Lost files and information on XP

August 29, 2007

I seem to have lost a lot of files and I don't have a clue how! I went out

for a couple of hours and when I got back they were gone although my daughter

did try to ring me on Skype and now I have no skype either. I am devastated

as I have lost all my photos in My Pictures folder and videos of all my

childrens' birthdays. I have lost all my documents. All our email addresses

have disappeared from the MSN start page and we now have to input each one.

I seem to be missing folders too. I have gone to search and support centre

and done everything they said and also done a system restore from last

Sunday. Please help me!!

August 29, 2007

Re: Lost files and information on XP

Are you in the correct profile? Did you have a power surge?

--

All the Best,

Kelly (MS-MVP/DTS&XP)

Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm

"ryvitasue" <ryvitasue@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:9E74EDFB-30AC-4DFC-9CC2-16B991DA5DA6@microsoft.com...

>I seem to have lost a lot of files and I don't have a clue how! I went out

> for a couple of hours and when I got back they were gone although my

> daughter

> did try to ring me on Skype and now I have no skype either. I am

> devastated

> as I have lost all my photos in My Pictures folder and videos of all my

> childrens' birthdays. I have lost all my documents. All our email

> addresses

> have disappeared from the MSN start page and we now have to input each

> one.

> I seem to be missing folders too. I have gone to search and support

> centre

> and done everything they said and also done a system restore from last

> Sunday. Please help me!!

August 29, 2007

Re: Lost files and information on XP

ryvitasue wrote:

> I seem to have lost a lot of files and I don't have a clue how! I

> went out for a couple of hours and when I got back they were gone

> although my daughter did try to ring me on Skype and now I have no

> skype either. I am devastated as I have lost all my photos in My

> Pictures folder and videos of all my childrens' birthdays. I have

> lost all my documents. All our email addresses have disappeared from

> the MSN start page and we now have to input each one. I seem to be

> missing folders too. I have gone to search and support centre and

> done everything they said and also done a system restore from last

> Sunday. Please help me!!

Consider it a good and valuable learning experience: About why you need to

do backups of all your data periodically. Something similar will happen

again, and you'll be mighty glad to have your backups to fall back on.

Pop`

August 30, 2007

Re: Lost files and information on XP

ryvitasue wrote:

> I seem to have lost a lot of files and I don't have a clue how! I went out

> for a couple of hours and when I got back they were gone although my daughter

> did try to ring me on Skype and now I have no skype either. I am devastated

> as I have lost all my photos in My Pictures folder and videos of all my

> childrens' birthdays. I have lost all my documents. All our email addresses

> have disappeared from the MSN start page and we now have to input each one.

> I seem to be missing folders too. I have gone to search and support centre

> and done everything they said and also done a system restore from last

> Sunday. Please help me!!

See basic information about data recovery below. After this is all over,

design and implement a backup strategy.

*IMPORTANT* - If there is any question that the drive is at fault - it's

making noises for instance - and the data is crucial DO NOTHING FURTHER

ON THE DRIVE. Every time you spin that drive up you may be destroying

data. If this is the case, 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 under "Loss of Intellectual Property" so check

with yours.

Drive Savers - http://www.drivesavers.com

Seagate Data Recovery Services - https://www.seagatedatarecovery.com/

*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.

So, here are some things to try to recover your data:

1. Pull the drive and slave it in a computer running a working install

of XP. Depending on the target drive's characteristics, you may need a

drive adapter; i.e., laptop-to-IDE or a SATA controller card, etc. A

usb/firewire external drive enclosure works very well, too. Use the

working Windows Explorer to copy the data to the rescue system's hard

drive and then burn the data to cd or dvd.

2. Often XP will not boot with a slaved drive that has a damaged file

system. In that case, boot the target computer with either a Bart's PE

or a Linux live cd such as Knoppix and retrieve the data that way. Here

is general information on using Knoppix for this:

You will need a computer with two cd drives, one of which is a cd/dvd-rw

OR a usb thumb drive with enough capacity to hold your data OR an

external usb/firewire hard drive formatted FAT32 (not NTFS). To get

Knoppix, you need a computer with a fast Internet connection and

third-party burning software. Download the Knoppix .iso and create your

bootable cd. Then boot with it and it will be able to see the Windows

files. If you are using the usb thumb drive or the external hard drive,

right-click on its icon (on the Desktop) to get its properties and

uncheck the box that says "Read Only". Then click on it to open it. Note

that the default mouse action in the window manager used by Knoppix

(KDE) is a single click to open instead of the traditional MS Windows'

double-click. Otherwise, use the K3b burning program to burn the files

to cd/dvd-r's.

http://www.knoppix.net

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ - Bart's PE Builder

3. If a Bart's PE or Knoppix won't work, you can try using data recovery

software. 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.execsoft.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

--

Elephant Boy Computers

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com

"Don't Panic!"

MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

August 30, 2007

Re: Lost files and information on XP

=?Utf-8?B?cnl2aXRhc3Vl?= wrote:

>