Community Newsletter: Q&A: Help! What can I do to retrieve deleted data?
- 4/12/07 4:45 PM
Recovering lost data...some info.
by The_Truth! - 4/7/07 1:39 AM In reply to: Help! What can I do to retrieve deleted data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Assuming the drive is not physically damaged, stop using the computer for normal use. That means don't write any more data, create, or save any files. There are a number of utilities you can try, but installing any program will write data to a drive, by default the c:, and may overwrite something you wanted to recover because the OS thinks that space is available. Even using your internet browser writes data to the c:. If you were smart and have your data on another drive besides c: (hint hint), then you may still have a good chance of getting it back. First, try the recycle bin. Unless specifically told not to, Windows stores a copy of deleted files there. I worked on the Geek Squad's new data/drive recovery service offering. They have purchased a volume license for a program written by Ontrack which reads a drive sector by sector independently of the file allocation table and builds it's own file table. They send your drive to Geek Squad City and try to read it using this program. There are a couple other companies with the same capabilities. If it is physically damaged, the first thing Ontrack and other companies try to do is replace the damaged drive electronics with spares they have in stock and spin up the damaged drive. Ontrack and the other companies do have the ability to electronically read the bits on the disk if necessary, but this is expensive. My brother twice had drives from his business computers fail and paid in the neighborhood of 2000.00 each time to have the data recovered. I recommend buying a small mirrored NAS device or using tape backup if you really want to be safe. Good luck.
I've lost and recovered all my data once too..
by megacarteiro - 4/7/07 3:57 AM In reply to: Help! What can I do to retrieve deleted data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I'm a professional photographer..
Once i had a problem and had to format and reinstall the system, so, having 2x120GB disks, i put everything i wanted to keep to the slave disk, and then i've done a quick format and started to install windows.. about 2 or 3 minutes later i've had a flashback.. i remembered that the disk i've just cleaned had aprox. 9700000KB free, but i've MOVED everything to the disk that was to keep data, so the other disk had about 93GB free, so, about 97000000KB free, not 9700000KB.. with all those numbers, i haven't figured out that i've just cleaned my DATA disk, that for coincidence had +/-9.3GB free... I immediately shut down the system, removed the disks, and as i had valuable data on the disk, i've went to a computer store to recover my data... i told to recover a certain folder with about 20GB, which forced me to go and see the data search report before retrieving data, and therefore, i managed to see the program they used =)
Then, and after paying $150 for 2hours of data recovery (it actually spent more than 3h, but i've convinced the employee to write only 2), i spent about 12 more hours to retrieve the rest myself at home..
Now, the important is!!!
1st (and most important of all)
*****If you do a quick format, you can get all of you data back (you you made a complete format.. good luck) BUT, as soon as you see that you lost the data, DO NOT USE THAT DISK FOR ANY REASON!!! Whatever you write in that disk, will overwrite the lost data that is still there..
2nd
*****To recover the data you will need a second disk... you can not save it to the disk you are recovering, the program don't even let you, you would be overwriting data..
3rd
*****Recover data, there's a lot of programs, some more effective than other... I've used "GET MY DATA BACK FOR NTFS" (there's also the "get my data back to fat32" to fat32 systems). You have to do a search for the data.. part of the directory structure will be intact, other data will be scattered in strange named folders (something like 04F79756G8).. This only matters if you want to recover only part of the data.. you can always do a full recovery (and then delete what you don't want).. It's best to do it at night while your sleeping, it will take a LONG WHILE!!! To do the first search it should take about an hour or so.. the recover will take about an hour for each 15GB but it depends on your system and the drive speed..
4th
*****It's done =)
I've managed to recover almost all of my data.. I would say about 97%, BUT, i've done a QUICK format and the windows had barely started to install, so the overwriting was minimum...
For memory cards, i've tried 10 or more, and i advise "BAD COPY"... It had the best results...
Exrenal Harddrive
by Yooperdude - 4/7/07 6:42 AM In reply to: Help! What can I do to retrieve deleted data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi Wendy,
sorry you lost your files.
Ive learned a lot from my brothers who have lost there files too.
I have even used most softwares but it didnt help me as much until I got a external Harddrive and stored just about every pictures from my camera and scanner. it works so well for me not having to worry about losing it.
and yes I do have a back up of my external too.
Dave
Upper Mich.
Restorer2000
by Stephen92085 - 4/7/07 8:39 AM In reply to: Help! What can I do to retrieve deleted data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
STOP USING THE DISK!
As has been pointed out by others, the FIRST THING (even before you finish reading the post, is yank the power cable from the computer using the drive [if it's plugged in] - DON'T "shutdown" or "Logoff", or ANYTHING that would write to the drive [that drive should be considered READ ONLY until you've got ALL the data you want from it])!
Now then, I have used a product called "Restorer2000" which has successfully read the data off of a "roached" (technical term) drive (okay, SEVERAL roached drives).
Restorer2000 (http://www.restorer2000.com/) "pro" costs a mere $50.00, and is capable of reading the drive (block by block - which would have the best shot of grabbing any files still physically present on the disk).
There is also a "demo" mode (for free), which you can use to see what, if anything, it will be able to locate/recover - BEFORE you purchase the "real deal"...
After it scans the disk, it presents a tree view of the data it could locate (including all the directory structures), and you can recover individual files/directories.
Yes, to use this, you need to boot off a different disk, and must have sufficient disk space (NOT on the drive you are attempting to recover data FROM) into which the recovered files/directories will be placed.
Once you've recovered all the files, THEN, you can copy them back (normally) to the "real" drive, and go on your merry way!
