I lost my digital pictures. HELP!!


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jamie-vai

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Feb 16, 2007
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www.fotologue.jp
omg, i am so freaking screwed.

2 months ago i went to travel at bangkok and happily took many pictures.

some time ago, my brother re-formatted the family's desktop, and i totally forgot that all my pictures are inside!

how ar how ar? anyone heard of any ways to recover such data? is it even possible in the slightest manner?

HELP!!!

someone please help meeeeee!
 

omg, i am so freaking screwed.

2 months ago i went to travel at bangkok and happily took many pictures.

some time ago, my brother re-formatted the family's desktop, and i totally forgot that all my pictures are inside!

how ar how ar? anyone heard of any ways to recover such data? is it even possible in the slightest manner?

HELP!!!

someone please help meeeeee!

You can try to use a data recovery software to do it. Google it http://www.google.com.sg/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=data+recovery&meta=

Hope this help and good luck
 

Unless a low-level format was done (which is rare nowa days) then you should be able to recover most images (unlikely to get them all back). You will need third party software, such as Norton Undelete (or whatever it is called now).

The key is to ensure that as little is done on the PC is possible until you do the recovery - don't even restart the PC. The more the PC is used the less you will able to recover.
 

To recover, u need to take out the harddisk to recover from another system. coz the more data activities on ur existing hdd will make it less recoverable. As such, buy another hdd to use as ur OS and once its up recover the data using recovery tools like Runtime Software - GetDataback http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm
 

Has your brother reformatted the harddisk and install the OS again onto the harddisk?
If he has not touched the computer after the format then you may have some chance that the data may be recovered. If he has reinstalled and write onto the harddisk, then the chances gets really low. When new data writes over the original data, the latter is gone forever.

You may want to try data recovery services around, will cost you hundreds to thousands depending on difficulty in recovery (the last time i checked with a list of vendors doing it). Dun try screwing around with the disk if you dun know what exactly to do, you will be wasting lots of time and effort.
 

a data recovery service should be able to recover. but its not cheap.

the important thing whilst u are deciding - is to ensure that the computer is not used in the meantime, because if anything further is written to the HDD, then the info will be permanently irrecoverable.
 

hi guys, thank you soo much for all your valuable and constructive feedbacks.

based on what you guys said, i think i got no chance to recover my pictures. considering the fact that the re-format was done quite some time ago. (i think 3 weeks) As such, he has already been using the desktop as per normal, installing games, downloading stuff and all.

this is really going to be a bitchy painful experience. from today onwards, i will handle my pictures more carefully. probably back them up once i transfer them.

wah, i still can't get over it. i am too careless. and worse, didn't realise till 3 weeks later.

but thanks guys, thanks!
 

its good to get into the practice of back up. HDD are very cheap now, so to have at least one or even 2 back ups isnt very difficult.
 

its good to get into the practice of back up. HDD are very cheap now, so to have at least one or even 2 back ups isnt very difficult.

or.. just buy external hdd for ur personal use.. and dump all ur pics there..

once bitten, twice shy...
 

hi guys, thank you soo much for all your valuable and constructive feedbacks.

based on what you guys said, i think i got no chance to recover my pictures. considering the fact that the re-format was done quite some time ago. (i think 3 weeks) As such, he has already been using the desktop as per normal, installing games, downloading stuff and all.

this is really going to be a bitchy painful experience. from today onwards, i will handle my pictures more carefully. probably back them up once i transfer them.

wah, i still can't get over it. i am too careless. and worse, didn't realise till 3 weeks later.

but thanks guys, thanks!

some communication with your brother would be good. if it is a shared computer, some basic consideration and respect for each other is more important than the losing of the pictures (if he is reading this, he should know). if it is his, then you need to take more care. either way, do consider keeping them in two separate external portable hdd.

just in case you are even more computer illiterate than me, get two 3.5" sata hdd, and either house them in a dual-bay portable casing (heavier but easier to handle) or two single bay casing.

i use syncback to synchronise but you still need to be clear about how it works in order for it to work well. do consider playing around some artificially created folders to get a hang of it. of cos, you can do whatever you are comfortable with, but general idea is active processing on desktop, backup actively on 1st external hdd, intermediate backup (maybe once every 3 months) on 2nd external hdd

try looking at the better sides, it is only bangkok. you can surely take better pictures next time.
 

