Data Recovery On Hard Drive That wasn't backed up....

[scott00049]

Ok, I am not going to lie and act like I spent 3 hours searching for an answer. I spent like 15 minutes...but I have a time crunch.

The owner of the computer bought Windows 8 and installed it over Windows Vista without doing a backup of any kind. He realized he didn't have his documents/pics/music anymore so he went to Staples where he bought it from and they told him to just reinstall Vista and his files would all be there waiting for him. This didn't work of course.

I will admit to not having any data recovery experience. I have done a couple of damaged hard drive recoveries and managed to recover some data but...I don't really know if it is possible to recover this person's data. I am willing to read about it if its possible...just please somebody point me in the right direction so I can go to a website and read it. I am a fairly inexperienced tech..only been A+ certified for a year so I haven't seen it all.

So in summary: they had Vista and installed Windows 8 over it, then reinstalled Vista. No backups were done at any stage. They brought it to me last night. I have to give them an answer tomorrow if I can actually do the recovery or not.

Just looking for an answer if I can even recover anything, and if so, where to find the info that will show me how. Admittedly didn't try too long searching, but will gladly read about it if someone can give me a nudge in the right direction.

Thanks.....

Scott

 

[fixedbynerds]

I take it there is no Windows.old directory on the hard drive that would have captured his user files? Unless he selected to format his drive during the upgrade he should have one.

 

[scott00049]

Yes there is actually two of them, I looked there first before posting, but neither of them have any files in the documents folders.

 

[scott00049]

Dude...I feel like an absolute idiot. I found them. lol I wasn't looking in both of the Windows.old folders. I was only looking in one of them and I kept reopening the same one, assuming that I had switched to the other one. What an absolute loser am I...wow!!!! I am glad you posted this even though it seems so obvious, I wasn't doing the complete job.

I was on the opposite side of this type of situation once in the Army. A captain couldn't get the field phone to work, and he insisted that he had set it up right. I asked him if he had put the batteries in correctly....sure enough, he hadn't put the batteries in at all...lol That's how I feel right about now.

Someone can nominate me for the tech-loser of the year. Late December entry, but I think I got the inside path for the title....hahahahahaha

Thank you FBN for pointing out how inept I am .....sarcasm. But really thanks, sometimes its just the most obvious stuff that you overlook. My goodness, I really would have felt bad if I had gone to them and told them no luck, when all along I was looking in the wrong place.

 

[NYJimbo]

Someone can nominate me for the tech-loser of the year.

Ok, where do I vote ?

 

[PC-MOT]

Ok, i'll make you feel better.
Yesterday I was working on a laptop, I had it sitting on my desk in front of my desktop monitor, when suddenly I lost all mouse movement, I could use keyboard but no mouse...
...5 or 6 minutes later i realised that I was moving the mouse attached to my desktop...not on the laptop mousepad, I reckon I defaulted to it as its what i usually use while sitting there...

 

[mraikes]

My Tech-Loser entry was created earlier this week involving a cable modem and daisy-chained wifi access point. I needed modify the wifi security settings.

I spent 20 frustrating minutes trying to find a Motorola Surfboard default username and password that would work before I realized the login prompt was (correctly) from the access point, not the cable modem. The username and password was written on the access point.

The bruise on my forehead from dope-slapping myself is nearly gone.


Edit: Greetings from Rio Rancho!

 

[scott00049]

ok...thanks guys. I feel less lonely now, but still dumb haha Well at least the customer is thrilled. So good day after all.

p.s. How 'bout them Bulldawgs!! Gotta get that one in, good naturedly of course. My oldest son lives in Rio Rancho. Great town.

 

[Vicenarian]

ok...thanks guys. I feel less lonely now, but still dumb haha Well at least the customer is thrilled. So good day after all.

p.s. How 'bout them Bulldawgs!! Gotta get that one in, good naturedly of course. My oldest son lives in Rio Rancho. Great town.

haha, don't feel too bad; we all have oversights (especially tricky in a situation where both folders were identically named). Anyway, glad you were able to get the data back.

Just as a future tip; you could also boot into a Linux environment, and run a search for popular document formats (.doc, .ppt, etc.) to scour the drive for any files.

 

[bertie40]

I have never made a mistake, or distorted information.

I have a perfect operational record.

I am, by any definition, fool proof and incapable of error.

Wait a minute, wait a minute, the appears to be a fault in one of my truth cognitive functions, it is going to go 100% fail in 10 minutes.

The fault can only be attributable to human error.

Open the drive bay doors ?
I'm sorry, I can't do that.

This conversation can no longer serve a meaningful purpose ...... Goodbye.

----------------------------------

Ok, we got out of jail on this one, but I urge you to consider what you would have done had the windows.old folders not been present.

I suggest looking into some data recovery software. The most important point is to minimise any hard drive activity which would overwrite the data any further.
I take it you have a repair machine you could plug the drive into. This forum is knee deep in recovery software suggestions

 

[bertie40]

PS.
Nicely laid out question Scott.
Rather refreshing.
Cheers.

 

[saveapcpete]

I have had GREAT success recovering data (even from failed storage devices) with Active@ File Recovery Professional. The best investment I have made thus far for data recovery. Also Active@ Partition Recovery has come in handy many times as well.

Glad you found your customers files. Cheers!