
PROTECT YOUR COMPUTER, PLEASE RESTART YOUR COMPUTER, AND THEN RUN SYSTEM
RESTORE AGAIN".
I have tried to restore a few times and nothing is working...
ANY IDEAS ON HOW TO FIX THIS RESTORE?
OH....I should mention that I installed a 40G hard drive in the same Dell
computer, this came out of an HP that the motherboard would not power up the
power supply and he cleaned out all the windows files on that E drive but one
windows file that cannot be deleted and a few of my business files.
Would cleaning out that E drive have deleted any files? Will these files
restore? there is only about 5% of used space on that drive, i was going to
use it for picture storage of products i am adding to my webpage.
THANK YOU FOR THE HELP. I AM DESPERATE
The other problem i am having after installing the wireless netcard in the
desktop, is that my wireless laptop two feet away is being interrupted but
ath signal and i can boot on unless i go back into laptop each time and have
windows reconfigure the system.

Hi Bill,
It will be helpful if you mentioned what type of files are they?.
Try these tools to recover deleted files, but not 100% guarantee that it
will recover all lost files on your system, or may not at all?.
Free Hard Disk Utilities: Recover Deleted Files and Lost Dat
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/collection/collid,1295-order,1-c,downloads/files.html
RECOVERING DELETED FILES
After You Have Emptied the Recycle Bin
http://www.aumha.org/a/recover.php
HTH.
nass