Not sure I got the right "jist" of this forum

[lobsterbob]

Hello as the title says not sure this is the place to ask but I have lost all my files on the laptop. Mainly pictures of the kiddies - mine not just random.

What happened was an icon said updates for the computer have been installed restart computer in 10 mins. I was getting ready for work so didn't want to wait for the time to elapse so I shut the pc down properly. When re-booted the computer said i needed to install the recover disk. When I done this I lost all files. Tried to find them in safe mode but unable to do so.

Any and all advise I would be grateful. Thank you.

 

[DurhamSparky]

firstly is your name gary glitter? if not apologies then secondly!

take the PC to a computer shop and they can recover them from the hard disk.

suggest buying a standalone hard drive for pictures etc...!!

 

[Marvo]

This is an electrical forum so help on this problem may be thin on the ground.

If you've reinstalled Windows from a recovery disk check in the root of you 'C' drive and see if there's a second directory called 'Windows'. Sometimes the windoze installer will back-up the user data from a previous installation if the mood takes it....sometimes not.

Start/Run, type in 'explorer' without the quote marks and explore the 'c' drive. Good luck.

 

[Spudnik]

Isnt there a "system restore" type prog that will take the whole system back to a certain config before the error happened?

I think it has to be turned on though for it to do occasional backups.

If you do manage to sort it, get them onto a usb hard disc.

They are cheap and fairly bullet proof, plus the fact, you can take them with you to your next PC.

 

[ezzzekiel]

if you have recovered with the disk the the files have been overwritten, all the data is made up of numbers (0 or 1) all that has happened is the first number has been deleted so the system cant readd the file, there is plenty software available to replace the deleted number or failing that a shop will do it for you - in future keep a backup on a seperate partion, hdd or usb drive.

 

[topquark]

A bit late in this case as system restore has already been used. You MAY still be able to recover some of your files as long as the original space allocated to them has not been re-used.

Get a friend to make you a bootable USB linux memory stick and use a file system recovery program to recover your files. DO NOT try to restore or otherwise do anything with your disk as that will destory the file allocation table and make the files a LOT harder to recover.

 

[Marvo]

Isnt there a "system restore" type prog that will take the whole system back to a certain config before the error happened?

I think it has to be turned on though for it to do occasional backups.

If you do manage to sort it, get them onto a usb hard disc.

They are cheap and fairly bullet proof, plus the fact, you can take them with you to your next PC.

If he reinstalled from ther recovery disk then there won't be any restore points available but it's worth a look even so.

If you don't have a flash drive to back-up your family photos you can open a gmail account and mail them to yourself. Then just leave them in you gmail inbox as an offsite back-up. Last time I looked a standard gmail account could hold a few Gigs of info.

 

[darren]

Hey i might be a little late here but the most important thing you can do is try NOT to use your computer untill your files have been recovered. (This is because you risk over writing or damaging the files that are still on the hard disk although not visible to you)


Method 1 (easiest but you risk overwriting or damaging some photos)
The easiest method would be for you to download a piece of software called Recuva its free a simple to use.

Install the software follow the on screen instructions and recover found files to another drive usb stick or memory card.

Method 2 (More complicated and you will need access to a seperate pc with a CD burner)

This method is more likely to recover all the files you have lost but is more difficult to perform and involves using an operating system you may not be familiar with.

First of all go to Download | Ubuntu and download then burn this disc on a seperate computer.

Now place the disk in the machine you wish to recover the files from and boot the disc you can now follow this tutorial (to much for me to type and and put here sorry!)

again recover the files to a seperate drive such as a usb stick


Hope this helps any thing ya not sure of just ask

EDIT:

Just to add to what Marvo has said deppending on what options or what method was used to "recover" windows your files could well be sitting there in some folder waiting for you try browsing to C:\Documents and Settings\ and look for a folder that ends .0 or something else strange if you find this in here there should be all your old pics as they were previously

 

[lobsterbob]

Many thanks to all the people who've tried to assist in this problem..... Especially Darren I did download recuva mate and it did recover some files but sadly none of the photos thanks again to all. As Arnie says Asta le vista baby photos!!

 

[mattmoo1974]

Upload your photo's to facebook mate and just make the folder private, And you ve got a free back-up of all your photos

 

[72-van]

Hi All Coming form an It background i hear this all the time ...yes in some cases you might easily be able to recover the data your looking for even after overwriting Fat tables etc but here lies the biggy.
If this Pc is for work then use it for work and keep all important files backed up in a location other than the primary hard drive on the machine.As has been discussed large usb hdd are now very cheap and if you dont have much to save then usb pen drives are bottle of vodka money now in Tesco and Asda.
Be religious in updating anti virus and anti spyware and run the software regularly.

Buy a cheapo Pc for the bairns to play with..keep your work and data safe.

cheers 72-vam