Help please - reinstalled XP and possibly lost important files

islanddude

I am a photographer and from this happening a lazy one. I had some serious viruses and attempted to boot from my xp cd to the default settings. I didn't think that this would get rid of my photos and editing programs but when it booted up they were all gone. Is there any way for me to recover all my images and editing software, please dear God someone tell me yes and tell me how

Thrax

You'll have to get in touch with a professional data recovery service at this point. All your information, for the most part, has been overwritten by new data which means your old stuff cannot be retrieved by consumer-level tools. Expect to pay $900 or more.

mas0n

The sooner you stop using the computer the better your chances of recovery.

If you are not wanting to spend too much money you may try searching for some tools online as there are a few good ones out there, but quite frankly in my experiences if the drive has been formatted and used the corruption rates are very high when recovering with inexpensive software.

If you are a professional photographer or if these are all your family photos and there are no backups, I'd drop the cash and get it done. It's only money.

Tex

If he did the "quick format" then a lot is probably still there and can be recovered using software.

If he did a FULL format then he needs a professsional recovery service to have any shot.... And as Thrax said they probably START at a grand and can go WAY WAY UP !!!! Had one bill for like $30,000. It was worth it to that company to get a database back but.....

And they offer no guarantee usually......

Cheers

Tex

Tex

Yes we all use a variety of data recovery software. The complication here was that by reinstalling the OS he had over written some of the data. And since he was a photographer this data was potentially valuable. Thats the only reason we recomended a professional recovery service.

Cheers

Tex

kryyst

I would suggest running something like Undelete on it and see if it can find anything. If it can, cross your fingers and hope for the best. If not be prepared to cut your losses as it's likely gone beyond the cost you could afford to take the chance at recovering it.