[Ghaleon]

Hi All,

I just realized that I neglected to back up some data after replacing windows vista with XP pro. Is there　any way that I might recover it?

I formatted the entire hard drive with the "quick format" option during installation. That means that my old data was not completely erased, right?

In the meantime, I`m not adding any extra data to the hard drive, for fear of overwriting potentially retrievable deleted files.

Thanks for your time!

[Elvandil]

Using that drive at all will overwrite data. Ideally, you should stop using it and put it in another machine so that you could scan it without writing to it.

Alternatively, booting from a parallel operating system is the next best idea. An OS running from a CD, like UBCD4Win or a Linux LiveCD, or another OS installed to an empty partition on your system would do the trick.

Then, you could try scanning with freeware first.

Free recovery applications:

1) Recover Files
2) Recuva
3) Restoration
4) Free Undelete (NTFS only)
5) Softperfect File Recovery
6) ADRC Data Recovery Tools
7) Undelete Plus
8) Data Recovery
9) PCI File Recovery
10) DriveRescue
11) Ultimate Data Recovery
12) Disk Investigator

[Martin.dc2]

Hi,

Need not panic, data can be recovered. Although the quantity of usable data recovered will depend on several factors, including: the operating system involved, the level of file fragmentation (if any), and the extent to which any overwrite may have occurred. But in your case since you have not performed any read/write operation on the drive the chances of data recovery is high.

I had reformatted my hard drive and had lost important files. But I successfully recovered my lost data using NTFS Data Recovery Software You can use the same software if you have NTFS file system on your drive or you can choose any other software depending upon the file system and your requirement.

All the Best

[Ghaleon]

I'm a little worried. None of these programs are turning up anything from my old vista installation. I am running them from XP, could that be the problem? The resources to remove the hard drive are not readily avaibable in my situation (living in rural japan with a spattering of Japanese) but I could track them down if any of you think it would give me a better shot...

Elvandil, are you suggesting that I run one of these recovery programs from a bootable cd? How would that work? Are there bootable cd's that come bundled with data recovery software?

Thanks much

[Elvandil]

The details matter little. Your chances are slim. Just the Windows folder for Vista is large enough to completely cover a typical XP installation, and with the rest of it, chances are that anything on the drive was overwritten.

I offered you the tools, but I can't offer you hope.

[Ghaleon]

Originally Posted by Elvandil

I offered you the tools, but I can't offer you hope.

Well, thanks for the tools then. I appreciate the effort.