Hardrive File Recovery after Windows reinstall

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ag25

ag25

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Dec 28, 2011
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Last night my parent's Dell PC requested to perform a Dell Backup and Recovery operation as the Operating system had become corrupt.

I followed through the steps not knowing that the recovery process would entirely wipe the computer and reinstall windows.

Now they have a blank install of windows without any programs or files.

What would you suggest for attempting to get their files back.
I tried the Recuva wizard but it only recovers a handful of old OS files.
Right now the drive is plugged into my PC.
 
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mbarnes86

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Sep 16, 2010
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Hi

If the PC is not on the Internet and windows update has not run there is a chance some data can be recovered

You need to try a number of different recovery programs
I would try TestDisk Photorecovery from cgsecurity.org,

You will loose the file and folder names but should get the correct extension
Pictures & small files are recovered best

If windows update has run as you were on the Internet then you are unlikely to recover much data

Regards
Mike Barnes
 
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SortNVF

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Mar 3, 2015
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If you had just formatted the drive, a simple unformat would do the trick. However once you overwrite a formatted disk (ie with a new windows installation) You run into some issues.

Probably with a decent size disk you should be able to recover more than system files, but really as soon as a file is partially overwritten. You enter specialist country if you want to recover them.

Next time, pull the HDD and put it in another PC or external cabinet, then copy everything, before you risk further damage.
 
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ag25

ag25

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No windows updates as far as know, also did not connect to the internet.
I'm trying Recuva deep scan but the program keeps hitting an error.

TestDisk says it's going to take over 300 hours :/
 
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ag25

ag25

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Thanks for the tip.
I've been messing around with this tool and managed to get some files back, but it hit a snag and is running quite slow the last several hours.

One question, Testdisk offers a disk imaging utility. If I create an image of the hard drive can I run the recovery utility on the image?
Will this perform the same as if I was attempting to recover data from the physical drive?
 
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