HELP !!! I hosed my gf's machine.. HELP

[The Stigenator]

Guys,
this is what happened. My gf's machine had a virus so I said I would do a clean install.
I assumed she would have a backup.. but she didnt.
24 hrs later.. tonite she tells me that her "my documents " folder in windoze is empty.. oh yeah.. its empty.. I wiped it clean.

Is there any way I can recover this data .. I told her to shut it down for now, but I need to recover it in the morning..she has gone to bed tonite.

Any utils that I can use???
HELP PLEASE

 

[The Stigenator]

^^^^
Ps: I used partition magic to remove the partition and reinstate the partition as full.. as before.
Then I used fdisk/mbr to make sure it was gone.

 

[lowtech1]

You meant that you "format" the sys then reinstalled Windows...I'm sorry but it is gone. There are services that do recover info that hasn't been writen over under a reformat, but it is too costly for your consideration.

I'm sorry man, you have to apologize to your GF and tell her that you can't recover her unbackup docs.

 

[medic]

You could try PowerQuest's Lost&Found demo.. http://www.powerquest.com

Or this one which is shareware but fully functional, I tried it and it showed thousands of files from recent deletions and recovered 89 out of 100 of the ones I tried.
http://www.briggsoft.com/dsnoop.htm

Edit: Rereading that and how you reinstalled Windows..there could be little hope if that section of the H.D. was overwritten.

 

[lowtech1]

What you have done is removed the partition then rewrite the Master Boot Record (MBR), and reformat the hdd/partition. The only way to recover form this point is send the hdd to a recover service if your fresh installed Windows and apps hasn't over writen the info.

 

[Stark]

<< My gf's machine had a virus >>


If you didn't download the virus, and she didn't have backups of her documents, you're off the hook and she's up a creek. :Q

 

[The Stigenator]

Will this lost and found pull it out though? I know she had like 300 MB left before the format.. so chance are that the end part of the drive might be recoverable.
If it costs me.. I will send that drive to the pro's if required..

 

[Redwingsguy]

Tell her the docs were the first to be affected by the virus but died a good death!

 

[medic]

TGG
If the reinstall DIDN'T overwrite the files then Directory Snoop or L&amp;F will likely recover it.

 

[The Stigenator]

I just hope that it didnt over write much.. If the My documents folder and teh netscape folder can be got back.. I will be off the hook.. or I am DEAD.

 

[lowtech1]

I haven't try any of the prog suggested by CRV, but I have used DISK to recovered dead hdd with bad zero sector.

Remove your GF hdd and install in on your computer as a slave or secondary hdd then try the recovery progs, but from what you said I highly doubt it possible

 

[The Stigenator]

^^^^

 

[lowtech1]

For future ref you should run a virus scan on the infected hdd then do a full backup if you want to do a fresh install.

You can reinstall Windows if you can't boot to Windows, and every thing still will be there. Then backup any critical info that you may need, before a fresh install.

Or, do what I sugested in the privious post to read off the infected hdd after a virus scan.

 

[The Stigenator]

well lets put it this way, apparently she had done a virus scan, and i found that it was infected by looking at the boot sectors.
Her IE was screwed up wouldnt let you change directories.. some wierd security thing.. so backing up was a pain the butt.. infact anything to do with changing stuff meant that the IE part would load and cause trouble. the only thing she wanted backed up was her ICQ list that I did.. very dutifully.
I found Lost and Found 1.06 .. CRV is that the latest version?

 

[lowtech1]

Do FDISK/MBR and then SCANREG/RESTORE at dos promt to kill the Boot Sector Viruse, and restore your Registry.

You will save all Win32 programs &amp; settings using the above method. Some Win16 virtual device driver many need to be restore by copying or reinstall the affected progam Cab file/files.

 

[Mday]

sorry, the data is gone. You cannot recover this data. I will doubt the professionals would be able to do it either.

note for NEXT time (you know there will be a next time) don't assume anything... and you know what assume stands for. ass u &amp; me

 

[Compton]

Yes, 1.06 is the latest version but I don't think you're gonna have much luck with it. I successfully used it to pull data off a fubared drive but the files were intact because they weren't overwritten. When you reinstalled windows I'm sure you overwrote a good deal of info and I doubt that you're gonna get much of it back. But good luck!

 

[Wizkid]

Some of the pros can even restore data from a drive that was low-level formatted ( zero's written to the whole drive ). I remember reading a big long report on how it worked, but it was something like this: the heads are not always in the EXACT same spot, so when the data is overwritten, there still may be a small part of the bit that is the original data ( like 5% of the surface area for that ONE bit ). They use specialized hardware and take the whole drive apart. Unfortunately this service costs many thousands of dollars

But do try putting the hard drive in another computer and run those programs as was suggested. Don't try booting from that hard drive because any disk activity could cause even more data to become unrecoverable

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

Just for future reference, here's what I do when for some reason I have to wipe a computer. If there isn't a burner in the computer that I want to wipe, I usually find that its easiest to just take the harddrive out, and install it as a slave in my own computer. From there, I can just make a backup directory, and I shald be home free (as long as I remember to back everything needed up...).

I hope that software works for you. I sure wouldn't want to have my gf beat me up (she's scary when she's angry)

 

[The Stigenator]

CRV,
lost n Found did find tonnes of old data.. somethings from 1999 which I had typed on her machine.

As for directory snoop, I put it on my machine but her harddrive has to be intergrated to mine now to get her data out.

The hardest part was to go thru 12000+ directories one by one to see if any of thedocuments were part of her files.

Holy sh*t, I just misplaced that paper with the numbers.. Its got to be here..

Anyway not all her data is going to be recoverd, but I think there will be enough for me to say that she isnt going to kick the heck out of me.

Thanks guys,

TGG

 

[corkyg]

Until I saw the pronoun &quot;she,&quot; I interpreted your &quot;gf&quot; as your grandfather, and that would be serious . . . possible disinheritance action. But &quot;girl friend&quot; is &quot;ehhh!.&quot;

I think you better take her out to dinner or something cool.