dfigel
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I booted up my pc and all my pictures and such are gone
I have a clients machine, Compaq Presario, running Windows XP and one day she turned her machine on and all her files ie: pictures were gone. It was as if she had just turned on a brand new machine. I see there were a bunch of windows updates done but I cant find the pictures that she had on her pc. When I tried a system restore it was as if the pc was brand new and the last date to restore from was 9/25/07- she's had the machine for a couple of years - any ideas would be greatly appreciated
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If you have to try to recover data, I recommend Restorer2000. http://www.restorer2000.com/
Depending on the value to the user of those files, if necessary you may want to look at a data recovery company. http://www.gillware.com/customers.php
Depending on the value to the user of those files, if necessary you may want to look at a data recovery company. http://www.gillware.com/customers.php
ASKER
I just spoke to the client - when she booted up the machine on 9/24 - it came up with a screen asking if she wanted to restore system files - of course not knowing what that meant - she said yes - unfortunately she didn't tell me that from the get go - anyway - I will check out the software GetDataBack - and other thoughts would be appreciated - She lost her daughter in a tragic accident at 17 years old and these are the pictures she is trying to get back.
If GetDataBack is not successful, only other alternative is to try a data recovery service. A reasonably priced and competent one is Gillware.
http://www.gillware.com/
It never ceases to amaze me the important files that are not backed up. With almost every PC now having at least a CD-RW drive and flash drives so cheap, there is just no excuse.
http://www.gillware.com/
It never ceases to amaze me the important files that are not backed up. With almost every PC now having at least a CD-RW drive and flash drives so cheap, there is just no excuse.
The most important thing to tell your client is STOP !! The more a disk is used, the lower the chances are of recovering information from it. If ALL she did was a system restore ... and hasn't used the system since; there's at least a chance that the data files are recoverable.
willcomp already suggested the two best options: GetDataBack (http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm ) and, if that's not successful, Gillware. One other comment: As I said, NO activity should be done on the disk --> don't boot the system; don't install GetDataBack; etc. I would remove the disk; attach it to another system (either via an internal IDE/SATA connector or with an external USB connection gadget -- this is a good one: http://www.buyextras.com/sausb20toide.html ); then install GetDataBack on that system and see if it can recover anything from the disk.
... I agree with willcomp that it's amazing how many important files are not backed up. 500GB external drives are just over $100 these days; USB flash drives are very inexpensive; blank CDs and DVDs are next-to-nothing (and as willcomp noted almost every system has a burner) ==> it simply doesn't make sense!! I tell all my friends they should assume all of their hard drives will fail every night at midnight ==> so be sure there's nothing on it them that they would be upset about losing :-) ... then I help them set up their systems with segregated OS and data partitions; and an automated backup process to be sure the data is ALWAYS backed up.
willcomp already suggested the two best options: GetDataBack (http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm ) and, if that's not successful, Gillware. One other comment: As I said, NO activity should be done on the disk --> don't boot the system; don't install GetDataBack; etc. I would remove the disk; attach it to another system (either via an internal IDE/SATA connector or with an external USB connection gadget -- this is a good one: http://www.buyextras.com/sausb20toide.html ); then install GetDataBack on that system and see if it can recover anything from the disk.
... I agree with willcomp that it's amazing how many important files are not backed up. 500GB external drives are just over $100 these days; USB flash drives are very inexpensive; blank CDs and DVDs are next-to-nothing (and as willcomp noted almost every system has a burner) ==> it simply doesn't make sense!! I tell all my friends they should assume all of their hard drives will fail every night at midnight ==> so be sure there's nothing on it them that they would be upset about losing :-) ... then I help them set up their systems with segregated OS and data partitions; and an automated backup process to be sure the data is ALWAYS backed up.
I assumed PC was in shop and not in customer's hands from question. If not, then garycase is VERY correct abot not using PC.
Were you able to recover files?
ASKER
I was not able to recover the files using Restorer2000 - so I fixed the other things wrong and returned it to the client because she was anxious to get her PC back. I had an old hard drive of hers from her last computer that I was able to recover files from using GetDataBack. I wanted to try GetDataBack on her current hard drive but she decided she didn't want me try. So, I appreciate all the suggestions, this was my first post on this site and I'm excited to continue to use this site as a viable resource.
Log in as the administrator and do a search for *.jpg files (and/or *.bmp, *.tif, depending on what format most of her pictures were saved in).
If one of those two ways doesn't find them, let me know and I'll add additional suggestions.