Emergency!!!

[Octavius]

sigh.  Time to venture into the unknown.  Thanks for all your help on such short notice.

I haaaaaaaaaaaaate screwing up like this.  The files (that may or may not be recovered) were not replaceable.  It feels like losing a child or something.  the computer was my baby  I must nurse it back to health.

Thanks again...       here i go

[Octavius]

Man.  I did it.

Its ALL back (cept for the music, maybe half of it is back).

whew

[band]

Try going here http://www.execsoft.com/downloads/menu.asp  they have a free utility to tell you what files you have that can be recovered with their software. Go to the utility called

Deleted File Analysis Utility Freeware

. Good luck.

Heh you must have posted while I was replying. Congratulations.

[Eagler]

glad it turned out well for you

next time just copy the files

[Tarmac]

Glad it all worked out for you Oct... I shudder when I think about losing my hard drive.  And there's nothing really "important" on it.  

For future reference, you mind sharing your secrets?  What worked?

[Octavius]

I used Disk Scavenger.  I found out now that there might be other free programs that also scan the disk... but I was desperate and this prog seems to work pretty damn good.  It has a defunct HD type search.  I found bits and pieces of files I deleted months ago.  It kinda feels like going on an archeological dig

I made sure to disconnect the HD with the info I needed.  Any applications run on that HD could possibly have further overwritten the valuable information.  It did just that with some of my music files.  I only have 800mb out of 4gb worth of music left, but the file names (titles) are still intact... so re-downloading them will be a breeze.  

I have made major screw ups like this in the past, and every single time it is a major learning experience.  I know a ton more about HDs and their functions now.  So I'm down 40 bucks and a few hours lost for playing AH, but I have the stuff that really matters back, a nifty program I can use anytime I wish, and experience you can't learn in a classroom.  

oct out.

[Moloch]

Octavius,

   now that you have the files back you *DO* have a backup of them, right?

[Sundiver]

Never are. Unless. They are overwritten with new data. When you hit the delete key in windows or even type del in DOS, the files are not actually removed from the HD. All you are really doing is flagging those blocks of the media with a descriptor that tells the computer. "Yeah, it's okay to write new data there." This means that sensitive data, be it credit card numbers, tax information or that porn you didn't want your SO finding is still there for someone who knows how to search for it.

There are programs out there that will wipe the data from a hard drive permanently. They do this by writing 1's & 0's to the surface multiple times, in effect overwriting the entire surface of the platters with new data.

[bloom25]

You guys are right.  To delete a file Windows simply sets the first few bits to '0's, which essentially mark it as ok to overwrite.

(If any of you were wondering, this is also the difference between a "Quick Erase" and "Full Erase" when formatting a drive.)