Looking for software to get back erased files from PC HDD?

While i am working on my friend’s laptop, then due to my fault some important files erased. Those files were stored on his laptop hard disk drive. His laptop is based on Windows 7 operating system. I don’t have any idea how to get back lost files. I really need help. Can anyone help me?

Check the recycle bin…

Take it to a IT guy. due to a power surge i lost 2 gig of data and a friend (really really smart) was able tor recover 1.75 Best buy geek squad would be a place to start if you dont know anyone personally.

  1. STOP using the hard drive immediately. As in, shut the computer down and take the hard drive out, literally right now. Every additional second of use is a potential data lost forever.

  2. Put the hard drive in a second computer where it won’t be mounted as the primary HDD.

  3. We used Data Rescue PC 3 to recover about 2 years’ worth of work, some of which had been corrupted and deleted and other horrible things. This software is not free but I can vouch for its results (close to 100% recovery).

  4. The best-rated freeware seems to be Recuva. We have an IT guy on retainer so he already had Data Rescue, but if you wanna try a free solution before shelling out, give it a go. As long as you don’t apply any changes to your hard drive, scanning it for lost files in Recuva shouldn’t hurt your chances of success if you eventually go with a paid program.

  5. Please note, all Geek Squad does is run the software mentioned above, then add a 600% fee. They aren’t equipped with any special tools you can’t get yourself.

  1. Please note, all Geek Squad does is run the software mentioned above, then add a 600% fee. They aren’t equipped with any special tools you can’t get yourself.[/quote]


    But keep in mind they have done it before, do you really want to do trial and error on your part? all comes down to how much is the data worth…

Honestly this is exactly why I wouldn’t go with Geek Squad. So many horror stories of botched repairs; or they keep your machine for 2 weeks and can’t accomplish anything in the end, and you’re back where you started, plus cost of downtime.

If you’re a relatively tech-adept person, I recommend DIY, otherwise hire a Geek or Genius or Goober or something.

This is great info. Gotta keep this written down for future reference.

If the data is invaluable than:

1: Shame on you for not having backed it up in the first place.

2: Send the drive out to a recovery lab and don’t mess with a bunch of underpaid IT guys at a big box store.

Hatt is on point - take the drive out immediately. Hard drives do not “Erase” data. Imagine your hard drive as a room full of buckets of liquid. Every file is just a series of buckets with a label (file name) on them. When you collect data, you put it into a bucket and put a name on it.

When you delete a file (even from the recycling bin) you are not emptying the buckets - you simply rip the labels off and now the guy in charge is free to re-use those buckets for something else if needed. That’s why removing the drive immediately is critical. If you turn on the computer and open a website, now the temporary files from Core77 might be getting placed into one of the buckets used by your old critical files. If a critical file consisted of 2000 buckets and one of them gets replaced by the icon of a smiley face, now that file is corrupted. It may still be partially recoverable, but every second that computer is running, even if it’s doing nothing will corrupt files. Software will start downloading updates and poof, more corrupt buckets.

Once that drive is put into a new machine that machine won’t use the secondary drive unless told to. Running the software is relatively easy and should not corrupt any data because it should be able to read the buckets, figure out the file name and bring your data back.

Another important part of my metaphor (unrelated):

When you sell a laptop or computer with an old hard drive, remember that even if you REFORMAT your hard drive, you are just selling the “Title” to your warehouse of buckets. Even if you rip off all the labels someone can buy your drive, start looking through and say “hey this looks like a bucket of credit card numbers”. If you do sell a machine with drives you should buy proper drive shredding software which will go through every bucket and fill it multiple times with junk data such that there is no residue of what used to be there.

Kroll On Track is a great place to start, but you’d better have deep pockets…
(FWIW, they recovered data from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster)

I can vouch for Recuva, it saved images off an SD card that every other freeware solution failed at.

Also the makers of Recuva also make C Cleaner, which is a good file cleanup and startup utility, and you can set it to overwrite deleted files with NSA level detail- I think it overwrites the deleted file space something like 20 times with random nonsense.

both you can download from filehippo.com (excellent resource btw)

Wow this post turned spammy pretty quickly. Automated schilling or does some poor bugger have the job to search the internet for astroturfing opportunities?

Yeah, I’d say data recovery tends to bring out the spammers pretty quickly.