How do you recover data after formatting a computer

Question

I had sent my computer to be fixed. He told me he was going to reformat it to fix its files. He gave me my computer back completly blank with nothing on it....i am very upset, and i need help recovering my old files, which are basically image files and mp3s. Please and thankzz <3

Answer 1

Formatting or reformatting always deletes all files on the harddrive.  Formatting &quot;to fix its files&quot; makes no sense.  Sounds like he thought you knew what formatting was and that he didn&#039;t know what he was talking about.  Are you SURE he said he was reformatting &quot;to fix its files&quot;?

1.  Always back up your files.  External hard drives are relatively inexpensive these days, e.g., you can get a 250G for about $100, or you can even just transfer everything to one or two of those 2G or 4G flash drives that are very cheap, way under $20.

2.  Learn more about computers.  You should have known that formatting would wipe all files on the computer.

3.  Don&#039;t ever let anybody have your computer because it&#039;s like giving them a copy of your hard drive.  They can access everything, such as your account numbers, where you shop, passwords, and just your personal info, like your email that says which boy you like and what secret you might be hiding from your parents.  

If you MUST let somebody work on your computer let them do it in your presence so you can see which files they are accessing and insist that they explain what they&#039;re doing as they go.  No one will be happy to do it, though..  

Or password protect individual files so no one can read them but you (although there&#039;s still a chance that he might hack into the files).  

Even if you copy the files and temporarily delete them from your hard drive, someone can restore them from your recycle bin EVEN IF YOU DELETE THEM FROM THE RECYCLE BIN.  To completely delete a file, you must use an uninstall program, which will overwrite the text in the file multiple times so that no one could ever decipher it.  (Go to pcmag.com and search &quot;uninstaller freeware&quot; for a free version; do not use one from a source that is not completely reputable.)

4.  To restore files, go to pcmag.again and seach &quot;restore files to reformatted harddrive&quot; and you will get a page of ads and of pcmag articles about restoral programs, including free programs.  Don&#039;t count on getting every single thing restored on a formatted drive, though.

Good luck.

Answer 2

You dont recover them. There gone forever. You have to put them back on.

Or like the first person said, if you have backups, use those.

Answer 3

You can buy software to recover your files but you have to have at least two hard drives to do it safely. You need to install the recovery software on the drive that DOES NOT contain the data you wish to recover. Then you run the software and recover what you can from the other drive. They have free trial versions of programs that do this at www.download.com but I recommend that you go to a store that sells software and buy it from them. Try Best Buy or Circuit City.

Answer 4

You recover them from your backups.  Hopefully you made some CDs or DVDs of your data.

HTH!

Answer 5

you must save to dvd or external hard drive B E F O R E doing anything to your hard drive