Can I recover files deleted by a virus?

[jan44]

It seems that my computer has just been deleted by an apparent virus. Everytime I reboot my computer I get an error message about a boot sector problem. When I start my computer with a startup disk and navigate to the C:\ drive I don't see any of my files or directories. I can only see 7 or 8 files named CD0, CD1, CD2, etc. If I purchase Recover My Files, will it allow me to recover my lost data files? If so, can I use Recover My Files from the DOS prompt or will I need to reinstall Win XP and start this recovery program in Windows? Lastly, if I have to reformat my hard drive and reinstall Win XP to use this program does it further minimize the possibility of recovering my data files. Thanks for any help you can give.

[GDH]

Recover My Files needs Windows to run. However, it is best that you do not reinstall Windows to this drive as anything that the new istallation writes over will be deleted for good.

The best thing to do, if possible, would be to connect the drive to another computer as the secondary drive (or "slave" hard drive) so that you can install Recover My Files on that computer and then use it to run a Complete Search for deleted files on the problem hard drive.

I suggest that you use the demo version first as it will allow you to preview your deleted files. If you can preview the deleted files then you can register the program and save them. Having the two hard disks set up like this will also alow you to easily save the deleted files to the other disk.

I hope this helps.

[jan44]

Thanks. This information helps a lot. I will proceed as suggested.