stubs
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 02
Location: Bolton
User status: Offline
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I need some help.
Basically my girlfriend’s PC screwed up lately and would not boot. We decided to re-install windows as it’s been running bad for some time now and it seemed the easy option.
All her important stuff was already backed up on my Synology NAS, but as a precaution I thought I’d dump the entire contents of the HDD onto the NAS to allow us to recover anything later.
We removed the HDD, and plugged it into the NAS with a small caddy and ran a copy. Stupidly, I didn’t check the logs correctly and it seems that not everything copied over correctly (not sure why).
We re-installed windows 7, which 1st formatted the disk (only took about 5 seconds to format) and went about putting antivirus back on etc… Now comes the fun part:
Next we installed iTunes and I went about copying iTunes back over from the HDD dump on the Synology NAS. It turns out that all the music is somehow missing, and I think it’s part of the data that didn’t copy correctly.
Is there any software available that would recover the data from the drive, despite it being formatted and having a fresh install of Windows over the top of it?
The thought of having to re-import all her CD’s doesn’t appeal to me and I know she won’t be happy about doing it.
All the music in her iTunes was done this way, so if it can be recovered, where is the music likely to be stored?
Thanks in advance,
Stu(pid)
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
User status: Offline
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Connect the drive to another system and run GetDataBack (can grab it on the special internet shops), then either image the drive (image will be the size of the drive, ie: 500GB will give you a 500GB image) and try to recover on that (useful if you need to get the other system back up and running) or you can recover directly on the drive.
Note that the recovery process will take a fair while; last time i recovered an old IDE 250GB drive and it took near enough 10hrs with GetDataBack. Also realise that you've written over a fair chunk of the drive by installing windows and other software, so it's likely you won't recover everything.
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Neo
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Registered: 20th Feb 07
Location: Essex
User status: Offline
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Try downloading a program called recuva, do a full scan (which will take hours) and see what you come up with.
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Sam
Moderator
Premium Member
Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
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quote:
Originally posted by Neo
Try downloading a program called recuva, do a full scan (which will take hours) and see what you come up with.
+1
And it's free too - http://www.piriform.com/recuva
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stubs
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 02
Location: Bolton
User status: Offline
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Thanks for the replys guys!
Time isn't an issue, and neither is the "new OS" that I've just installed.
Dom, using your method, what should I use to make an image? Can the image be done to an iscsi target on my NAS?
And to do it Sam & Neo's way: do I need to run recuva with the drive out of the laptop in a caddy on another machine, or will it run whilst the OS is running?
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
User status: Offline
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You create the image using GetDataBack (http://www.runtime.org/gdbimage.htm), save it where ever you like as long as there is space and then using GetDataBack again, you select that image instead of a drive.
Also if you can i'd stay away from using a caddy as 'bridges' can play havoc when doing recoveries, i've had issues in the past with GetDataBack using a USB-SATA caddy. Better off connecting directly to your motherboard if you can.
Edit - Looks like you can run Recuva from the drive you're wanting to recover, although i've read that that is a bad idea. You can't do that with GetDataBack however.
Be interested to hear what you think of Recuva though.
[Edited on 21-09-2011 by Dom]
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Neo
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Registered: 20th Feb 07
Location: Essex
User status: Offline
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You can run Recuva on the system you are trying to restore. It takes longer but i've never experienced issues.
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stubs
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 02
Location: Bolton
User status: Offline
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Thanks again for the replies!
The main issue I have is that I no longer own a desktop PC.. only laptops  and they both only have 1x HDD slot
I bloody HATE computers
Can GetDataBack create the image whilst the OS is running?
I've had a quick look at Recuva - because it says not to install it on the same HDD that you are trying to recover, I guess I could install it to an iscsi target on the NAS and run it from there?
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Sam
Moderator
Premium Member
Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
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Just buy a 2.5" caddy to fit the HDD into and plug it into another computer with a USB slot.
The caddy is about £5 to £10 so not a massive expense.
Edit - eBuyer is selling one for £2.99! (click me)
[Edited on 21-09-2011 by Sam]
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stubs
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 02
Location: Bolton
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Sam
Just buy a 2.5" caddy to fit the HDD into and plug it into another computer with a USB slot.
The caddy is about £5 to £10 so not a massive expense.
Edit - eBuyer is selling one for £2.99! (click me)
[Edited on 21-09-2011 by Sam]
I've got one of those.. but Dom suggested avoiding them:
quote:
Originally posted by Dom
Also if you can i'd stay away from using a caddy as 'bridges' can play havoc when doing recoveries, i've had issues in the past with GetDataBack using a USB-SATA caddy. Better off connecting directly to your motherboard if you can.
[Edited on 21-09-2011 by stubs]
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Neo
Member
Registered: 20th Feb 07
Location: Essex
User status: Offline
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Ussually power settings just disable all power settings on that device in device manager and it'll be reet 
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