Data Recovery

So I got a call from friend. Apparently their boss has had some problems with upgrading to Windows 10 (MS Tech Support is to blame, I guess). Anyway, the upgrade went bad and now the boss can't access the files. She has 4 years of information on that drive. She runs an adult group home and has very, very, very sensitive information that needs to be recovered. Are there any free programs that I could use to help her get some of the files back?

I don't know of any offhand, sorry. But while you wait for someone to come in with experience, you can search here at the site as this has been asked many times before.

Good luck!!

Edit: you should also tell this person the importance of back ups...particularly if they are running a business from one PC ..

Hi de_yogurt,

I agree with the Earthdog that she must always take the backup of her valuable data. Taking backup is not enough; testing it on regular time interval is also important. If possible try to make at least 2-3 backups and keep them in different places, so that, if any of them got damaged, she'd retrieve data from the another one.

There are so many free data recovery software which can recover data, but all of them have a threshold limit.

I also had a great experience with the Stellar Phoenix free data recovery software. So, I suggest that if she has a huge list of data, then either she goes for a paid version, or if she has a limited data, then she can give an attempt to Stellar Phoenix free data recovery software.

Wish her Good Luck from my side!!!

This is not difficult to do. Just remove the drive and put in a usb docking cradle or enclosure and you should be able to read the drive with another computer (the host) and transfer the data to the host computer. Reinstall Windows and necessary programs on the boss's computer and then move the data back to that computer. When you encounter messages like, "you do not have permission to access this folder" just ignore it and proceed. It's a bluff. Believe me, I do this sort of thing all the time in my PC repair business.

Hi @de_yogurt!

I'm sorry to hear about the problems with the drive, mate - I know how unpleasant this could be.

You can try the software suggested by @oliverpowell and hopefully the data will be saved, but in case it doesn't then contact a data recovery company and see if your information can be retrieved from the drive, and keep in mind that the more you use the drive and try to repair it, the worse the damage and the extraction of files may become. Usually the drive manufacturers have a list with data recovery partners available in their website, so you can take a look there if you want.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

I've used trent's method many times with success. Recuva is another program that's handy for data recovery (free and paid versions). For paid software, SpinRite is pretty good. https://www.grc.com/sroverview.htm

Hi, I have gone through this blog http://www.socialpositives.com/2016/02/top-5-free-data-recovery-software-2016/ and find quite useful and free hard drive recovery tools. I suggest you to go through it and find more options to get your data back.

Mighty_Miro_WD said:

You can try the software suggested by @oliverpowell and hopefully the data will be saved, but in case it doesn't then contact a data recovery company and see if your information can be retrieved from the drive, and keep in mind that the more you use the drive and try to repair it, the worse the damage and the extraction of files may become.

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No offense meant, but this can cost thousands of dollars and isn't entirely true. If the Windows 10 Upgrade unsuccessfully installed, then all that is wrong with the drive is the Windows installation. The drive itself should still be in good health and the information should be retrievable.

In the event that the upgrade process formatted the hard drive (doubtful), there is affordable and even free/trial software you can use to recover information from sectors that Windows may have marked as available to be written to. When you "quick format" a drive, such as is common practice before you install a fresh copy of Windows, all Windows does is marks the entire drive available to be written to. This means your information is STILL on the drive, it is just hidden from you because the impression the OS is getting is that you no longer have a need for that data, thus opening that space so it can write new information there.

https://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm - NTFS GetDataBack is my program of choice for these instances. I used it for over 5 years at my old job working at a computer/electronics repair shop. It has saved many of my personal customers from losing data they thought they lost due to accidental quick formats or Windows becoming corrupt because an update went horribly wrong (just as in your case).

When I attempted to use the free Windows 10 upgrade back in June it bricked my install of Windows 7 as well. I was able to grab my important data with no problem off my drive by plugging it into another computer via a USB to SATA adapter. The adapters can be bought for about 20 dollars or less. There are more expensive ones such as the "usb docks" that trents mentioned, they are nice if you're constantly needing to plug internal drives into another machine to read them.

I wouldn't contact a data recovery company until it is your last resort, but if the drive is still in good physical health (which it should be since it wasn't dropped or damaged physically) you have nothing to worry about.

http://www.r-studio.com/ works for me though I do not run win10 so can't confirm.

Necro much?

Eh, someone had to, and it was his turn.

I note that ronanldhughes' reply and advice was to an old thread from 2.5 years ago. I wonder if he realized he was not assisting with a current problem that may or may not have been solved.

Spammer

GetDataBack saved my rear a couple of times but it is not free.. But it's good.. and if the files are so important.. price shouldn't be an issue (79$)