Data recovery software

A friend had a problem with her computer and needed to do a re-install before she could back up her data including important documents, videos and photos.

Anyone know of the least expensive way to get it back?

 

What do you mean by reinstall? Did she just install over her old XP installation or did she format and reinstall? If she did a format and reinstall, data recovery specialists may be your only option, and that won't be cheap.

 

Backups taken before re-installation are almost aways better for restoring data.

 

The problem was she had a maleware with pop ups telling her she had a problem and to buy this and that. Another friend thought he iidentified the problem and had her run SmitRem. After that upon trying to start her computer she'd get...

Windows could not start the following file is missing or corrupt.
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll.
Please re-install a copy of the above file.

Some other friends stopped over and did all they could to try and repair or replace the missing or corrupt file before giving up and reformatting.

 

If you reformatted and the data was on the same partition, you are most likely screwed as the re installation would have written over the data.

If you really want to try though, download RecoverMyFiles. Without a license it will at least scan the drive and tell you what it could recover, but you have to buy the license to actually recover what it says it can. That being said, that utility has NEVER failed me.

But please, do keep that computer usage to a minimum until you try to recover. Do not defrag, install new stuff, etc...keep the HDD usage to a minimum because every write to that partition lessens your chances of getting the data back.

 

Thanks, I'll pass on the info. Hopefully, she'll retrieve some of her data.

 

If she is looking for some sort of recovery from formatted hard drive then she can try Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Software, a file and partition recovery utility which recovers lost data due to software malfunction, viruses or even sabotage.
Download the demo version from: http://www.stellarinfo.com/partition-recovery.htm
Demo shows the preview of the recovered data.

 

Update: She ended up buying Nucleus Data Recovery for $49 and recovered all pics and stuff. I guess the guys did a windows repair and when they were finished she couldn't find her docs, pics.

Thanks for the help.

 

Any "computer guy" friend should have known they could have taken out the hard drive and backed up the data before doing the reinstall. Tell her not to let anyone else touch her system.

 

I love how everyone's an expert when it comes to a friends computer.

 

I couldn't quite figure out all the particulars or how knowledgeable her friends were. She knows better now to back-up her important docs.

 

Too bad it usually takes something like this to push that idea home.

It might be worth it to check these out:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/01/31/the-online-storage-gang/
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2098943,00.asp