Deleted all files

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Guest

I did someting stupid, I changed the second hard drive, and I pulled the plug
when the sytem was hibernating shutdown, I thought since i had to hit the
power button to get it back on it wouldn't make a diffeence, OK I know it was
wrong but I didn't know how wrong.
Not knowing that when I turned it back on windows in its infinite wisdom
wiped the new second drive, which just happened to contain about 4.7 gigs
worth of my docs; it was my back up. Due to a too small C: drive I had to
delete all docs from that drive in an attempt to defrag it, This is a mess I
know, but there is also a way to recover delted files, I just don't know how
these days.
This is a long, sad, but understandable story as to why things went the way
they did, all except for the auto delete of the whole drive by windows, I
think it should have at least asked me first.

Back in the old DOS/early windows pre 3.0 days I had a program from either
Norton or PC-tools that let one look at everything on a drive, including all
delted files, all you had to do was change the first leter of the files name
to recover it. It didn't require a degree in computer science to use it. So
how does one do that these days? Any and ALL help is greatly appreicated. I
need those docs back.
I looked at a couple of so called undelte programs but they were over my old
gray head, I have no degree in computer science.
 
You can't "wipe" a hard drive by unplugging XP while it is hibernating. It
is unlikely that the files are gone. Can you access what you call the
"second hard drive?"

Before attempting things like this in the future it would be a good idea to
consult someone, here or there. A few minutes or days wasted in planning and
consultation can save eons of regret. :-)
 
The drive showed little afterwards two folders and maybe one or two files in
each. The folders I really needed to see were just not there.

When it all started to go wrong I turned the computer back on after changing
the drives, [I now know you can't do that without a full official shutdown]
it went to a blue screen and started scrolling lists of files, in effect
deleting them all, what upset me the most was that it didn't ask, no
notification or anything, it just did it all on its own, and by the time I
realized what was going on and got back to the keyboard it was too late. I
had no idea it would do that, I had never heard of such a thing, but I'm not
up on the new technical things of the last 15 years to begin with. I had a
long down time, no electricity out in the woods for years, and so I pretty
much went from a 286 windows 3.0 to a P4 XP
As far as I can figure out XP keeps a record of the drives directory and
since it didn't match it because I changed the drives around, put what was in
the external box back inside, an 160 gig, and the 80 gig HD I had put inside
just to get it formatted back to the external box, then it, XP, just got nuts
and deleted what wasn't there before, at least its the only thing I can think
of for why it did what it did. My C: drive was never touched or moved, this
was all to do with a second and third hard drive.

I did manage to find a program that will suposedly recover the lost files,
actually I found a few, two offered a free trail run which I tried but in the
end they both told me nothing other than I could buy it if I wanted to
finish. Plus they looked "way" over my head.

Eventualy I found one for free, Freeware, PC File Recovery, at least it was
far more easy to understand. I ran it and it found like 41000 plus files then
locked up. I ran it again only limited how far it would look, went by the
numbers I saw as it was working since it kept looking way past where it found
the last file, the drive was about half full, I limited it to before that
point. It found all of them again, then It said to copy what was found to
another drive, lucky I have a 3rd one in an external box so I sent them
there, only it just got one transferred, gave some sort of error message
which forgot to write down and I clicked it off and bingo it locked up again,
but it did recover one file a PDF.
So at least it is finding something, now I just need to figure out how to
get the rest of them over to the 3rd drive and hope it's what I need.
I'm still lost and befuddled in all of this but I'm learning I guess, at
least I know what to never do again. And I'm learning new things on file
recovery which I have not done since like late 1980 something, it was pretty
simple back then.
I'll post my progress, or lack of, but if you have any suggestions how to
better work the program, or know of a better one for people like me, they
don't offer any tech support and the instructions are minimal, I would be
most grateful.
 
You seem to have a 'do it all yourself' mentality, that is fine for the
simple things but you might just end up losing everything with your
tinkering! There are file recovery professionals available almost everywhere
now. All you have to do is hand them your drive and they will recover
everything they can and burn it to CDs or DVDs for you at a modest price. If
your data is mission critical you should stop trying to 'fix' things and get
on the phone to consult a professional. Call a computer store, if they don't
have an in-house file recovery center they can direct you to one. I can't
advise you any further than this because I feel you should really get
together with a professional and solve the problem properly with the best
chance of the fullest recovery. Good luck!

Lost in Home said:
The drive showed little afterwards two folders and maybe one or two files in
each. The folders I really needed to see were just not there.

When it all started to go wrong I turned the computer back on after changing
the drives, [I now know you can't do that without a full official shutdown]
it went to a blue screen and started scrolling lists of files, in effect
deleting them all, what upset me the most was that it didn't ask, no
notification or anything, it just did it all on its own, and by the time I
realized what was going on and got back to the keyboard it was too late. I
had no idea it would do that, I had never heard of such a thing, but I'm not
up on the new technical things of the last 15 years to begin with. I had a
long down time, no electricity out in the woods for years, and so I pretty
much went from a 286 windows 3.0 to a P4 XP
As far as I can figure out XP keeps a record of the drives directory and
since it didn't match it because I changed the drives around, put what was in
the external box back inside, an 160 gig, and the 80 gig HD I had put inside
just to get it formatted back to the external box, then it, XP, just got nuts
and deleted what wasn't there before, at least its the only thing I can think
of for why it did what it did. My C: drive was never touched or moved, this
was all to do with a second and third hard drive.

I did manage to find a program that will suposedly recover the lost files,
actually I found a few, two offered a free trail run which I tried but in the
end they both told me nothing other than I could buy it if I wanted to
finish. Plus they looked "way" over my head.

Eventualy I found one for free, Freeware, PC File Recovery, at least it was
far more easy to understand. I ran it and it found like 41000 plus files then
locked up. I ran it again only limited how far it would look, went by the
numbers I saw as it was working since it kept looking way past where it found
the last file, the drive was about half full, I limited it to before that
point. It found all of them again, then It said to copy what was found to
another drive, lucky I have a 3rd one in an external box so I sent them
there, only it just got one transferred, gave some sort of error message
which forgot to write down and I clicked it off and bingo it locked up again,
but it did recover one file a PDF.
So at least it is finding something, now I just need to figure out how to
get the rest of them over to the 3rd drive and hope it's what I need.
I'm still lost and befuddled in all of this but I'm learning I guess, at
least I know what to never do again. And I'm learning new things on file
recovery which I have not done since like late 1980 something, it was pretty
simple back then.
I'll post my progress, or lack of, but if you have any suggestions how to
better work the program, or know of a better one for people like me, they
don't offer any tech support and the instructions are minimal, I would be
most grateful.


Geminate said:
You can't "wipe" a hard drive by unplugging XP while it is hibernating. It
is unlikely that the files are gone. Can you access what you call the
"second hard drive?"

Before attempting things like this in the future it would be a good idea to
consult someone, here or there. A few minutes or days wasted in planning and
consultation can save eons of regret. :-)
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