HELP!!! data recovery advice sorely needed!

TrojanWhore

TrojanWhore

TrojanWhore

Soldato
Joined
13 Sep 2010
Posts
2,546
hi guys, firstly, apologies if this is better placed in the storage section, wasn't too sure!

background
I work in IT support, and the other day, a (very important) user's WiFi stopped working.

I manually reinstalled the drivers, which didn't work, so did it via Dell Kace (automated deployment system), after which, windows would not boot at all. I re-imaged the laptop, so am now able to get to windows again, but was then informed that he hasn't properly shut down his computer since May, and as such, none of his work has been backed up to the network :mad:

requirement
so basically, I was hoping someone would be able to suggest a way we could possibly recover data from the Hard disk in the laptop, despite the fact that the laptop had been imaged since....long shot I know!
I'll add that the solution doesn't need to be cost free!

thanks,
TrojanWhore
 
Very much depends on how the HDD was re-imaged / formatted.

Do a search for Hirens and download the latest iso and mount it on the clients laptop. There are many recovery tools on there (probably something with deep sector by sector scans would be best) to try. They will take a long time depending on HDD size. Could be up to couple days, and your not guaranteed to get anything back.

However, having done this a few times before, most items are likely to forget their original file names and there will be a lot of content you will need to go through.
 
If it still boots into Windows, there are a few tools that run inside windows - Recuva being one of them. Might be worth a shot.

Although after a full re-install, chances might be quite slim.

Also worth noting, if it does find anything, recover the items to a different drive. Never recover them to the same drive.
 
thanks guys, currently trying 'EaseUS' recovery software, which seems to have found something, I'll know in an hour or 2 whether they are the files I am trying to recover. *fingers crossed*

UnworthyBean; I think it's beyond that point unfortunately, having reimaged windows to it already from an older image.

bledd. cheers I'll give that a shot if the one I'm currently trying doesn't yield results.


something some of you may get a giggle from, is that I've now found the hardware WiFi switch, which was set to 'off'......so it seems there was likely no issue with the laptop to begin with....[DERP] :(
 
Just thought I'd bump this rather than open a new thread as its something similar.

I have a laptop thats been blown away by SCCM. The partition table/drive format was done but nothing else, has the data previously on the disk had it? No encryption has been done.
 
platypus said:
Just thought I'd bump this rather than open a new thread as its something similar.

I have a laptop thats been blown away by SCCM. The partition table/drive format was done but nothing else, has the data previously on the disk had it? No encryption has been done.
Click to expand...

What type of format?

See post #5.
 
krollontrack will recover almost all data, but the cost with be high depending on data and size, and tbh loads better than diy solutions, i've been doing it now for 20+ years and no matter what tools you use, there's are better


for home user dont waste your time or money, for anyone else, they are for you
 
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