Get data back!

[tobias]

Greetings,

I was able to get back into my pc with WIndows XP Pro's cd. I first booted up, hit enter for install, F8 for license, and so on. After gaining access I logged out and back to see if I could but no go. My partitioned drives are even gone. Please recommend a way to get my data back and get back to normal.

Tobias

[sea69]

"last known good configuration"?

you need to reboot, and before windows loads press F5, the screen will come up and give you several options-> choose the one above.

[tobias]

Sorry for not making things as clear as possible but after rebooting, my pc won't boot without the CD. I lost my partitions and data. Just want a recommendation on some software to recovery my data. The lost of files is no biggie.

[Paul Komski]

Try GetDataBack (http://www.runtime.org/)

[Vic 970]

hi paul,

what can you do with the demo version ?

[Paul Komski]

There are two versions - one for fat and one for ntfs. The appropriate version should be used of course.

Basically - the partitions/drives are selected and they are then scanned and all files found on them are listed - be they fully or partially recoverable.

With the full version you can copy a bunch of them and paste into a good partition somewhere. With the demo version, you get the same list of files but have to open them INDIVIDUALLY with an appropriate program and use that program to then save them to disk. This works fine but is obviously time-consuming if there are a lot of lost files to recover; but as the program calls itself - you can, nearly always, GetDataBack!

;)

I tried it out recently on a 120gig partition having deleted a file on purpose first. It worked fine but I also discovered a good reason for erasing data on partitions that are deleted. The disk was packed full of deleted stuff, deleted over the past 18 months. Had the disk been erased/zeroed it would have been much quicker to scan and find my more recent and deliberately deleted file!!

Also discovered that it can copy a partition somewhere (a good idea if you are experimenting with a wonky partition sometime) though I havent yet tried it out.

[Vic 970]

thanx paul,

I tried file fast undelete once some time ago, the demo version only recovers small files, but again it brought up everything that had been deleted since the o/s was installed which made it difficult to find what I was looking for.

when you say about erase/zero the disc, do you mean to wipe free space (like with prog of same name) ?
if so then another little job to do before backing up.

[Paul Komski]

Yes Vic, I didn't make it clear. Erase the free space. It just so happens that I had deleted all the partitions on the drive on at least two previous occasions - so "zeroing" at those points in time would, of course, have erased the unallocated/free space which was taking up the whole drive.

It was fairly impressive just how much data could be recovered and gives an insight into how much data can be obtained for forensic analaysis - even at such a low level of expertise.

Have actually been using eraser lately - it gives me the option of deleting or erasing files from a right click menu.

[pave_spectre]

Got to love that erser program. Also adds an option to the recycle bin context menu to "erase recycle bin" as well as "empty recycle bin". Means you can send stuff there in case you delete it by mistake, and still have the option to "erase".

[Vic 970]

I am just d/l eraser, I wasn't aware that there was a free version, I am using wipe at the moment, it also has a right click option.
I don't wipe as often as I should, but there you go !!

do you think they would be ok with both installed ?

[pave_spectre]

Couldnt see a problem with having both, so long as you dont try and run them at the same time.:p

[Vic 970]

I have them both installed. now have the option to either : erase, or delete with wiping, or normal delete (which is lower down the list, will have to see if I can get all options together)

down have the 'erase recycle bin ' option though !