Data Recovery
 

He did in fact reformat my pc. Of course, I had backed up some of the files, but not recently and I lost most of my pictures from the trip and of my neice being born. I am just really really pissed off that he did it without saying a word to me beforehand, I would have taken it to the geek squad if it meant getting the pictures back!! http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...milies/mad.gif

When I comfronted him about it, he basically said that he didn't care about me or the pictures, and he was just fixing it like I wanted him to.

Anyways, I have been googling around and it seems possible to recover data after a reformat. Is it? I'm willing to pay if there is anything legit... http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/frown.gif

I haven't installed or saved anything else that could have over-written it.

It's not worth the money IMO. You should've never let your brother touch it and brought it to someone who knew what they were doing. Chalk it up as a life lesson.

When my neice wants to see herself as a baby, it will be worth it.

I told my brother to LOOK at my computer I never asked or expected him to do something like this.

I just want to know: Is it possible?

It may be possible, but it's difficult.

The first thing to keep in mind is that the data is not actually gone. It's just that the sector in question has been flagged as "available" by the computer. That's why the government requires that a hard disk be "stuffed" and then formatted before clearing it. That way if the underlying data is resurrected it'll be random gibberish.

A skilled PC doc can usually pull the data back IF it's not been corrupted.

The bad news is that your PC is CONSTANTLY writing to the hard drive and in a generally hap-hazard way. If one of these "system writes" hits a sector that your photos were stored in they are well and truly gone.

If you are serious about trying this, unplug the box NOW and don't touch it until it's been examined.

If you have not done anything on the computer since the reformat you might retrieve some of the data but I think it would be very expensive. That sucks about the pictures of the trip. Did you not save any of them??

I found this and another couple of sites that claim they can recover some data.

No jumping on my back if you try and they fail or do worse.

How to Retrieve Deleted Data


everything I have learned is that it takes a real IT pro to accomplish much so I would be very skeptical

2600 did an article on this in their last issue.

Basically, you need to be a Linux god to be able to pull it off successfully. Essentially you are subverting not only Windows but the underlying DOS into going against it's own flags.

If you aren't a Computer Science major- hire somebody.

I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to take another picture of your neice as a baby... and I'm sure her mother will have loads of pictures for her to look back on.

Yeah, that software looks sketchy at best. Someone else said it, if you're serious about this, unplug the computer and find someone who seriously knows their shit.