Ooops..... I killed someones pictures....

[Beginning]

Ok.. A few days ago this lady comes up and wants her computer reformated because it's up for sale.... ( Don't get all wound up.. It's only a 700 Duron.. )...

Anyway .. She says she wants to save the .mp3's and her images from her digital camera.. I asks her wher e they are stored in what folder? She says her documents and music folder. the computer is preetty much ready to die perminent from all the spyware and crap like that, it locks up just after we get a desktop... Can't do nothing else. So I take the drive out of here computer and put it into my own and take the images and music off she wanted. A total of about 4 or 5 cd full, should be what she's after... I reformat the c: drive and reinstall windows and get everything all set up again and all well!! Ooops... she calls back two days later and says the images that I saved aren't the ones she was talking about saving... AAAAAAAAaaaaarrrrghhhh!!!!! Lady I took the stuff out of the folders you told me to. Oh I think maybe they were in a different folder.... We have a Kodak Easy-share camera and maybe they were in that folder!!!!

Well.. It would have been nice to know that before... huh?

Anyway.. The questionis ... Can they be salvaged with some sort of unformat thingy?

I'm probably grasping at straws here, but I thought maybe I'd ask anyway..

Ok I'll quit now... Any Ideas would be greatly appretiated.. Thanks.

 

[NetRyder]

It might be difficult since you reinstalled Windows on the same drive that contained the lost files. However, there's still a chance you could recover them.

I'll personally recommend looking into a product called GetDataBack (there's a FAT32 and NTFS version). It was able to recover about 40GB of data from a partition that someone in my dad's office accidentally nuked a year ago. The only difference is that we didn't write anything to the disk after the contents were lost (since that dramatically reduces the chances of being able to recover the data).

The trial version scans the drive and tells you which files it'll be able to recover. If it can salvage the stuff you need, you can buy it (and ask the lady to pay for it ) and get the files back.

 

[Adamas]

I also learnt the hard way, I now make sure the person is there while I backup their data, then ask "Are you sure ...."

Anyway there is software that you can use to recover after a format. I believe that certain government agencies can recover data after several formats, but that software is not available to us mortals!!
Have a look at http://www.runtime.org/hints.htm for ideas, I have in the past used time limited software downloaded to recover files. You must load what ever program you choose on another box so you do not run the risk of over writing anything on the formatted drive & save the recovered files to that same box. Other sites are tucows & tudogs that might give you access to a fully functional program for a few days. Good luck.

 

[Adamas]

NetRyder, whats the odds of both posting GetBack at the same time!

 

[LordOfLA]

I have an application that may be able to recover some of the data.

It requires the previous file system to have been ntfs and hopefully windows didnt write to that part of the disk after install.

If both those requirements are met I'll send it over if I can remember where I puit the license key for it.

(Guess who hosed valuable data on NTFS before )

 

[Electronic Punk]

I have a great application I use at work, in fact got the people I work for to buy it for me and I don't know how much cash it has saved us, but effectively 3-4 days, in 2 cases (which works out as quite a bit of cash really)

Restorer 2000 Professional
http://www.bitmart.net/r2k.shtml

 

[Beginning]

Ok... Thanks for the input all of you... Well it doesn't looks like Restorer 2000 Pro or any of the others are going to be the one for me, as it looks none of them can bring back the C:\Program Files\Folders that were on the same partition. The old formated setup was on the same C drive in Program Files\Camera folder. Now I've formatted c drive and reinstalled windows to the same drive partition... I may have to just bite the bullit here... As Adamas said.. I guess I know better next time...

 

[Zedric]

I guess I know better next time...

Acctually, I hope the lady knows better next time. You did what you were told/hired to do. Tough break to lose the pictures, but it's her misstake.

Then of course it would have been even better if you'd known, but that's just bonus.

 

[LordOfLA]

I have a great application I use at work, in fact got the people I work for to buy it for me and I don't know how much cash it has saved us, but effectively 3-4 days, in 2 cases (which works out as quite a bit of cash really)

Restorer 2000 Professional
http://www.bitmart.net/r2k.shtml

Aye thats what I got. restored every last piece of data I deleted a week afterwards. Amazing app.

 

[Beginning]

Aye thats what I got. restored every last piece of data I deleted a week afterwards. Amazing app.

Yeah... If you just deleted it maybe.. But reformat and reinstall windows to the same partition... Then does it work to retrieve files that were on the last partition before the reformat? Please prove me wrong here someone.....

 

[Un4gIvEn1]

as a rule of thumb I always back up each complete profile in Docs and Settings. I also do a search for .JPG, .GIF, .MP3 and a few others depending on what use that person might have used their PC for. I had created a batch file for another company that I worked for that would backup user profiles and then search for a bunch of things and it would drop them on a server. I don't have it anymore (not that it was hard to create) but I never got one complaint using that thing.

 

[vivid_vibe]

as a rule of thumb I always back up each complete profile in Docs and Settings. I also do a search for .JPG, .GIF, .MP3 and a few others depending on what use that person might have used their PC for. I had created a batch file for another company that I worked for that would backup user profiles and then search for a bunch of things and it would drop them on a server. I don't have it anymore (not that it was hard to create) but I never got one complaint using that thing.

That's a very good practice.

 

[NetRyder]

Yeah, that's a nice idea.

 

[omg its nlm]

Encase will get the data back. (up to some-teen formats) Thats what we use at a cainso I work at. I am sure its not cheep software, but you know how that works.

 

[Beginning]

Yeah.. I imagine... Oh well, Enough of this.. I'm done with trying to get them back.. I'll know better next time..

 

[egghead]

many of the files could still be recovered even after a fresh install and regardless of directories.

have a look here,
www.filerecovery.com

http://www.lc-tech.com/download.htm

 

[Jozhik]

Anyway there is software that you can use to recover after a format. I believe that certain government agencies can recover data after several formats, but that software is not available to us mortals!!

You're correct that a format does NOT delete all data. In fact, when I was working in a computer recycling project, we used a tool from Norton to make sure every bit on the hard disks was overwritten three times to guarantee data destruction - required process for US Government hardware - time consuming, so did 'm in piles :squareeye

Non-reusable hard disk were treated with hamers, nails, screwdrivers and worse :devious:

The cost to recover data from a crashed drive is very high however - I got 2 crashed hard disks, for which I need prints to replace the originals and hope I can use them again and regain data between last back-up and crash :suprised:

try the suggested software, if that doesn't help, well, her fault, right?:dead: A friend of mine had the exact same problem at work a few years ago - PC had to be re-installed, so she asked the employee if she had anything stored locally (even though they were not allowed to store anything locally), after getting No for an answer, she put an image on the PC... guess what the employee called about 1 hour later...:dead: you can prevent errors, but not user stupidity... :dead: errr, ignorance... uhmmmm any more diplomatic terminology??? :laugh:

 

[Beginning]

Hehehe.. Some people would say ' The lady is sh!t out-of luck ' Anyway we can close this thread the computer went back to the owner today.... With out retreaving the pictures.. I just could get it to work for me....

 

[napalmnthemorning]

I use to worry about loosing a file or screwing something up (which I did plenty of times) but I've been using Acronis True Image and I save an image file of my entire C:\ drive every few months or right after reinstalling the OS and I save that file to one of my other partitians where I also keep my games and critical programs installed. This has saved on hours of reinstallation of files, drivers, etc, after running into major problems/conflicts and my system starts getting sluggish.