Photo recovery after Diskpart and OS install??

[purdybread]

Is there any hope of decent data recovery after a Diskpart and OS install? I know some of them will have been overwritten but those that havent?

I'm sure you have heard this story before...I have a customer who recently brought in a windows 7 desktop for a Nuke/Pave and ram upgrade. When I asked about data backup, he instructed me to carry on without data backup as he had just that morning copied all important stuff to his external drive.

I finished the job and customer collected computer, all good. Half an hour later the phone rings, no photos on the external hard drive, just shortcuts! The poor guy sounded like he was nearly in tears, over ten years of family photos, including wedding, baby photos etc. The customer does not hold me in anyway responsible, but is praying that I can help him out.

So far I have tried two pieces of software, with poor / rubbish results.

I tried GetDataBack, which found the whole directory structure, and files names of ALL the photographs, but could recover none of them. It would go through the motions, but none of the recovered files could be opened.

Next up I tried Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery. Never heard of it but first thing that came up in an article after a very late night google search. I started it up and let it run overnight. It has found some of them.

Any tips or pointers? Anybody any success in this situation and if so, what software would you recommend.?

What recovering the old partition from before the diskpart, is that even possible?

I know I am clutching at straws here, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[gadgetfixup]

Recurva data recovery - deep scan. Good luck.

HInd sight is always 20/20 but never believe customers. Fabs dump would have taken little time and cya. This won't be the last time you'll hear this from customers or after a repair some customers will call claiming you lost something. Always cya in this business, even if the customer says you don't need too.

 

[OaksLabs]

You could try PhotoRec. It's a command line only program but it is designed to do exactly what you're doing.

 

[Martyn]

As said before, good luck. I always do a Fabs even if they say they have a backup. Got one in now, she said just reload but she had loads of photos on there. Will keep them for a month or so.

 

[Rayspcsolutions]

I have had great luck with PhotoRec and Recuva actually in similar situations as yours but it is usually the customer that restores their computer and don't have any backups. If I am doing a nuke and pave then I always at the very least back up the data with Fabs or clone the drive.

 

[altrenda]

don't bother trying yourself. at this point send it to a specialist with the proper equipment.

 

[OaksLabs]

don't bother trying yourself. at this point send it to a specialist with the proper equipment.

This might not be a bad idea -- if your customer is desperate enough, you could charge a flat "processing fee" and send the drive to a specialist -- not because you need to for a "simple" deleted file recovery, but because it transfers the liability off of you. (The friendly attitude of the customer could shift quickly).

 

[katz]

A client brought a laptop to me after an OS reload, and then they used it afterwards, auto-updating until they realized that they didn't have their files backed up. On Call That Girl's recommendation, I used Recover My Files (along with others) but Recover My Files did the most complete job of recovering what was lost.

 

[Calx]

I use EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard and have found it successful in the past. It is slow though.

 

[lcoughey]

So far I have tried two pieces of software, with poor / rubbish results.

I tried GetDataBack, which found the whole directory structure, and files names of ALL the photographs, but could recover none of them. It would go through the motions, but none of the recovered files could be opened.

Next up I tried Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery. Never heard of it but first thing that came up in an article after a very late night google search. I started it up and let it run overnight. It has found some of them.

First off, I'd like to start with stating that the only thing stellar about Stellar is their ability to market their crappy data recovery programs by spamming blogs and forums with unrelated posts.

Now that I have that off my chest, I'd probably just be using R-Studio with the expectation that most of the recovery will be the RAW extra found files. GetDataBack should work

I assume that you have removed the drive from the client system and are either working from a clone or, at the very least, making sure that the original drive is in read only mode and all recovered files are being copied to another hard drive. You'd be surprised how many recoveries I have to call unrecoverable because the technician writes the recovered files back to the same drive from which they are recovering, usually with a data recovery program that they downloaded and installed on that same drive.

 

[Markverhyden]

As Luke said, work off of a image and not directly with the target drive. Another vote for R-Studio with the extra found files.

 

[DataMedics]

Add one more vote for R-Sudio from me too. Don't waste your time with Stellar, it's nothing special. If you want a pro to handle it, you might get a bit more data back as there will be someone more experienced running the recovery who will know how to write algorithms for rare file types and the likes.

But in any event, you can't recover data that's been overwritten. No one can DIY or professional.

 

[DataMedics]

Just be sure that when you scan the drive in R-Studio, you actually scan the physical drive not the logical volume (one with a drive letter). Since you changed the partitioning, you'll get better results that way. Especially if the partition offset is different.

 

[purdybread]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. First task, make an image of the drive in the morning.

Think I will give R-Studio a try. Will update with progress.

 

[Markverhyden]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. First task, make an image of the drive in the morning.

Think I will give R-Studio a try. Will update with progress.

The great thing about R-Studio is you can download and run the full version wiht all the features. They just limit the max size of the file you can recover, 64k if I remember. So if you like it you can buy it, plug the key in and recover without having to go through whole scan process again.

 

[kwest]

Getdataback and search for lost photos and videos. They might lose the file structure but will recover all the photos. Lostfile1 thru 23000 but they will have their photos.

 

[nlinecomputers]

HInd sight is always 20/20 but never believe customers.

Take that line and frame it.

 

[MDD1963]

I've tinkered with Recuva, and, it was able to recover some files after simple deletions/emptying of recycle bins, and, the makers alledge some successes for post-partitioning, but, I'd not hold high hopes for after deleting/repartitioning, quick formatting, new OS install, but, Recuva seems quite easy to use/try.

 

[mr m]

Another nod to Recover My Files. I had a client do his own N&P and then realized he never copied his pics from the Downloads folder.

They also will let you try the product and if you like the results you can buy it. Works on different mediums and file systems. The latest version has a built in forensics imaging tool. I'm very happy with this robust product.

http://www.recovermyfiles.com/

Check out their on-line manual. Lots of good info.

http://www.recovermyfiles.com/data-recovery-help/faq.php

 

[DataMedics]

I've used Recover My Files in the past. I must say it works fairly well and is certainly easy to use. However given the $69 price tag, R-Studio is a much better value. It has a lot more advanced features that you may not think you need, but if you get stuck a pro can remotely access the machine and really leverage a tool like R-Studio. With other programs you'll just be stuck if you need to do something like manually configure the partition layout, de-stripe a RAID, build a custom search xml, or other advanced things they don't support.

I know Luke (lcoughey) on here offers this type of thing for free to most forum users just to build connections for his professional data recovery services. But, you'll need a real data recovery program like R-Studio.