Formatted and reinstalled Windows

[Graham]

Hi

I have formatted and reinstalled windows on my partner's computer. I copied the important files onto CD. After formatting, I found that the most important files were not on the CD.

When I formatted the HDD, I deleted all 7 partitions and installed windows xp with only 4 partitions. I have now installed the "recover my files" software.
The other 3 partition data is still in a raw state and I have installed nothing but the recovery software.

My question is, will the original partitions and data be restored, or will I simply receive a long list of files? And also will the names of the files be lost?

Thank you

[GDH]

Hi,

The first thing you should try is a "Fast Format Recover" on the "physical drive".

You will probably find the current 4 partitions, and the remaining 7 partitions - so expect to see 11 partitions in the results window (look in "Folder View" of the results screen for your files).

Look through all the partitions to find your files (you should be able to discount the empty ones very quickly). You should get the files back with full file and folder names.l

The search should take less than 1 hour. Please let us know the results.

[Graham]

I used the Completed scan before your message was posted, so I can not comment upon the quick scan. Using the Complete scan:

All necessary files were recovered! *phew my gf wont kill me...

Most files close to the first partions ie C: (which windows is installed upon) were corrupted. I don't know if this is because I was using the drive I was trying to recover files from, or because windows uses virtual memory. I may have had better recovery if I installed another HDD and then recovered files the drive as a slave.

Fortunately the files I wanted were on the last partition. I had already collated all the files into 1 file named "Keep".

All file directory structures were saved
All file names were saved

I have not yet checked every file for integrity, but the spot check looked good... not one bad file found.

One thing I might mention besides thank you! Is a more detailed explanation of what is possible with this software when a format and windows install has been performed. You may already have this but in my madness I couldn't find it.

Thanks for saving the day!
And for a competitive price too!.... do I sound like you paid me to say this?
Lol. I know if you send your hdd to places that spe******e in data recovery they really charge the earth. I know what to do next time, and will be reccomending this software to everyone I know with the same problem.

Thanks again for the great software and the fast response on the forum.

Graham