Dear all,

My bro kinda accidentally deleted my photo folder some time back <~3months> while i wasnt around. I only realise it when i tried to upload some photos recently and couldnt find the folder. From my bro, the harddisk was never formatted but over the past months, tons of data must have been 'on' and 'off' the harddisk. What are my chances of getting all my photos back if i send the harddisk to the pros??
Those photos are priceless... =<
 

Ok. Here is basically how it works. Most formats, particularly the "quick format" option, actually only format the table of contents (TOC) of the drive. At this stage all the physical data located in the drives storage sectors is still intact. HOWEVER, if heaps of data has been written onto the dive in the mean time, it is likely that many of these sectors have been over-written making them impossible to recover. Still, you can still try. Your chances are better if the photos were not located on a drive that contains the "scratch discs" for a variety of programs (such as the Windows system drive or PhotoShop's scratch drive). These "scratch discs" are basically caching spaces for the OS or programs and constantly write to to and from the drive over-writing your precious lost data in the mean time. :( Good luck!
 

I dont tink mine was located in a 'scratch disc'. I did create a separate folder to keep all those edited photos. Can i just understand something, if i were to take the entire harddisk down to a professional data recovery handyman and pay him lots and lots of money, he would still not be able to help me if i had heaps of data written over the sectors that my previous data resides? is there no other ways?? =<
 

Let me clarify: If you have written data over the sectors that contained the photos there is no way to recover those pictures. The scratch disc is not usually a special disc on its own. Basically, if you saved the photos on the C: drive then they my well be gone because this is where all the "scratch discs" are normally located unless you have actually told your various programs to use another drive. :(
 

i can do with some data recovery service, no data no charge.
Don't charge an arm or an leg though.
 

omg, i am so freaking screwed.

2 months ago i went to travel at bangkok and happily took many pictures.

some time ago, my brother re-formatted the family's desktop, and i totally forgot that all my pictures are inside!

how ar how ar? anyone heard of any ways to recover such data? is it even possible in the slightest manner?

HELP!!!

someone please help meeeeee!

why dun u retrieve the pics from ur memory card? there is a software to do it...can pass u the software to try if u want...rather than searching from hard disk..
 

Hey, thanks all for your reply.

The pics in the harddisk are a accumulation of what i have over the years... i had close to 20GB of pics in that folder alone. sigh.. and yes, i didnt do partition so everything was on C drive and C drive only. =<
 

Hey, thanks all for your reply.

The pics in the harddisk are a accumulation of what i have over the years... i had close to 20GB of pics in that folder alone. sigh.. and yes, i didnt do partition so everything was on C drive and C drive only. =<
:( I'm sorry to hear that. It sounds like a very important directory of pictures. Perhaps it would be worth your while investing in an attempted recovery? Unfortunately the chances aren't very good, so I wouldn't get my hopes up, but it sounds like anything that is recovered would be a win for you.

The other thing that I would do (and please don't take this as an "I told you so") is go to Sim Lim or Funan and buy two 500GB Maxtor One-Touch drives. The 3.5' drives are not that expensive now and the Maxtor drives are excellent quality (much better value than the SeaGate drives). Put them on a safe shelf at home and always back up all your pictures to both of them. That way this will never happen to you again, even in the event that one of these drives fails, you will still have the second till you go out and buy a new one. I know that 500GB sounds like a lot at the moment, but DSLR pics eat up a lot of space and you will be glad for it! It's your safest bet! :)
 

Hey, thanks all for your reply.

The pics in the harddisk are a accumulation of what i have over the years... i had close to 20GB of pics in that folder alone. sigh.. and yes, i didnt do partition so everything was on C drive and C drive only. =<
Legoz, have you tried the a/m software yet? Give it a go.. all is not lost yet.. it is not true that once the HDD sectors gets overwritten once means it's gone forever.. if that is the case, then there's no need for advanced wiping algorithms that make as many as 35 passes using special writing patterns to ensure total data irrecoverability..

the US DoD uses a 7-pass algo.. anything lesser and they will believe that the data can still be recovered..

if the data is that precious, then get a professional.. there are many who charge only based on the amount of data recovered..
 

Legoz, have you tried the a/m software yet? Give it a go.. all is not lost yet.. it is not true that once the HDD sectors gets overwritten once means it's gone forever.. if that is the case, then there's no need for advanced wiping algorithms that make as many as 35 passes using special writing patterns to ensure total data irrecoverability..

the US DoD uses a 7-pass algo.. anything lesser and they will believe that the data can still be recovered..

if the data is that precious, then get a professional.. there are many who charge only based on the amount of data recovered..

may i suggest the op go to bangkok again ? it will be cheaper.
 

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