Posted: 5/7/2007 3:24:12 PM EDT
Well while I was enjoying Cigarfest "07" in PA. my GF somehow lost the OS on my computer. I'm currently on my work laptop. Well she managed to reload an OS but when it came back online all our folders and software were still there, just our files were gone. We lost every file, and photo on the C: drive. Is there anyway to recover this stuff? So much for a relaxing weekend out of town! 
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BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have external 200 and 300GB drives that I keep all my important stuff on (iTunes, iPhoto and document files) for backup. The critical stuff is backed up to BOTH drives. Never had any data loss issues with OS X in the 16 months I've had this PowerBook. Never *needed* reinstall OS X. Did "just because" after one year, but it was more a piece of mind exercisse since everything was humming along smoothly. My old ThinkPad had W2K crap last week out just a few months since the last install. BSOD on startup. All the typical repair options failed. No loss as the few important files on it are also on the PowerBook. Oh, if you're traveling and dealing with photos and video, burn backups to CD or DVD as you go. NEVER depend on the machine making it home in one piece. In my case I'll not only do that but I'll dupe the photos onto my 60GB iPod as well. |
| I was running Windows XP Home on a Systemax PC. She reloaded with XP Professional. I have not turned on the computer for fear of writing over info. We had a ton of pics which are of little consequence to me, though she's in tears. I only really want a very few word documents that I can't replace. |
We can see both the old and new folders, there's just nothing in them. |
Need more info. Did she install the new OS in the existing boot partition, or did she create a new partition while installing the new OS (making it a dual boot machine)? If the latter, your files are still there, just under the old OS. What is the folder name, is it under "My Documents"? The OS creates a unique "My Documents" folder for each user. Actually, "My Documents" is just a link to a folder located under the "Documents and Settings" folder. Just for future reference, reinstalling the OS rarely needs to be done although people will tell you differently. Look into XP's restore options. |
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If she reinstalled the OS doing a format the files are gone but if not most of them could still be recoverable. The thing to do is to get a cheap disk drive (or an old one) and reinstall the OS onto that. Then mount the original disk in the PC and use some file recovery software to restore all the files it can find. It'll be a lot of work sifting through all the recovered files because they won't have the original names or their extension. |
Not always. Most people don't do a real reformat. They do the quick format. That simply zeros out the allocation table. It does not overwrite the files. Only what the footprint of the OS destroys is really gone. If they did a long format and zeroed out the disk then they are completely screwed. No feasible way to recover that. |
| Well all the old folder names are still there. They're just empty folders, which is what leads me to believe she didn't format. I wasn't actually here when this took place so I can't verify personally. I've considered using a file recovery program but don't know which one to look at. And the second hard drive wouldn't break my heart. I do know how to add a second drive. I'm just left considering an external drive that I could use to backup my files with and then put away out of harms way. Or an internal which after mounting I have a removeable side on my tower so I could leave it in place and easily disconnect after backups for safe keeping. |
There is software out there that can find files that have become unlinked from the allocation table but I'm not sure what's good beyond commercial forensics type stuff that costs an arm and a leg. I can't really see an easy explanation to why the folders would be there but not the files... that's a weird one. Make sure Explorer is showing everything and not hiding anything from you. It might be wise to see if you can find anything that can take a bit-for-bit copy of the drive before you go any further. Get another disk and make an image of the source disk if possible. If there are unlinked files then the more the OS runs and writes to the drive the more you are likely to lose. |
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I hosed one of my drives and was able to recover a lot of data with Stellar Phoenix www.stellarinfo.com/index.htm the ~$75 price tag hurt, but not as bad as losing everything. |