Lost Files

[1stallthewayaj]

Hi People:

I inadvertantly wiped out my OS when I had some valuable hours of info
stored on it. I ended up restoring my OS. Is there a way to recover those lost files????

A J A

[skanky]

not if you have wrote anything to the disk since (so the fact that you've restored makes it soo much harder), maybe one of those expensive data recovery companies can.

[Vindicated]

Your looking at $2,000+ if it needs to be sent to a lab. They'll take apart the hard drive and inspect the data on the platters directy. The more inexpensive recovery service companies that cost $200-$900 just use a software based solution.

Because you wrote over the drive, the fast majority of the data has been overwritten and is now unrecoverable. Also the more fragmented your drive was before the format the more likely even more data will be unrecoverable. If it's very important to try to recovery the data - any data (don't plan on being able to get specific) then buy a program such as EasyRecovery™ DataRecovery. Don't let the name foul you, the Pro version is used by a lot of techs. The non-pro one (for home & small business users) has a starting price of $199 and allows you 20 recovery sessions. I own and use the professional version, it has a starting price tag of $499 (also for 20 recovery sessions) and sky rockets to $1,400 for a limited unlimited recovery license (it's allowed to be installed on only one workstation but does an unlimited amount of recoveries).

The program works great. I've recovered my own drive after it got wipred out by a nasty virus. I do on-site repair on the side, and it's really a life saver. Makes my job so much easier. I just bring my laptop and an external hard drive and I'm good to go.