Major data loss - NEED HELP URGENTLY!

[BonedAgain]

I'm really hoping someone here can help me with this. For reasons I still am not clear on, I have lost about 3gig of data & program files from my PC (gateway athlon 1200, windows me). The loss was so extreme that when I rebooted, all I got was a black screen & I had to reload the OS using the restore disks. However, I am still missing many data files, etc. I have only done a minimal install in case some of the files might be recoverable (didn't want to write over them by re-install a lot of programs). I have a copy of Ontrack Fix it Utilities with recover & undelete, but before I try this, I am wondering if there is any possibility some of my data may be recoverable using Goback. Someone at gateway told me goback is essentially in a partitioned section of the HDD, so again I'm wondering if my setup might still be recorded there waiting to be recovered. But I see no way to get to goback from my present minimal setup. Is the data likely to exist in goback, & if so how can I get to it? If this is not the case, is running the recovery/undelete in Fixit my best bet? PLEASE HELP!

Thanks,

BA

[bassman]

Hello BonedAgain,
I might be a little unclear on what your restore disk willdo.
I know with my Compaq (and most others I have seen), when you use it, it restores your comp to the purchase state.
This would mean reformatted, and would mean loss of all data that was existing.
I would try the Fixit tools to see if you can find anything.
As for accessing GoBack, if ME is installed, read thru your help files to see how that is done. I believe the GoBack is simply an image of the preinstalled setup Gateway uses. This would mean "NO DATA."

I may be wrong on that. Hope so.
Good luck

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Waiting patiently for the future to arrive. Frank's Place (http://dreamwater.net/tech/frankscomp/)

[BonedAgain]

Bassman-Thanks for the reply. Yeah, the last time I used restore it did seem to revert to the as-shipped installation, but this time I used a very minimal installation (so as not to overwrite any potentially recoverable deleted files) and it seems to have just restored the OS, leaving the rest in place. For example, some shareware I had installed which was not lost (like connectpal) is still in place, as are my 5 dial up networking setups, etc. I'm thinking if I go to reinstall goback, it will 1) overwrite some of the deleted/recoverable files and/or 2)overwrite the pre-existing goback settings which I'm hoping are "lurking" somewhere just waiting to be grabbed. I've used goback before, what it does is take regular "snapshots" of your system & store the vital data somehow, so you can go in & select a date prior to the present & restore your system to the state it was in at that time (in theory, anyway ;-) You can also set a restore point, so it you're going to be doing something potentially dangerous, you can "go back" to the way things were prior to the change (be great if LIFE were like that, ehhh? ;-)

So, if anyone knows especially how I might get to this potential goback data, please let me know!

BA

[ErnieK]

Boned
When you bootup do you see the GoBack screen? If yes hit your space bar and try reverting at that point.
If you do not see the GoBack boot screen then it has been lost to you.

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Ernie

[Jacko]

You can always try the old scandisk - do a full disk scan and see if it comes up with anything?

Also - Im not sure if the data would just dissapear! Im not sure, but would it still be shown in windows but not accessable if there was a HD Problem?

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Memory Upgrade?

[Paleo Pete]

If I understand the way GoBack works, it may not do what you want. It is installed during the OS installation, so it probably only has references to disk images made since the present installation, not ones made before the reinstall.

Since ME does not have full DOS support I'm not sure, but it may have been possible to get some of the missing data back as soon as the problem occurred by booting to a win98 start up disk and using undelete, provided the files could be found at all. After a reinstall I would doubt it, since chances are it has already overwritten the markers in the FAT table that tell it where the files are physically stored. Some may still be available, it's always a questionable situation.

You can try GoBack, or the disk utilities you referred to, but every time you save a file you're probably overwriting location markers for more of the lost files. Especially after a reinstall I wouldn't expect to get much back...

With applications that are still present and usable you can recreate icons in the start menu or on the desktop such as the dialer you mentioned, but if they don't work they probably never will.

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[bette]

hi.i have the same prob as you with files missing.it's a bloody nightmare,my pc freezed all the time as well.you mentioned on track fix it utilities.where can i get that from?thanks..