Formated hard drive, Data Recovery problem

C

crop_circlemaker

New Member
Having looked at a few forums, it seems an update from Windows sometimes produces a fault where your PC is stuck in an infinate restart having shown updated 3 of 3 0%. I found trouble starting in safe mode and instead selected to go for a restore point, from here the drive was formatted and I have lost about 100gb of data. My question is if I use a data recovery program will I be able to restore all my emails, documents, photos, music and software etc and replace them onto the hard drive. The PC came with MS Office already on it so I cannot reinstall the that or any of the other usefull programs as I do not have the serial numbers. I have been looking at Ease Us and this is doing a search at the moment has found 140,000 files in 2 hours, feels like it may be opening a massive can of worms trying to replace and restore everything.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Compaq dx2300 Microtower
    CPU
    INTEL PENTIUM D 3.00Ghz
    Memory
    2GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP L1940T
The more that you use the hard drive, the more likely that the data will be overwritten (and unrecoverable by normal means).

I'd recommend the utilities from Data Recovery Software - Hard Drive Recovery - RAID Recovery - Runtime Software They are free to run and see what you can recover - but it'll cost you about $80 US to actually do the recovery.

Data recovery is just that - data. If you're trying to recover programs that'll be much more difficult. I'd suggest contacting the system manufacturer for a set of recovery disks that contain the original software.

Then you're faced with determining if the data recovery was successful. In my case I recovered a deleted partition with an image of my hard drive - and the software reported that it was successful. But I wasn't able to restore the image.

Good luck!
 

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System One

thought as much, trouble is hearing something like this makes me want to become a torent trawler looking for MS Office, because I have bought the Software but I have no way of getting it quickly and legitamately back on my PC. I am assuming then that all files like Word, Excell, jpegs, pdfs, mp3 will be recovered but any system info will be blocked (drivers, .dll, registry info etc) - whats most frustrating is if I cannot get the emails and contact information back - is it likely that data recovery can do this?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Compaq dx2300 Microtower
    CPU
    INTEL PENTIUM D 3.00Ghz
    Memory
    2GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP L1940T
also so the files found is now at 215,000 are these all likely to be unrelated to software?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Compaq dx2300 Microtower
    CPU
    INTEL PENTIUM D 3.00Ghz
    Memory
    2GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP L1940T
Hi crop_circlemaker

All you can do is try out the software & pray that works, I will say prayer for you.

If you have MS Office 2007, you can download the trail, then use your legal key.
 

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System One

thanks for the prayer - I am not religious but at this stage I will accept anything :) MS Office was also preinstalled so I have no disk or serials for it....Piratebay are looking more and more like my heros I am sorry to say. I guess I could try the company which sold the PC to me. Whats also interesting is I had the small business edition of Vista and now it has installed what looks like the home edition from the restore point.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Compaq dx2300 Microtower
    CPU
    INTEL PENTIUM D 3.00Ghz
    Memory
    2GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP L1940T
You are recovering files. This will include data files, program files, system files. The issue of replacing them is where the problems come in.

Data files will usually work just fine when you recover and use them.
Program and system files most often won't work because of the security descriptors, file locations and registry entries required in order for those to run properly.

If you obtain the recovery disks from the manufacturer they should include all the programs that came installed on the system. This is the cheapest and quickest way to get the system back up and running properly (the recovery disks also contain the necessary drivers for your hardware).
 

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System One

ah ok, so does that mean that I have to get them in order for the drivers to workor can I just go the long route and get them all manually? Its just that if I apply for the disks to be sent with the UK post at the moment they probably won't get here until next week some time and I am trying to get work done. I take it the drivers would need to be updated one by one from the manufacturers sites rather than the easy one click option for update all drivers?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Compaq dx2300 Microtower
    CPU
    INTEL PENTIUM D 3.00Ghz
    Memory
    2GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP L1940T
no not yet, I have started downloaded software like my virus program etc, and have just updated all hardware drivers. My recovery program Ease Us is mid recovery and it is hopefully going to salvage some of my data files (Excell &word docs, pdfs, music, jpegs etc) although it is saying it has 420gb of data it is recovering when the HD is only 120gb. I am assuming all my other software will need to be installed again from what has been said. The major inconvenience is all my outlook emails. Vista is working from its original install restore point in 2007 but the arduous task of setting everything up again means a week sitting in front of the screen downloading, waiting, unpacking files, installing, and all the rest of time trying to remember what was where and how it was set up :cry:
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Compaq dx2300 Microtower
    CPU
    INTEL PENTIUM D 3.00Ghz
    Memory
    2GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP L1940T
usasma said:
You are recovering files. This will include data files, program files, system files. The issue of replacing them is where the problems come in.

Data files will usually work just fine when you recover and use them.
Program and system files most often won't work because of the security descriptors, file locations and registry entries required in order for those to run properly.

If you obtain the recovery disks from the manufacturer they should include all the programs that came installed on the system. This is the cheapest and quickest way to get the system back up and running properly (the recovery disks also contain the necessary drivers for your hardware).
Click to expand...

Have you order the manufacturer recovery DVD's?
 

My Computer

System One

ok ok i get the point, I will order them, I guess it is still illegal to download cracked s/w even if you have the original?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Compaq dx2300 Microtower
    CPU
    INTEL PENTIUM D 3.00Ghz
    Memory
    2GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP L1940T
You stated you don't have the original...which is it ? ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    Intel Q6600
    Motherboard
    ASUS P5K MBoard.
    Memory
    4G OCZ PC2 8500 Platinum
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA 8800GTS Vid Card
    Hard Drives
    500G Seagate SATA
    200G Seagate SATA
    100G WD Caviar SATA
    80G WD Caviar IDE
    PSU
    OCZ Elite 800W PSU
    Case
    RaidMax Smilodon Case
    Other Info
    Lite-On dual layer DVD burner X 2
    Dos 6.2;Win2K;XP; &
    Vista Ultimate 64Bit.
All of that depends on the EULA. I participated in a discussion with a couple of lawyers back when XP was released. Their opinion was that the EULA made it illegal to install XP from any disk other than the disk that came with the product key.

BUT it was also their opinion that this was a point that wasn't going to be enforced for individual users - but that it was necessary to prevent piracy.

Beyond that the discussion was way over my head - so I left them to splitting hairs and moved on. :)
 

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System One

i have the original in that the pc i bought had the software installed on it already, however there was no physical disk and the receipt bills for an installed business upgrade of MS Office - in terms of having a physical original no I don't have it, be a lot easier if there was one. I suspect thwere was some deal with the supplier and MS in that they hold one copy of MS Office and buy instruction manuals and serial numbers, the PC was bought from British Telecom so its unlikely they are running of pirated copies.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Compaq dx2300 Microtower
    CPU
    INTEL PENTIUM D 3.00Ghz
    Memory
    2GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP L1940T
crop_circlemaker said:
i have the original in that the pc i bought had the software installed on it already, however there was no physical disk and the receipt bills for an installed business upgrade of MS Office - in terms of having a physical original no I don't have it, be a lot easier if there was one. I suspect thwere was some deal with the supplier and MS in that they hold one copy of MS Office and buy instruction manuals and serial numbers, the PC was bought from British Telecom so its unlikely they are running of pirated copies.
Click to expand...


Order a copy of the original DVD's.

With out them you are going no where.
 

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System One

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