I’ve just lost seven years of my life.

A good IT guy should be able to retrieve them for you..Dont do to much more to your putor and talk to David in the morning.

yep, even though we can wipe stuff and can't get it back, those who really know what they are doing can.. I don't know how, I cannot get my brain around watching then do it but they can!
Good luck with it Kim... go deliver your comp to a Professional today and hoping we will hear that you have everything back again!

Gday Kim

It all should still be on the computer, follow advice above and good luck, I know how you feel.

All the best with it.
cheers

G/Day Kim
Sorry about what happened with the Computer, but as they all said just leave it and get an expert to retrieve it, I have done the same thing with some of our business files.

Cheers

Hi Kim
Like all have said above, there are ways of retrieving that deleted data. Also The most important thing for any computer, is BACK UP YOUR DATA. With the cost of an external USB portable backup Hard Drives, 500gb selling for under $130.00, these are the cheapest form of insurance for backing up all data and programmes on any computer. Also depending on the size and amount of data that you wish to backup, USB flash or pen drives are also a very cheap and portable way so saving data, or just burn the data and photos to either CD or DVD.

All the best and I hope that you are able to retrieve the lost data.

Cheers

Stephen

Hi Kim.
So easily done, I deleted my whole web site the other day. Kids took my mind off what I was doing, Instead of transferring the files to the server I deleted them from my computer. I hunted around the HD and found them :)
Try a program called PC INSPECTOR
It's free. I haven't used it personally, I've only read about.
Give that a try.

Hi Kim,
I have done this a couple of times as well, all is not lost. Have you tried to "roll back"/restore your computer to before you "hit" the button/key? I found a very good program for retrieval of data and still have it that I could email to you if you want? it takes some time to run and recover but is way cheaper than paying through the nose for it.
let me know and I will send it to you.

Shane

1st thing to do, though it's probably too late now, is to TURN THE COMPUTER OFF!!! As long as no further disk I/O is done then it's retrievable. The more it's used from now on the less likely you can get your data back.

R Studio recovery is also very good.Barnray

Gday Kim,
Like others have said...it may not all be lost, sometimes they can retreive some things.
Thats the photos Im talking about, not your 7 years and mental state! LOL

Cheers
Hairy

Plenty of software out there to try.

Or just do a google search on Data Retrieval and you will see what options you have.....HEAPS !

Data Retrieval

Absolutely agree with those saying turn it off and don't touch it. I wouldn't try to get low cost data retrieval program and do it myself either. (unless the files I have lost aren't really importanta to me). As everyone says, the more it runs, the more you are likely to lose. We lost a hard disk two years ago and I was amazed at just what a Data retrieval mob was able to get back. Not cheap Cost a few $100. Depends on how much time you have and how thorough you want them to be. Really digging takes longer and hence costs more. They have techniques well beyond the DIY programs.
I now have 3 back up systems. One on a second hard drive in the computer that can instantly rebuild everything including the operating system (Acronis). Also have 2 external plug in hard drives that are only used for files. One of these is at a friends place and a rotate these about once a monthe so if the computer is pinched or house burns down, I always have most of my files safe at another property.

Sympathetic reader here. Bin-there-done-that. Maybe not as badly as you did as our photos are also on CD's and DVD's.

Now we have a terrabyte on each PC and it automatically backs up the complete pc every night. Its an incremental backup that retains old files as well as gets a copy of any new file. Keep it all is my motto. So far that backup is 116Gb and increases by about 1Mb a week. Unless we go on a trip and then the photos add a bit more than that. We added 2.4Gb of photos from the recent Kimberley trip. So it should last several years at that rate. We are not habitual upgraders so my estimation should stand.

I should have known better also. I worked in IT when I finished work.

Yep Thats life - Good attitude.

Don't panic drop it in to a memory recovery place and they will retrieve it all, my mate did the same thing. (Camera Memory Card or Hard Drive)

Thank you all for your advice. It’s very much appreciated, and I really mean that.

I’ll have a look at all the suggestions and hopefully retrieve the data.

As for you Hairy, I’ll populate your back yard with these old bones one day, just to buggar up the blades on your mower! LOL

Regards

Kim

How did you lose them if you deleted them to the hard drive to the rec/bin hit restore that should tell what program you are using it might be lost it is hard to wipe it out it might still be there let me know supa252@hotmail.com i might be able to help you kind regards Pat,s wife Sue .

Kim

Was the button a Big Red one? if you formated a drive then maybe no hope, but if you only deleted it then it can be recovered, (remember undelete in Windows 3.1 all it does is un-address it sort off..

Good luck

Richard

Depending on whether your hard drive is formatted in Fat 32 or NTFS a very very good recovery program is GETDATA BACK FAT32 or GETDATABACK ntfs

You do need a second drive to recover the files to however.

This works better in FAT 32 than it does in NTFS.

I accidentally formatted a large drive with all my good stuff on it and it was going to cost $800 to get it done by a HDD recovery place.

3 hours later had it all back perfectly.
I now have a 1 tb external disk which I constantly back up all my pics onto.

For about $225 is a very good investment.

You must have not been paying attention cos when you delete something windoze always asks "Are you sure you want to delete these files"
Check your recycle bin they may be still there DONT USE THE DRIVE AT ALL as it makes it much harder to recover the files.

For my 2 cents I agree with the advice of turn it off and do nothing yourself except take it to an expert.

If you were familiar enough with data recovery techniques yourself you would not have posted the message in the first place. It is NOT the time to learn this skill now. Get a professional to do it and be prepared to pay.

Once you have your data back that is the time to start doing backups. I use Acronis and several external storage drives which are rotated. One is off site so even if the house burns down I will have still have a copy.

DO NOT ATTEMPT the recovery yourself or most likely you will permanently loose stuff.

If you send me the hard drive i will retrieve all the data if it hasn't all ready been done. Im in Adelaide and do data retrieval. I have access to be able to retrieve dead or working hard drives and flash drives to . Please email me at. order@matrixcomputers.org if you want some help

At the risk of being droll Kim you should be more religious, because JESUS SAVES!

I have lots of memories of children saved on 4 hard drives on 3 pooters.

Next time that might be a good option.

You should get most back mate. Good luck