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Thread ID: 89752	2008-05-10 20:36:00	Recovery Programme	B.M. (505)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
668153	2008-05-10 20:36:00	Can anybody recommend a freebee Data Recovery programme that I can try out? The position is this. A woman down the road took her computer into a shop to have it upgraded from Win98 to XP. The installation wasn’t successful so the guy in the shop reinstalled Win98. The morbid details I won’t bore you with but the shop has gone bung. Anyway, during this whole farce all her photos and letters were lost and NO she doesn’t have any back-ups. :rolleyes: I thought maybe, just maybe, there may be a possibility of recovering “something”, but I’d be surprised. Any recommendations? :thanks	B.M. (505)
668154	2008-05-10 20:55:00	Try running a linux live CD like Ubuntu or PCLos and you will see anything that is easily recoverable and be able to decide what to do from there.	kjaada (253)
668155	2008-05-10 21:38:00	A woman down the road took her computer into a shop to have it upgraded from Win98 to XP. The installation wasn’t successful Anyway, during this whole farce all her photos and letters were lost s Er. I get asked this sometimes. First I always check - can the PC actually run XP well? If not, why bother. In fact why bother anyway, I ask them why they want XP, what do they need that 98 won't give them. Maybe an entire upgrade is needed instead. Or nothing at all. Secondly I never wipe anyones PC for any reason at all without first discussing backups. Most ask me to retrieve stuff, one guy took his back home to do it himself first. Some shops shouldn't be allowed to call themselves PC repairs..........:groan:	pctek (84)
668156	2008-05-10 22:05:00	You could try Recuva from the same people who do ccleaner don't know if it will work as never used it and don't have the link to hand	gary67 (56)
668157	2008-05-10 22:15:00	A woman down the road took her computer into a shop to have it upgraded from Win98 to XP. The installation wasn’t successful so the guy in the shop reinstalled Win98. The morbid details I won’t bore you with but the shop has gone bung. complete and utter cretins not to mention totally imcompetant !	drcspy (146)
668158	2008-05-10 22:16:00	I've used the flash memory recovery software from here (www.pcinspector.de) and it's worked great so their PC recovery is probably good too.	CYaBro (73)
668159	2008-05-10 23:02:00	Secondly I never wipe anyones PC for any reason at all without first discussing backups. Most ask me to retrieve stuff, one guy took his back home to do it himself first. Some shops shouldn't be allowed to call themselves PC repairs.......... Totally agree with that statement - I do the same , in fact I do it out of habit, copy the persons drive first - then work on the PC, that way if it all turns to custard at least I the computer Tech / Shop doesn't lose the data. Back to recovering the data on the ladies PC - Depending on how win 98 was reinstalled will depend on if any data is recoverable. If the drive was reformatted then 98 loaded back in while not impossible there is a good chance that all is lost. BUT what you need to do is install the data recovery Program on another PC,NOT THE WIN98 PC, then attach the Persons WIN98 Drive as a slave-then scan the drive in question, because any programs loaded on that WIN98 may over write any recoverable data, and DONT use the PC, any use what so ever may over write recoverable data. The one CYaBro linked to is not to bad, or if you want another, not free but works well is Get Data Back (www.runtime.org) - I use that and it sometimes will recover data from formatted drives. Being Win98 you would want the FAT version.	wainuitech (129)
668160	2008-05-10 23:18:00	I may be on a learning curve here with windows but,if XP was installed without a reformat which is most likely in this case and the attempt to reinstall was also without a reformat then will the user Home folder not be intact and recoverable with a linux live cd. If on the other hand a live cd is used and nothing shows up is it not then a job for one of the apps mentioned above with a bit of "know how" needed.	kjaada (253)
668161	2008-05-10 23:31:00	Sometimes linux will locate files/folders - Bit of a lesson - When you delete a file, folder what ever, its not actually gone, only its reference in windows is gone. Every bit of data, no matter what it is, has what's called a start & stop bit ( beginning and end), when you delete something (even from the recycle bin) all it does is remove the start bit, windows cant see it , and now thinks the space that file took is free to write data again, reclaimed drive space. What a data recovery program does is look for any parts of files / folders, in simple terms it ignores the missing start bit, then when it finds any data it puts the start bit back, when you recover it to another location. The data may not always be complete as some of it may have been over written , but getting some back is better than nothing. Thats why if you been naughty ;) and the cops confiscate your PC, even if you think you have deleted the offending data - its still there unless you have used a program that really over writes,destroys the data. Its amazing what good data recovery programs can recover. I have had customers with sensitive data on old PC's that HAS to be destroyed - My way and it works perfectly is the First line of My SIG below:D	wainuitech (129)
668162	2008-05-10 23:53:00	Thats about how I saw it too: Now,how does someone sort out the cowboy techs.Ok long established shops must have got most things right but I have heard of so many ripoffs by cowboys.Mobile "experts" with no home address who are to be avoided.Also I have to say some of the mainstream "big" name suppliers have reputations for taking yonks to do a repair and I mean YONNKKS. I have also heard of small home town outfits that do repairs and put bugs in the system that will lead to a crash in the future that looks like a virus invasion. The worst aspect of the whole thing is that genuine techs like we see on PF1 giving advice for nix are being tarnished by the cowboys.	kjaada (253)
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