Is there anyway I can undo the copy made of my internal hard drive to my externa. My friend was only supposed to back up my internal hard drive but ended up copying it(he used Paragon Back Up Utility Software). And its freaking me out because all the data that was on my external hard drive is lost(exact replica of my main drive) Can the data be restored freely through windows or any type of freeware that won't have limitations?
2006-11-12 08:00:02 · 8 answers · asked by luda_girl_stl 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
nope, that data is lost for good, you can remove that image from the external drive, but you can't recover the data that was there before he copied over it
2006-11-12 21:56:30 · answer #1 · answered by casurfwatcher 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
From what I understand from your description, you requested your friend to back up your internal hard drive. To do so, your friend used Paragon Hard Disk Manager to copy the data on your internal hard drive onto your external hard drive, completely overwriting your hard drive, which contains some data that seems somewhat valuable to you. You therefore wish to recover the data that was accidentally deleted, and wish to know how you can do this without cost.
Since the backup was performed using Paragon Hard Disk Manager, which only runs on Windows 95 or later, I surmise that your system is run on Windows 95 or later. To reply the first part of your question, unfortunately, the only safety net that Windows has against accidental deletion is the Recycle Bin. That is, 'deleting' a file on the hard disk in Windows sends it to the Recycle Bin, contents of which are cleared when the size of the bin approaches a certain limit. Normally, you would be able to access the Recycle Bin from Windows Explorer > Desktop > Recycle Bin. However, Windows bypasses the Recycle Bin when deleting files from external drives; therefore, it is very likely that you wouldn't find your files in the Recycle Bin.
A scan of freeware site Download.com presents little hope in finding freeware sans limitations that can help you recover your files. eData Unerase Personal 3 ( http://www.download.com/eData-Unerase-Personal/3003-2248_4-10345833.html ) is the most promising program I could find that may be of help to you. However, even then, the program disables the recovery of picture files. Yet, other programs, freeware or otherwise, have limitations that tend to be more restrictive. These limitations include the recovery of files only smaller than 32 (or 64 or 100) kb, total inability to recover files at all, 1 file recovered per day, etc.
No one knows all the freeware there is on the Internet; therefore, a claim that no freeware can recover your files would be difficult to assert. Yet, a cursory scan of the programs available on Download.com hints at the difficulty of finding a freeware that can restore your external hard drive.
It is germane here to note that even a commercial file recovery software (which will spare you from all the limitations of freeware) is no panacea for your problem. With all the data from your internal hard drive on your external hard drive, it is likely that a majority of the files originally on your external hard drive would have been overwritten beyond repair. Keeping this in mind, it is perhaps imprudent to fork out money to buy a commercial file recovery software. In this case, perhaps the best strategy is to use a friend's or relation's commercial file recovery software to scan for your lost data on your external hard drive on their computer and to recover them. This allows you to bypass the limitations of Windows and of freeware without forking out money. Note that the scanning and recovery must be done on their computer on their original software, and not on yours on a copied version of their software, to avoid piracy.
All the best in recovering your files.
2006-11-13 06:33:34 · answer #2 · answered by Wei Zhong Goh 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You might try using a data recovery software like StompSoft's Recover Lost Data which could possibly recover some of the data though I wouldn't count on full recovery. Cross your fingers and hope for the best.
2006-11-17 12:35:36 · answer #3 · answered by the_green_grass_horse 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I will recommend you to take help of Windows Data recovery tool. There are several tools available online which helps you to get back all lost, deleted, damaged or even formatted file quite easily and safely. Just make online review and choose one which is more recommended by users.
2014-03-11 02:16:21 · answer #4 · answered by Lukasz 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I can give you a link that deals with hard drive problems.
Some RAM/ hard drive problems can be easily fixed yourself by using easily available tools. I found the info at http://fixit.in useful
2006-11-13 23:15:40 · answer #5 · answered by RAS 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