Lost all documents

I stupidly did not save my documents, emails and contacts prior to installing
Vista OS. Instead of Upgrading, I installed the entire system!! Have I lost
everything?! Is there any way any of my documents could be on the hard
drive? I have tried doing that windows.old thing but when I type it into the
"search", I get nothing.

Brilaureni wrote:
We won't waste any time beating you up about not backing up since you are
doing that all by yourself. ;-) When this is all over, create and implement
a regular backup strategy because Stuff Happens. Now, take a deep cleansing
breath....

General data recovery information:

*IMPORTANT* - If you think the drive is physically healthy, it may be
possible to retrieve the data by software methods. DO NOTHING FURTHER ON
THE DRIVE. The data is still on the hard drive but if you overwrite it, it
will be extremely difficult or impossible to recover it. If you use data
recovery software, install it on another machine and either use it from
that operating system or create a bootable cd/floppy and work with that. If
you don't have the skill and/or equipment to do these procedures and the
data is crucial, take the machine to a professional computer repair shop
that has experience in doing data recovery. This will not be your local
version of BigStoreUSA. In-shop data recovery is usually not exactly cheap
(for ex., my charges are generally $150-350USD), but it normally costs less
than sending the drive to a company like Drive Savers. You need to make the
determination of the value of your data and decide what to do.

If the data is important and money isn't a big issue, send the drive to a
professional data recovery company like Drive Savers (my preference) or
Seagate Data Recovery. General prices run from $500USD on up. Drive Savers
recovered all the data on a failed laptop drive for one of my clients and
it cost $2,700. He thought it was worth the money; only you know what your
data is worth. I understand that some insurance companies are now covering
data recovery charges so check with yours.

Drive Savers - http://www.drivesavers.com
Seagate Data Recovery Services - https://www.seagatedatarecovery.com/

If you want to try doing the data recovery yourself, here are some links to
various programs. I use Easy Recovery Pro, but it is expensive. People whom
I respect have recommended R-Studio and Restoration. YMMV.

http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html
PCInspector File Recovery -
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/welcome.htm
Executive Software ?Undelete? -
http://www.undelete.com/undelete/undelete.asp
R-Studio - http://www.r-tt.com/
File Scavenger - http://www.quetek.com/prod02.htm
Ontrack's EasyRecovery - http://www.ontrack.com/software/

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

THANK YOU!!!!! I'm making the phone call now!

"Malke" wrote:

I just wanted to say thank you to Malke - I took my laptop to Best Buy - they
found all of my documents including my contacts and emails and restored
everything to Vista! These discussion groups are great and Malke - your da'
best! :-)

"Malke" wrote:

Brilaureni wrote:
I'm astounded that Best Buy was able to do the job - I wouldn't trust them
to put a hotdog on a bun successfully let alone do computer work - but hey,
it worked for you and that's all that counts. I'm really happy for you.

Now buy yourself an external hard drive and some DVD-Rs and back up
regularly.

Cheers,

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!