Data recovery

[huihuigrace]

Hello,
My laptop has Windows 7 and it corrupted due to virus attack. Now I cannot access external USB device, such as external hard disk. I cannot even connect to internet. I plan to format everything and then re-install the OS, but need to back up my data first. How can I back up my data (250GB) without access to USB drive and internet?
Thanks a lot!
Grace

 

[inzone]

If you power on the laptop you can then set the first boot device and if you have a usb device like a usb stick with an os on it or an external drive you can set it as a firsst boot option and you could load windows on it and the revover the data from the internal drive after you run a virus scan to clean it.

 

[dodger46]

Will your laptop boot into Safe Mode? (Power on and tap F8 repeatedly) If so try this
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/8263-47-simple-free-guide-removing-malware
If not, and you don't have access to a bootable drive/USB stick as inzone suggests, there are other options using a Win 7 Installation disk

 

[nitrium]

If your HDD is truly rooted (like my Corsair SSD was), you can boot to a Linux distro (e.g. Knoppix, http://knoppix.net/get.php) on a USB memory stick, which runs from RAM and so requires no installation. You can then copy all your vital files to the memory stick. Alternatively, if you have access to a dekstop, you could remove the hdd from the laptop and plug it into that, which should allow you to copy your files off.

 

[smorizio]

another simple way would be to drop in a full version of windows 7 and have windows make a new install of windows 7 and move all your files to windows.bak. once windows 7 was working right scan it so it clean then install the usb storage drive and back up your data and do a clean wipe.

 

[anantparghi]

Hello,
I am having Gateway laptop. I am using Dropbox to store ans share my data. I have store all the data in the Dropbox. My laptop was infected by virus, therefore, I have made Restore Operating system to Factory Default. After this procedure, Again I have installed Dropbox in my Laptop. But all the file was deleted in Dropbox. I am thinking because these files and folder might be stored in C Drive that's why it has been deleted. So, How do I recover my all deleted data. I am in Big trouble. Kindly help me to do so. I will be grateful to you all. With Regards, Anant

 

[dodger46]

Hello,
I am having Gateway laptop. I am using Dropbox to store ans share my data. I have store all the data in the Dropbox. My laptop was infected by virus, therefore, I have made Restore Operating system to Factory Default. After this procedure, Again I have installed Dropbox in my Laptop. But all the file was deleted in Dropbox. I am thinking because these files and folder might be stored in C Drive that's why it has been deleted. So, How do I recover my all deleted data. I am in Big trouble. Kindly help me to do so. I will be grateful to you all. With Regards, Anant

Try to restrict your questions to one thread. I've found the most popular data recovery in Tom's is Recuva...

 

[alicepattinson]

In worst cases, such as severe virus attack, file system corruption leading to inaccessibility of the system, format your computer to get it back your data. It is always wise to take the back up of all your data before formatting the system.

True! The best way is to reformat it. And even better if you already backed up your files.