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Does your father still have the laptop? If so, ask him not to use it until you can get hold of it, and when you do I'd suggest running a Linux live distro on th

Does your father still have the laptop? If so, ask him not to use it until you can get hold of it, and when you do I'd suggest running a Linux live distro on the machine with tools to recover deleted files, there's a decent chance you'll be able to recover many of them. I've had success with the tools included in Trinity Rescue Kit before, so I can recommend that to you. I've used it to recover a bunch of pictures that were lost with a drive reformat. http://trinityhome.org/Home/index.php?content=TRINITY_RESCUE_KIT____CPR_FOR_YOUR_COMPUTER&front_id=12&lang=en&locale=en http://trinityhome.org/Home/index.php?content=TRINITY_RESCUE...

chinhodado 11y ago
I agree. Depending on the size of the HDD and the amount of data lost, there's a good chance that some data can be recovered, especially small files like office documents. That said, it's a HDD wipe followed immediately by a full Windows installation, so there's a high chance a lot of the data were overwritten already.
- ZenoArrow 11y ago
  Sure, there's a chance some of it was overwritten already, though hopefully Windows 7 and Windows 10 are a similar size on disk, which would mean that it'd mostly be OS files that were overwritten (as Windows should be installed on the early sectors of the hard disk in both cases).
  - acqq 11y ago
    > as Windows should be installed on the early sectors of the hard disk in both cases) Not after enough updates.
    - ZenoArrow 11y ago
      I'm suggesting his father stops using the laptop until his son can attempt recovering the files to get around problems like this.
      - acqq 11y ago
        Yes, if it's possible, it's certainly worth at least trying rescuing what's left. It's very possible however that the rescue operation can simply be too complicated and too time demanding for the people involved, and that at the end the amount of the rescued data is too small. Apparently what is missing is "all the organization and notes" of the scanned photos.
erickhill 11y ago
Probably a lost cause. He had over 4K photos that he had taken in the 70s digitized from slides and organized. All that work was blown away. He has digi backups of the files, but all the organization and notes are gone. He's 77 with a quad-bypass in December, and the thought of starting over is, well, depressing for him. Not sure he's going to even try at this point.
- chris_wot 11y ago
  How do you do a backup that retains Windows metadata?
  - yrro 11y ago
    It's hardly a proper backup if file metadata is not preserved.
- ZenoArrow 11y ago
  > "He's 77 with a quad-bypass in December, and the thought of starting over is, well, depressing for him." I'm sorry to hear that. > "Not sure he's going to even try at this point." I'm not suggesting he tries, I'm suggesting you try on his behalf.
  - erickhill 11y ago
    That's the trouble - the organization isn't simply by date. It was by country - he travelled everywhere. He would actually know what goes where... But my brother (who helped him the first time) might remember what to do. Will give it a shot.

chinhodado 11y ago

I agree. Depending on the size of the HDD and the amount of data lost, there's a good chance that some data can be recovered, especially small files like office documents. That said, it's a HDD wipe followed immediately by a full Windows installation, so there's a high chance a lot of the data were overwritten already.

ZenoArrow 11y ago
Sure, there's a chance some of it was overwritten already, though hopefully Windows 7 and Windows 10 are a similar size on disk, which would mean that it'd mostly be OS files that were overwritten (as Windows should be installed on the early sectors of the hard disk in both cases).
- acqq 11y ago
  > as Windows should be installed on the early sectors of the hard disk in both cases) Not after enough updates.
  - ZenoArrow 11y ago
    I'm suggesting his father stops using the laptop until his son can attempt recovering the files to get around problems like this.
    - acqq 11y ago
      Yes, if it's possible, it's certainly worth at least trying rescuing what's left. It's very possible however that the rescue operation can simply be too complicated and too time demanding for the people involved, and that at the end the amount of the rescued data is too small. Apparently what is missing is "all the organization and notes" of the scanned photos.

erickhill 11y ago

Probably a lost cause. He had over 4K photos that he had taken in the 70s digitized from slides and organized. All that work was blown away. He has digi backups of the files, but all the organization and notes are gone. He's 77 with a quad-bypass in December, and the thought of starting over is, well, depressing for him. Not sure he's going to even try at this point.

chris_wot 11y ago
How do you do a backup that retains Windows metadata?
- yrro 11y ago
  It's hardly a proper backup if file metadata is not preserved.
ZenoArrow 11y ago
> "He's 77 with a quad-bypass in December, and the thought of starting over is, well, depressing for him." I'm sorry to hear that. > "Not sure he's going to even try at this point." I'm not suggesting he tries, I'm suggesting you try on his behalf.
- erickhill 11y ago
  That's the trouble - the organization isn't simply by date. It was by country - he travelled everywhere. He would actually know what goes where... But my brother (who helped him the first time) might remember what to do. Will give it a shot.