bob r

iTrader: (46)

On Thursday, I switched on my laptop and a screen appeared telling me that there was a problem with Windows and it had failed to load up.
I did what was reccommended on the screen but nothing would rectify the problem.
A Blue screen flashed up momentarily but it was too quick to read that information.
I took the laptop to a local repair place and explained I had hundreds of photo's that were more important than anything else. The guy siad he would try his best.
I picked it up yesterday but everything was lost. Photo's the lot.
Gutted to say the least. Wife doesn't know.
Is there anything that can be done to recover the photo's or are they gone forever?
Thanks Bob

scoobyverysoon

iTrader: (1)

I know its too late but you should always try and do regular backups even once a month

there are tools to recover deleted stuff but not sure on a failed HD or windows etc

HankScorpio

Depends what the guy did, there might be a slim chance, ask him specifically and then post back.

As SVS said, important lesson for all.

P1Fanatic

There are specialist companies who can do date recovery but as above depends on the exact issue and how important the pics are and how much your willing to pay.

Simon

mart360

Did the repairer say what the fault is / was?

if its the mobo, and not the drive, then recovering files should be easy, and they should have told you that.

or was it a local fix it free no charge outfit

what have they done? have they wiped the drive? have they attempted to reinstall windows?

before you go any further, you need to establish those facts.


Mart

GC8

So far; Ive never come across a 'computer repair shop' thats had one qualification behind it. Unfortunately, it sounds as though he has gone down the quick and easy FDisk, Format, Remaster route without making any effort to recover the photographs. As others have stated, it may be possible to recover the photographs (not through the operating system) directly from the disk, where they havent been written over yet. Its extremely difficult trying to diagnose any problem remotely (even where you have all of the required information), but in the short term Id suggest that you dont change anything and find out from the 'repair shop' exactly what they have done. Does it all look and feel as it did before? Are programs that you installed still present and operational?

Assuming that the fixed disk hasnt been replaced and that the machine has been remastered; then I would hold the 'repair shop' liable for the cost of recovering the data, because the muppet doesnt seem to have made any effort at all.

Simon

bob r

iTrader: (46)

Apparently it was the Norton anti virus that allowed a virus to trash my laptop.
Windows has been totally re-installed and there is nothing similar about my settings whatsoever.
As I did not have internet access I couldn't do any research so I did take the only option I thought was open to me and took it to a local repair shop.
I am of the opinion that he probably just did a simple wipe clean and reinstall procedure. Speaking with him I doubt he is an expert on data recovery.
I think I have made a ***** up here.

boxst

You can run recovery tools to check through the drive and see what it can find (even if the disk was formated). I have used Easy Recovery amongst others. The important thing is not to do anything else with the laptop as everytime you look at a webpage it'll write to the disk and possibly corrupt more data.

Where do you live? I don't mind having a look at the drive.

Steve

mart360

As Steve says.

If the shop were informed of your need to recover photo,s they should have advised oyou of your options before starting work.

There are specialists who can attempt to recover data from overwritten disks, but these will at this stage of the game, start to become expensive.

btw i like his "virus" explanation

try some of the guys on here, at this stage of the game youve nothing to loose.


(well those bits will go once your other half finds out )


Mart

bob r

iTrader: (46)

I'm in Stockport.

boxst

Ah okay, a long way from me. If you can't find anyone to help you locally you are welcome to pop the drive in the post and I'll have a look.

You just need to plug your laptop's hard drive into another computer via an adaptor and run some software (like File Recovery Software - File Repair - Easy Recovery - Ontrack Data Recovery). I've done this when I have accidently formatted the wrong drive (don't ask!) and I got quite a lot of the data back.

Steve

bob r

iTrader: (46)

I have spoken with the chap that 'fixed'.........no, 'looked at' my laptop and he has explained that he formatted the hardrive and repaired the broken cells aswell as reinstalling windows and antivirus.
Fooked then I think.

boxst

Unless he installed a new hard drive some of your data will still be there. He should of recovered some of the data. As someone mentioned above he just sounds as though he took the easy option (which I do as well as it is easier than 'fixing' windows in a lot of cases, but I back up / recover the data first).

Steve

wacky.banana

Bob r,

Until someone has looked at the formatted drive to see if they can recover your data don't write anything to it. You want the drive as close as possible to the position it was in before all the formatting malarky started.

Sounds like the photos are really important to you. If that is the case I would send the drive to a professional data recovery specialist after speaking to them first. They should be able to get your stuff back.

All you need to worry about is explaining away all that **** that is in a hidden folder somewhere on the drive (lol).

Good luck; hope it is all resolved to your satisfaction.

Cheers

WB

HankScorpio

If all he's done is deal with bad blocks, reformat and reinstall, there should still be a chance of some recovery but the recoverable data might not be your photos.

There have been a lot of companies started up the last couple of years that are probably in peoples sheds, if you go down that route, get some recommendations first.
I used one in an official capacity about 10 years ago but can't think who.

kev88

The Blue Screen of Death (also known as a stop error, BSOD, bluescreen, or Blue Screen of Doom) is an error screen displayed by some operating systems, mostly in Microsoft Windows, after encountering a critical system error which can cause the system to shut down, to prevent damage. Bluescreens can also be caused by physical faults such as faulty memory, power supply issues, overheating of components, or hardware running beyond its specification limits. So if your hard disk is physically crashed then you need data recovery services, but this error occurred due to logical error then you can try Stellar Phoenix File Recovery Software to recover your deleted files. Try the demo version first from here: File Recovery Software &amp Deleted File Recovery tool for safe File Recovery and after using this if you are able to view your pictures then you need to buy the full version of the software to save your pictures. This company also provides data recovery services too.

boxst

It isn't the **** that I seem to find, more naked pictures of the owner of the PC. Why on earth there is a need to photograph your ***** or bits and store it on your PC is beyond me.

Of course I'm mainly complaining that it is the ugly ones that have those pictures

Steve

bob r

iTrader: (46)

Update.

A mate of a mate has had a look at it and recovered a few hundred photo's
Some of them don't enlarge when I click on them and some can't be viewed but overall there are a few hundred saved.

My obvious mistake was to take it to the place where I did and secondly that I panicked slightly and began to upload some photos I had on the camera and my phone which have written over the old stuff.

Also in the recovered data is thousands of images that I/wife have viewed.
I didn't realise I had looked at that much ****?

boxst

If you paid the person who originally 'fixed' your PC you should go and have words with them.

As for the ****, if you click on a dodgy page all those pictures are loaded and stored on your hard drive.

Steve

Borat_Drives_A_Scooby

Good luck to the original poster in trying to recover his photos.

Slightly off topic, i use Darik`s boot and nuke to wipe my hard drives and it uses various wipe methods that claims even the FBI would have problems recovering data off the drive after, has anyone tried to recover data from a drive wiped by Darik`s boot and nuke ?

Darik's Boot And Nuke | Hard Drive Disk Wipe

boxst

It is possible, although you would have to be suspected of something pretty serious for anyone to bother. There is a Police forensic analyst on here ... whose name alludes me ... and this is what he does for a living.

Steve

GC8

Meridian?

GC8

Like The Candyman, you can make him appear by stating three times that DNA information should not be retained by the Police, where a person has not been charged.....

mart360

Its either Burr or Brun

Mart