THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Here’s two others I found:
http://www.recovermyfiles.com/
http://www.quetek.com/download.htm

I can’t help, but I can share what I do in case it helps anyone else:

1.  I create another partition on my hard drive, with a different drive letter [E:].

2.  All my important data (documents, etc.) goes on that drive.  I NEVER put anything in “my documents” or any of those places.  That makes it easy to back up my data, just by copying E: to a disc or something. 

3.  If I ever need to reinstall windows and all my software (which has happened: Windows got corrupted somehow), Windows goes on C: and my data is sitting safe on E:.

For what that’s worth.  Sorry about your acquaintance—I would freak if that happened to me.  In fact, I freak just thinking about it.

I don’t have any specific experience using any of those softwares, but here’s one important piece of advice:

Don’t do ANYTHING else on that computer until you’ve recovered those files.  That’s because while most of the data is probably still on that hard drive, the computer probably considers that disk space available to be used.  Once the disk space is re-used, the old data is gone.

What exactly happened (That is, how did the data get “deleted”?)

I lost everything on my computer a couple weeks ago and did an online search and found Data Rescue II (click on name)

There’s a free demo at the sight, which I used to scan my computer so I could see if there were files the program could recover.  There were, and I did.  To recover your files, you need to purchase the program ($99) and have an external hard drive to save the files to.  I was planning on buying an external USB hard drive anyway, so I got one and the program recovered my files to it.  The biggest problem I had was that the recovered files didn’t have their original names, so I had to go through and rename everything, but at least I got my files back.

I have a Mac, so Data Rescue II was the way to go for me (now I use Time Machine, which backs up my computer about every 20 minutes).  They also have a PC version at the website (Data Rescue PC).  I’d recommend using the free demo to see if the files are recoverable by Data Rescue.  I rescued 53 GB worth of files.

Yes, good point about not installing anything new on the computer.  The recommendation from the software I see is to download to a USB drive (love those little guys).

As for what happened: the person I know handed off the computer, without making backups, to someone else to fix the issue of the constant computer crashes.  That someone else, an IT person, did a sloppy job in backing up the files for the person I know, did an upgrade of an O/S, and only restored the tiny bit of files that the person I know really didn’t care about.

If ever you saw Sex and the City, when Carrie had her life’s work on one computer with no backups, this was even worse than that.

Thanks for the feedback guys…

Just to be clear, not only should your friend not install anything new, he/she should not RUN anything, not even a web browser.  Any piece of software can and usually will write to the hard drive.  The more software you run, the less data you’ll be able to recover.

I believe the very act of launching the operating system will corrupt some data, as that updates some log files, using seemingly available space and trashing some data. Don’t even use the computer until ready to recover the data. If possible, download the recovery program to eg a flash drive using another computer so that you don’t have to install the recovery program on the C drive either. My own experience (with a professional service - which I now think wasn’t worth the money), was that some seemingly recovered files were not fully recovered - some or all of the contents of many files were “smeared.”

Good stuff guys.  All information has been passed along, and I hear that some of the files have already been recovered.  We’ll see how much of the files will be recoverable in the next few days.

I use i-backup for online backup.  I like it a lot. I forgot the name, but there is at least one company that allows less than 5 GB (?) of online data storage for free. I agree that EVERYONE with important stuff should use either online backup or at least off-site (a flash drive, CD, DVD, or external hard drive) backup.  If you are just concerned about your computer crashing, you can use storage media to back up your stuff.  If you are also concerned about fire, theft, etc., you should use online backup.  Online backup is really the way to go, but it generally costs money, usually at least $100 per year.

BTW, does anyone know how to restore the original Windows XP O/S on a Sony Vaio and a Compaq laptop.  I don’t have any discs, only what’s on the computer.  They both have a “restore” option which brings Windows back to a “previously recorded” state, but not back to the original factory state.  I seem to remember being able to run something on my friend’s desktop that re-installed Windows from the hard drive and not from discs.  Is that on all computers/versions of Windows XP?  I can’t find that on these laptops.  They are both filled with tons of crap, spyware, etc., and run slower than Benji Molina on a hot day.  I don’t need any files or added programs on either computer, only the original, factory, stuff.  A fresh version of Windows XP would be fine.

If the IT guy simply deleted the partition table for the old OS, it should be possible to re-create the table and restore all files.  You can try, for example, this free program that will search for old partitions:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

MGL, it is possible that the Windows XP disc image is on your hard drive, if the manufacturer put it there.  If you’re lucky, you might be able to find an executable somewhere in your filesystem; something like “win32.exe.” If you run this it will let you install from scratch.

An alternative would be to call Sony/HP and ask them for a disc.  They should be able to send you one and you can simply re-use the CD key for your current installation.

Ryan, thanks.  Yup, I searched the net and they said the same thing.  Usually it is a file called winnt.exe or winnt32.nt and it is usually, but not always, in a folder called i386 in the Windows folder.  Anyway, I found it in my Compaq and I am now restoring (re-installing) the O/S.  Also, you need the original product key, which you can get off your computer using a utility like “magic jelly bean key finder” (which I used successfully).

I am now trying to do the same thing on the Sony. I think it also has a disc image of the O/S.  That seems to be the norm so far.

solution:
http://www.apple.com

problems- less
reliable- more
better design - yes
better interface - yes