Recovering some really lost files

I apologize if this isn't the correct forum for this, but there appears to be numerous computer savy people present, so I have a question.

2 years ago (August 09) my Asus G1S series laptop crashed, and I used a recovery disk to reboot a fresh instance of it. Later, I used an upgrade program to put Windows 7 on the computer (it was originally Windows Vista), around February 2010.

I have files on that original hard-drive partition from 2 years ago that I don't have second copies of. I've heard of ways that you can peel back layers of a hard-drive, and am wondering if it will ever be possible to regain these files, or if they are forever lost to time. If it is possible, what would I require and what is the cost like?

Thank you so much for your time.

~Dan

 

If nothing was overwritten at the locations on the hard drive where your files were, you might be able to recover them with this: Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download. This should be in the software or hardware sections though.

 

They are probably gone. Once the sectors are overwritten only a clean room with advanced tools can get them - at a cost that is prohibitive. Even then nothing is guaranteed. Try testdisk or another free utility. You might get lucky. Keep in mind that often you won't be able to recovery file names, only file data.

If the data is critical and testdisk doesn't work, I have had luck with a utility called getdataback - but it costs a good amount of money and unfortunately the licensing is separate for FAT and NTFS versions. They offer a free trial to see if it can recover files, and also a boot CD. There are countless other programs out there you can try. Good luck.

 

I'll throw in to mention some software that has worked well for me in the past as well: http://www.easeus.com/

It can be pretty steep in cost, but it was able to get all my files back with the original file names and locations intact. I would highly suggest it to anyone who is looking for a thorough data recovery program.

But as others have said, if Windows has already overwritten the blocks of data where the data resides, there's very little chance of getting it back