After System Recovery.. Can I get files back?

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G450man Posts 1 Registration date Wednesday March 31, 2010 Status Member Last seen March 31, 2010 - Mar 31, 2010 at 12:42 AM
sharpman Posts 1021 Registration date Saturday May 23, 2009 Status Contributor Last seen October 20, 2010 - Apr 3, 2010 at 07:57 AM
Unfortunately, I am pretty sure I know the answer to this question but here it goes..
Yesterday I was trying to delete a few things on my computer but for some stupid unknown reason, I did a complete System Recovery and in the process I lost EVERYTHING! All my pictures from years worth of family events, kids, vacation, airshows, etc..GONE! All of my files, my wife's files (she is STILL giving me grief over it), music, EVERYTHING is gone.
I had all my photos stored on Picasa but of course after the System Recovery it was gone too. I have since reloaded it and transferred the few pics I had on my Zune player to it.

I thought maybe there was a way I could recover it but when I looked at the main drive where everything was stored (C drive), and yes I know I should have backed everything up but I am thick headed and didn't take their advice, and before this happened I had only about 10 GB left on my hard drive out of 160 GB and now when I look at it, it says I have 144 GB available! I guess that means I screwed up and those pictures are gone forever. I was thinking that IF they were somewhere in my computer, they would be taking up more space than just a few GBs. Like Is said, I probably know the dreaded answer already but please break it to me gently. I'm already frustrated that I didn't listen to my dad!

thanks a million.
jason

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sharpman Posts 1021 Registration date Saturday May 23, 2009 Status Contributor Last seen October 20, 2010 183
Apr 3, 2010 at 07:57 AM
OK, freeze, don't use that computer any more. i don't want to get your hopes up too much.

i had a similar issue when i formatted a hard drive with a lot of data on it.

the less you add to the drive the more chance you have of recovering your data.

you are going to need a piece of software from a company such as on track (google it)

they do a free download to try their software.

it gives a 25 file per session shot, but this will tell you if it is possible to retrieve your files before forking out for the full version.

Not using the computer that you need to recover, download the file. boot your system with the (i think it makes a floppy disc or cd rom). this will then do a search of your harddrive and list all the files it finds. This can take a very long time as your hdd is a large one.

to recover any of your files you are going to need a similar sized or larger hard drive to move the data that you need to. (if it finds what you are looking for.)

if that works, then there are sources on the net that you will be able to glean the full professional product from. but, try the free way first.

see how that goes.
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