Hope that helps!
use freeware program to recover your data
by longle - 4/7/07 6:49 PM In reply to: Help! What can I do to retrieve deleted data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
You should try to use freeware program such as:
Smart Data Recovery before you buy a more expensive one
I found it useful .
And you should not write any more data into that hard drive partition/s but do it in removal medium such as USB flash card until you recover your data.
L.Q.L
USB flash card
by classyrider - 4/11/07 5:26 PM In reply to: use freeware program to recover your data by longleHi - Thank you for your recommendations - It is greatly appreciated.
His computer does not recognize the USB Flash Card when we plug it it - any idea why this would be? Any idea how to rectify this matter?
Thanks
what can i do to retrieve deleted data
by irfan9583 - 4/7/07 11:34 PM In reply to: Help! What can I do to retrieve deleted data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
to retrive your deleted data,i saw that most of the people are recomanding for SYSTEM RESTORE,but system restore only works when we save a system restore point,but still it not works correctly,if u want to get your data there is software called EASYRECOVERYPROFESSIONAL below link takes you to that site,the only softwate which lets you recover your most data ,what i have seen till now,so go for it and try you will get most of your data back
http://www.ontrack.com/easyrecoveryprofessional/
Retrieve deleted data
by clerik - 4/8/07 10:38 AM In reply to: Help! What can I do to retrieve deleted data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Try downloading this tool....it's awesome and will retrieve what u've deleted even after you've emptied your recyle bin: http://www.recuva.com/
Using Software
by ryuming - 4/12/07 7:43 AM In reply to: Help! What can I do to retrieve deleted data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I suggest using a program called EasyRecoveryTools, i have tried it. it is a very good software.You can get back all the lost file perfectly if you didn't do anything to retrieve the file and you should install the EasyRecoveryTools to another computer. I think that the hard disk is like a white paper, if you wrote something on it, when you deleted it, you could still see the scratch on it. so we can get it back cause we can follow the scratch and write it according to the scratch. But when you deleted it, and write it again with a different task. The file will no longer good to be retrieve.
And i'm not good in english, and maybe my writing is no good too. and please forgive it.thanks.
No genius, amatuer at best
by glazerguy - 4/13/07 4:19 PM In reply to: Help! What can I do to retrieve deleted data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Your geek buddy was no genius. Why you lost photo's & programs is very questionable. Sounds like you of those delete happy freaks would likely didn't delete things properly. PEOPLE .... run your defragment & disk clean-up programs reguarly! That is the biggest cause of PC slow down.
You don't have to be a geek to run a clean PC. Simple maintenance is the key.
Don't use the geek again. They obviously do not know what their doing.
Good luck on the recovery. Be prepared to spend some money!
GET DATA BACK
by cogitovici - 4/14/07 11:03 PM In reply to: Help! What can I do to retrieve deleted data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I used a program I purchased off the Internet called GET DATA BACK, and recovered almost all files after a big system crash. Check it out.
I will check tomorrow if I have more details, but it worked where another program I bought during that crisis could not. Seems to me that it was about 50 bucks.
Good luck,
Cogito
"GetDataBack for NTFS" Best for NTSF / Win XP Systems
by centurionxx - 5/5/07 8:15 PM In reply to: Help! What can I do to retrieve deleted data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Dear Lee Koo,
The best Data Recovery software that I've found that's a head above others is called "GetDataBack for NTFS" by RunTime Software - Assuming that you are using Windows XP and the NTSF file system.
You may download a trial version of it here... (copy and paste URL in browser)
http://www.download.com/GetDataBack-for-NTFS/3000-2094_4-10511929.html?tag=lst-0-1
Here is the company's website:
http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm
They also sell recovery software for other types of file systems. This is a really advanced program but not hard to use at all. I got the impression that perhaps this is the brand that the government or law enforcement might use (just my feeling after looking at many other type programs). It costs $79.00, but worth it IMHO. Stuff like simple deleted files it always gets back. Files, folders and directories, the entire system structure including the MBRs it often will be able to recover after a format of a partition.
Sometimes it can recover parts of a drive but not all of it. In this case usually certain types of files it is better at recovering than others. On one badly corrupted AND formatted disk on mine it retrieved most media (like MPGs MP3s) and text-type files but wouldn't recover PDF and most other types. It depends on many factors if and what it can recover. If the disk was in good health but was just formatted once, especially with a quick format vs a long format type it's likely you can recover your NTSF file data.
Hope this helps. ... Eric x@globalcommand.net
Do not disturb anything!
by Ganny4u - 5/27/07 11:33 PM In reply to: Help! What can I do to retrieve deleted data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hey,
This is the first step.
Try not to copy or move files in to ur hard disk anymore or even do not delete anything. If u have not done anything its fine, else no problem .... don't do too many activities in ur hard disk right now..... since u want to recover lost files.
Next: Take that hard disk to nearest hardware engineer or if any hard disk repair shop or any hard disk manufaturers or their outlets. They have specialised tools and software to recover all datas from ur hard disk .... they even recover it from a crashed HD. So if nothing works for u. Try this one.
Thanks and regards,
Ganesh.
Softwares that can help U
by shebz7 - 12/22/07 2:16 PM In reply to: Help! What can I do to retrieve deleted data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Final Data enterprise 2 - My fav can get anything i mean anything
corrupted hard disks to cd/dvds
ObjectRescuePro and bad copy pro
Honourable metions
Recover My Files
Pc Inspector File Recovery (Something i was using b4 i came to know about final data)
Cheers
test 1 please ignore
by Lee Koo (ADMIN) - 7/15/08 5:28 PM
In reply to: Help! What can I do to retrieve deleted data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
test test
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