Computer Difficulties - please help!!!?

Question

My mate recently got a problem with his laptop (WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM" was either lost or corrupt) He panicked and put in the reinstall CD and restored his laptop to factory settings. Problem is he lost all his personal stuff, photos, music, and his internet connection etc. Is there a way for him to get some of his stuff back?

Answer 1

Well, seems like he formatted, so its difficult, but I wouldnt give up hope. Try any (if not all) of the programs I've listed below. They're specifically made if you've deleted a file and want it back, a virus has hit your program, or if you've formatted your pc. The longer time you take, the lesser the chance of the file being recovered, so I'd get to it immediately.

PC Inspector File Recovery:
http://download.pcinspector.de/pci_filerecovery.exe

-Finds partitions automatically, even if the boot sector or FAT has been erased or damaged (does not work with the NTFS file system).

-Recovers files with the original time and date stamp.

-Supports the saving of recovered files on network drives.

-Recovers files, even when a header entry is no longer available. Other products cannot recover such files. The "Special Recovery Function" supports the following disk formats:

ARJ AVI BMP CDR DOC DXF DBF XLS
EXE GIF HLP HTML HTM JPG LZH MID
MOV MP3 PDF PNG RTF TAR TIF WAV
ZIP

I used this program to recover some files that I deleted in the past, and best of all, this program is FREEWARE.

If you want, you can also try GetDataBack. You can get that here: http://www.runtime.org/downloads.htm . It's not free (has a free trial though) but it specifically claims that it gives you a good chance of data recovery after a reformat.

You can also try Recover My Files V3.98. Again, that isn't free either, but there should be a free trial.

Gluck!

Answer 2

I'll tell you this. It can be the most frustrating job in the world when your code doesn't work. It can be the most fulfilling job in the world when you solve a tough problem. You better not have an ego, because it'll get beaten down by the easiest things. You have to be good in problem solving. It's impossible to write a bug free application plus you have no control over what some idiot user is going to do with the app. And it's not the idiot user's fault, it's the idiot programmer's fault because he allowed the idiot user to do whatever they did. As a noob, you'll work maintenace and be on call and you'll like it. If you show any aptitude, you'll be placed on a development project. That's when the fun begins--Mission Impossible. You'll have tight deadlines and ever changing specs. Your budget won't even allow you to buy something from the dollar menu without going over. You'll hear stuff like "Do more with less". "Work smarter not harder". All that means is more work with fewer people, but at the same pay rate. So why do it? It's because you like programming. You're a problem solver. You can manage your time and work on multiple projects at once. You like creating things and don't mind a little research. Learning new things like programming languages and working with new technology is something you enjoy. If you're a perfectionist, forgetaboutit. There is no perfection in what we do. We do the best we can with what we have. Whenever I finish a development project, I should be able to look back and say "what idiot wrote this garbage?" I can say that because I've learned so much I'm much better now than when I started and if I had the time, I could rewrite the app and make it much better. It's the next one I'll do better on.

Answer 3

there are some software packages that can ATTEMPT to recover data.

one of the more well known ones is called OnTrack Easy Recovery.

here is what i'd suggest:
get the software.
pull the hard drive out of the laptop and put it into an external drive enclosure.
install the software on the host computer (not the laptop hard drive).
open it up and try an 'advanced recovery.'

at that point, the 'advanced recovery' will scan the entire drive and try to find any file it can, regardless of whether its currently available, or if it was deleted or formatted over.

after the scan is complete, it will 'build a tree' of all the files it has found. from there, you just look around and put a check next to the files/folders you want to recover.

then you have to recover all the chosen files to a location (a 'recovery' folder on the host computer - not the laptop.).

if you have any problems, let me know.

Answer 4

You can download a free version of winrar here: http://bit.ly/1sMdIqr

Winrar is a very good program to unzip files and to decompress a bunch of other formats. You can use also 7zip or winzip for the same purpose but I believe that winrar is the best option. All these programs are very similar (you can compress/decompress files with a simple right click).

The great things is that winrar is free (you can download the trial version that never expires) and it can open all compressed formats: .zip, .rar, .7z / 7zip, .iso, .tar, .jar etc. (much more than the other programs).

That's why I strongly recommend Winrar

Answer 5

if the cd restore didn't format is hard drive yes he can get the photos and music back. if it did no he can't.

The internet connection he will need to set that up himself, depending what internet connection he has, Dial up, or broad band, wired or wireless

Broad band is the easiest to setup, if the computer is wired to the modem or a router, all he does is plug in the cable and boot up the computer, it will find the net work card, when in windows he clicks on the webrowser icon IE or Firefox and he's on the net

if it is dialup he will need to type in his internet service providers telephone number. and his user name and password. not a big problem if he knows how to do it

Answer 6

Hi there,
I found a free download of StarCraft II Wings of Liberty here: http://bit.ly/1BDyjyV

it's the full version, avaiable for free! very fast to install
Once you download the game, you are free to play the campaign mode, multiplayer mode or even create your own match against bots. The campaign is divided into 29 playable missions, but you can only play 26 of them in a single playthrough.
It's the best game of its category.

Answer 7

Very little chance. What he did usually also reformats your Hard Drive. About the only chance is to take the HD to a firm that specializes in data recovery. Though it could be very costly with little to no data recovered...because of the reformat.

Answer 8

That depends. If he didn't back up his data, It is probably lost for good. If you want more info to help stop future mistake try searching Maximum PC in Yahoo. Hope it helps.

Answer 9

Tricky but may be.

Download TeskDisk and see whether it can recover his data. If you have overwritten the previous data on disk then it may be lost forever.

Answer 10

Short answer: no. If you had someone who specialized in data recovery then there is a possibility, albeit a small possibility.