Omg I Think I Lost Everything On My Pc!, What Can I Do?!?!?!?! Help!

[mattcharles]

Look on the bright side your hard drive didn't blow up(mine have),
lightning didn't come in and get everything but the case(see that),
I keep a lot of copies of important stuff scattered among cd's dvd's and hard drives. You can never have too many backups.

Sorry to hear that! That is my fear to, that lighting would blow my PC up.

But I lost so much stuff it's not even funny! I lost, pictures of my family, friends, I had videos I made, DVD music files, notepad documents, word docs. etc! etc! etc!!!!!!!!!!!

[katzdvd]

But I lost so much stuff it's not even funny! I lost, pictures of my family, friends, I had videos I made, DVD music files, notepad documents, word docs. etc! etc! etc

We've all been there before matt, & I truly sympathize with you. It is never easy to see years of work go into the "bit bucket". And I know it is repetitive to hear it, but you've just learned the hard lesson of the importance of backing up unreplaceable data.

It is always wise to use a good backup software, such as Acronis. It (Acronis) has recently been posted about on here in depth. Take a look here if you are interested.

http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=68219&highlight=acronis

Again, truly sorry for your predicament...

katz...

[mattcharles]

Thank you katzdvd! It really means a lot.

Now with backing up, I would need another hard drive correct? How does this work?

It's funny to before all this happened, I was looking into a new hard drive and wanted to back up my stuff!
I didn't do it soon enough. It's hard when you don't have the extra cash!

[katzdvd]

There are several options for backing up -

*2nd Hard Dr.
*CDR or DVD
*Incremental/Full Backup

Please refer to this thread

for a very good discussion on the subject.

katz

[Kabuchan]

You can try Free Undelete or PC Inspector File Recovery (or Smart Recovery). I found them at MajorGeeks.

Good luck!

[blutach]

I backup to DVD. The next version of ImgBurn will include a nifty archive function.

Matt - I am very sorry to hear of your situation.

Regards

[soup]

I wouldn't wish that on anybody mattcharles & I am sorry to here it happened to you.

[smkymntgrl]

Am so sorry to hear about your data loss mattcharles. I wouldn't wish that on anyone!

It happens to the best and worst of us. The Hp I have has a system recovery tool. It didn't come with discs, everything already on the pc. I ran across this tool months ago and ran it thinking that it would back up everything on my computer, files, folders, programs ect... Never touched it or much thought about it again.

A month or so ago I was trying to "clean up" my pc. Ran this registry tool and found all these errors sooooo... I don't know what I did but I deleted things I shouldn't have. Ended up with the pc stuck in safe mode and couldn't do anything with it. Called HP support and the help guy tried to talk me thru a system restore which I had already tried. Not an option, he then wanted me to do a system recovery. I said "What lose all my stuff"!!! I decided to call my pc "doctor". He asked me if I did a system recovery, I didn't think so but in all my panic was not sure. He said if I did all was probably lost but to bring it over and he'd have a look. If I had done the system recovery I would have to send away to HP for the discs.

I was distraught to say the least, same as you. What made me the most sick was all the photos. I had backed them up about 9 months before but you know you can accumulate alot of pics in 9 months. Couldn't sleep all night I was so mad at myself. I knew that it was my own fault deleting the stuff when I was using the registry cleaner.

Fortunately mine had a good ending. I had indeed not done a systems recovery but had screwed the pc up by deleting things I shouldn't have. The doc found my pics, music, ect... by taking my drive out, putting it in another pc. He then did a systems recovery, reloaded my info. He told me I had done the systems recovery those system recovery discs I made would have saved me from purchasing or getting new ones from HP.

I did have to put all my programs back on, luckily I had the discs for almost all of them and the rest were free programs except for a couple but I had the keys so all was good there.

Hope it makes you feel better at least to know we all make stupid mistakes!

Moral of my story: Backup your data frequently, not just once a year. Nero has backup tools for this. Make your recovery discs if you have that option, they can at at least save the basics of your computer. Last but not least by any means......stay the he11 out of your registry if you don't know what you're doing!!!!

Registry Cleaner - free
Lack of common sense to admit you don't know what your doing and when to stop - free
Payment to Doc to fix computer - $145
Getting back my pics and music - priceless

[mattcharles]

Where is a good place to take my computer?
I called tech support and they said that I can get my files back!

I just have to take it to a place to set the jumper cables.
My cousin said Best Buy but arent they really expensive?

@smkymntgrl - Thank you so much! I have a feeling I can get my stuff back! I will be SSOOO happy if I can! I just need a place to go to and see if I can get my stuff back!

[BR7]

My cousin said Best Buy but arent they really expensive?

No Best Buy/Geek Squad are very reasonable I have been there a few times

[smkymntgrl]

Where is a good place to take my computer?
I called tech support and they said that I can get my files back!

I just have to take it to a place to set the jumper cables.
My cousin said Best Buy but arent they really expensive?

@smkymntgrl - Thank you so much! I have a feeling I can get my stuff back! I will be SSOOO happy if I can! I just need a place to go to and see if I can get my stuff back!

Glad to hear you have hope for retrieving those files. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Watch that HP tech support tho, sometimes they are a little off on things. When I had this problem they weren't much help, the second time I talked to someone about it they wanted me to do a system recovery for that!!!! Anon was much more helpful!

Never dealt with Best Buy for service. I take mine to a local guy that I really trust.

Best of Luck, let us know how it worked out!

[Chewy]

From what I have gathered in 2 threads in 2 different forums, the HP recovery ran a full format on his system partition, not a repair. With the clean install of the OS and programs, your data has been written over,
what smoky's tech did is something I do all the time. Her OS was too corrupt to boot, he just pulled her data off the hard drive. If she had made my documents private, he never would have gotten that off(it's encrypted).
Let this be a lesson to everyone, don't keep your only copy of irreplaceable
data on a hard drive.

[katzdvd]

I decided to call my pc "doctor".

Good idea, smky.

matt - I neglected to mention in a previous post, but it should be brought up; IF this would happen again, (NO!)and even on this pc, where the system becomes corrupt or another serious problem;

Do Not continue to use the pc or otherwise try to recover, if there is important data to be lost!

Get it to the doctor!

Reason being, if there is a chance at recovery, it will be harder/impossible to get those files back if you "overwrite" them by using the pc...

Hoping for the best...but I have a sinking feeling that chewy is correct...

it gets better...

katz

[Kabuchan]

No Best Buy/Geek Squad are very reasonable I have been there a few times

I agree with you, BR7. I use the Best Buy Geeks when I can't fix something. It really doesn't matter how much they cost.

I lost 4 years of photos when my hard drive blew. Luckily, the best photos were printed out before this happened. Now I download the photos, burn a copy, then stick it in the safe!

I hope they can help you, I know how I felt!

[TNT]

This brings up a good question. Does any one know an easy way to back up "irreplacable" (photos, docs, spread sheeets) to multiple DVD's?

I have a sudden urge to back up my photos to DVD (although I have most of them on 2 computers).