Computer crashed, have lost virtualy all DS's photos HELP

[Shannaratiger]

The computer was fine, we turned it off. When we turned it back on we got the safety start up screen, the only thing the computer could do was to reinstall it self. Obviously all the photos were lost and realised i hadn't backed up the whole last year's worth . Any suggestions on if and how we can get them back.

DP sorted it out. It went to the black screen with white writing on it, all it would do on one option was bring a loop of document setting file list. The other option he pressed it just re installed itself, needed all the computer details again and had none of the games or photos on it.

not yet, i will try it and report back.

You need someone to look at it really. It sounds as if you have reinstalled windows, and so they are probably gone.

If you take it in to someone they will be able to check see if there are any partitions or anything else left on there from before.

Hopefully some IT bod can sort it out but if not, was thinking of finding any if they are gone off the hard drive...
Are any still on your camera?
Any on an old or spare sd card?
Did you email any to friends/relatives?
Ask all your friends/relatives what pics they have taken over the last year and can you have copies/downloads?
Any on a digital photo frame?
Good luck

Dh says if the files are that important then to take it in somewhere decent to get the files recovered. He said to be careful because the more you do the more files will be overwritten. The files aren't actulaly deleted but get overwritten by new ones.

They might not actually be gone anyway but as they're precious to you you should get then looked at professionally.

Take it to an IT technician type person - ypu will be able o find someone on Yell.com generally. They may well be able to retrieve them

hanks everyone. Little lapin I have searched for .jpg files, loads on theri but not the photos.
I will now ring around the local pc shops to see what they can do.

ok.. there is one really important thing here if this happens... turn the PC off and do not install and more applications or even browse the www... the more activity on the disk the less chance of getting the files back

If you want to do this yourself you can download a tool such as GetDataBack

from www.runtime.org/gdb.htm

If you can put the HDD in another PC as a second drive and use this software you will get most of your information back with no problems...

Or take it to PC world.. listen to their excuses.. pay the large bill and get a few files back.. the choice is yours