great..jacked up a computer

Phishnoob · 11-03-2006, 08:48 PM

Well had a great day with the new chick next door and getting ready to head out. Her Dell was totally taken over by pests and her internet was useless. I did adaware but everything was so messed up I decided to reload Windows. Guess what it frigging reformatted everything and it is just Windows period right now.

Any idea how to get her pictures back. This is going to be over before it began. Any idea if all those data recovery folks are all just con artists or is this not terminal. I know no data is ever gone forever, but how hard is it? She is cute.

Fly Guy · 11-03-2006, 08:52 PM

oops

good luck with that

Id start with a really big boquet of flowers and the nicest dinner you could make her........

tashier · 11-03-2006, 09:03 PM

Whew, what kind of format did you do? If you did a thorough format it may be gone for good. You will probably need professional help to recover that data. You didn't know Windows would reformat your HD when it installed?? Man, that's a bummer. Good luck telling the girl. I hope it doesn't blow your chances.

wharyat · 11-03-2006, 09:12 PM

There is a good chance the data is gone.

It depends if it was a full format or a quick format.
A full format rewrites the entire disk, and it will take quite a while depending on the size of the disk. A quick just tells the drive to call every bit empty, even though they aren't, this type of format would have only taken a minute at the most.

If it was a quikc format you have a chance of recovering the data that wasn't written over during the install process.

Does she by chance have backups of her pics and other valuble data?

Phishnoob · 11-03-2006, 10:57 PM

This took an hour. Guess that would be the full format. No backups, no anti-virus, no nothing but 75 critical pests and her computer pretty much taken over.

I can swear that I have reinstalled windows before with all the data files staying.

She was upset so her mom and I went out to dinner and she stayed home and went through all the emotions. Her mom told me don't worry and that she had most of the pictures and stuff anyway from her daughter sending them. Geez though, I am hooking her up to my wireless network and reinstalling everything, so she can't be too mad.

Scuba_Dave · 11-03-2006, 11:09 PM

If you put in the Mfg CD that came with the computer, many are setup to wipe it out & re-install
It is an option to format & re-install with Windows
Very easy to do, they need to make the warning better

wharyat · 11-03-2006, 11:18 PM

Well, at least she now knows that backing up things is important.

Ever since I lost a full 120GB drive, everything is backed up in 4 different places on 2 computers.

Phishnoob · 11-03-2006, 11:26 PM

Well she will have the top tier wireless internet for free and a computer that works and her myspace and yahoo stuff is all there still. Her mom will replace the pictures since she has the good ones and she will be fine. All of her programs came with the computer and can be reloaded.

Hope I am not hated for life now for jacking her computer up. Her mom and I had a nice dinner though and visited some. Mexican food though definately tastes a lot better when you are somewhere closer than 1000 miles from Mexico.

VWD · 11-03-2006, 11:55 PM

LOL Perry, Didn't win any pooints I take it.

tims · 11-03-2006, 11:56 PM

maybe with mom he did

AquaNovice · 11-04-2006, 12:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wharyat

Well, at least she now knows that backing up things is important.

Ever since I lost a full 120GB drive, everything is backed up in 4 different places on 2 computers.

I know what you mean on this, I run (2) 250 GB and an external 300 GB hard drives on this tower(main), and it's networked to my other tower with another 250 GB and 120GB hard drives, used to have just a 120 GB in the main tower , then it decided to turn into garbage, lost everything. So that's when I went to the new setup. backup, backup, backup

Fly Guy · 11-04-2006, 12:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tims

maybe with mom he did

A guys gotta have a plan to fall back on

j/k....sorry.......couldnt help it Perry

Phishnoob · 11-04-2006, 12:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fly Guy

A guys gotta have a plan to fall back on

j/k....sorry.......couldnt help it Perry

Not worried about it. Mom is my age and we had fun anyway.

tdwyatt · 11-04-2006, 05:15 PM

Perry, there are some pretty slick data recovery software programs, depending on how easy you want it to be ( or how in-depth you can manually take it), as well as some unformat software programs. Some install version of Windows will actually make a mirror of your old install on the hard drive for a short period, so use the explore function in the startup menu and look for the files, hey, it could happen...

also, Google Data Recovery freeware for some good software that will do the work for you for a short time,usually long enough for you to copy the files over again, check out Firesafe if it is still available, also some good stuff at www.downloadjunction.com, but it has been a whie since I have had to use their stuff, so there may be better more up-to-date packages available.

Some will even recover root files as well if the time has not been too long since the event. Look for programs that recover hard disk data losses, then speak to her about getting into a good data backup habit...