System Crash!! Data Lost

[Guest]

Hi, last week my system crashed, would not boot up after several re-boot
attempts I inserted a system recovery disk that came with my notebook! this
disk actually formatted my hard drive and automatically re-installed my
windows xp home edition. Does anyone no of a way to retreive all the data,
ie files photo's ect, or has the formatting destroyed them for good?

 

[Davy]

Reformatting a hard drive will wipe all the data from it, programme
normally give a clear warning like "All existing data will b
lost" which is as good as a 'nod and a wink'

But......having said that there may well be 'footprints' left from th
wiped data which a recovery service may or may not be able t
retrieve.... but at an expense, hence the reason for things lik
Killdisk, where the disc is formatted several times, known as passe
and which can take several hours

The only correct way to destroy the data is to give it 'the lum
hammer treatment' so that the disc platters are well and truel
shattered. The reformat that you applied, like the XP install dis
would be only a single pass...

Dav

 

[Malke]

Hi, last week my system crashed, would not boot up after several
re-boot
attempts I inserted a system recovery disk that came with my notebook!
this disk actually formatted my hard drive and automatically
re-installed my
windows xp home edition. Does anyone no of a way to retreive all the
data, ie files photo's ect, or has the formatting destroyed them for
good?

It is quite unlikely that you will be able to retrieve data by using
free or commercially available data recovery software. I'll give you
links if you would like to try. If the data is important, do nothing
further on the machine and contact a professional data recovery
company. I prefer Drive Savers, but there are others. Professional data
recovery is fairly expensive, usually starting at around $500USD and
going up from there. Only you can determine the worth of your data.

http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html
PCInspector File Recovery -
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/welcome.htm
Executive Software “Undelete†-
http://www.execsoft.com/undelete/undelete.asp
R-Studio - http://www.r-tt.com/
Ontrack's EasyRecovery - http://www.ontrack.com/software/

DriveSavers - http://www.drivesavers.com
Seagate Data Recovery Services -
http://www.seagate.com/support/service/drs/services.html

Malke

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi, last week my system crashed, would not boot up after several
re-boot attempts I inserted a system recovery disk that came with my
notebook! this disk actually formatted my hard drive and
automatically re-installed my windows xp home edition.

Yes, that's what using a recovery disk does..

Does anyone
no of a way to retreive all the data, ie files photo's ect, or has
the formatting destroyed them for good?

It's not the formatting that has destroyed them (drives can usually be
unformatted), but the overwriting by reinstalling the operating system.
Unless you want to try the services of a professional data recovery
service--which is very expensive, and may or may not work--you're out of
luck.

It's because of the ever-present potential for problems like this (and many
other kinds) that you should never rely on the drive always being there. If
the data, phots, etc., on drive are important to you, you need to establish
a program of regular backup, so if something happens to it, you have a
recourse.

 

[Plato]

Hi, last week my system crashed, would not boot up after several re-boot
attempts I inserted a system recovery disk that came with my notebook! this
disk actually formatted my hard drive and automatically re-installed my
windows xp home edition. Does anyone no of a way to retreive all the data,
ie files photo's ect, or has the formatting destroyed them for good?

The data on the hard drive is lost. That's why it's common sense to keep
backups of your most important files.

 

[Stevo]

It's not the formatting that has destroyed them (drives can usuall
b

unformatted), but the overwriting by reinstalling the operatin

system.
The format cleared the hard drive. The reinstall filled it

Unless you backed up your files, a company like Drive Savers is you
best bet. I have had proior experience with them, they will get you
data, but at a high price

Good luck..

Stev

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

The format cleared the hard drive. The reinstall filled it.

I'm not sure whether what you wrote is meant to disagree with what I wrote
or not, but in case it is, let me clarify it:

If the drive had simply been reformatted, and a reinstallation had not been
performed, recovery of the data with the use of an unformatting program
would have been easy. That's because formatting does *not* clear the drive.
What it does is rewrite the FAT and directories. Since there are no pointers
left to where the data is, the drive *appears* to have been cleared. The is
similar to the way "deleted" files aren'r really deleted, but just have the
pointers to them destroyed and the space they took marked as available to be
used. And just as Undeletion programs can often get back the "deleted" data.
if it hasn't yet been overwritten, unformatting programs can get back the
contents of the formatted drive if it hasn't yet been overwritten.

But when the operating system is reinstalled, it overwrites what used to be
there, and the data is actually gone. But even then, as you (and I) pointed
out, a company like Drive Savers can sometimes recover it.

 

[Guest]

I, too, turned on my computer to learn that my hard drive had been removed.
When inserting the operating system disk there was an option to back up data
files, which I selected. Where can I find them?

 

[C.Joseph Drayton]

I, too, turned on my computer to learn that my hard drive had been removed.
When inserting the operating system disk there was an option to back up data
files, which I selected. Where can I find them?

Hy Kathy,

It depends o the software you are running, most (but not all)
default to saving data in the 'My Documents' folder. So definitely
backup that folder.

Other data, especially configuration files are quite often stored in
the program directory. Some custom applications especially databases
will create a sub-directory under the program directory that will
contain the data files.

Ciao . . . C.Joseph

And on the seventh day God said,
"I will rest . . . Murphy take over."