TornUp Posted May 14, 2008 Posted May 14, 2008 YESTERDAY: One of of our sales guys XP was messing up... easyest solution was to swap his machine out for a spare.. i did this, reset up his outlook, set up his arciving location for mail. and redirected his my documents to his share on the server. brought his PC to my desk, and did a full NTFS format on it, and reinstall of XP... TODAY: got a call from this user, he was complaining that there are files missing from his my documents.... anyone guess what the problem is? the person who set up his system before didn't direct his my documents to his user share on our server, so his my Documents were actully stored at its default directory within "documents and settings" this means, when i nuked the system.... yes! iv got rid of all his work! anyone have any idea????? i only lost 2-3 years worth of acounts and quotes
zag Posted May 14, 2008 Posted May 14, 2008 GetDataBack - Data Recovery Software Saved my job a few times Its got no problem with formatted volumes.
OutToLunch Posted May 14, 2008 Posted May 14, 2008 Erp. Did the user not back anything up for 2-3 years?! Magic eightball says if you've written large amounts of data to the volume after formatting it you may be in trouble. Try not to panic, get an image of the drive and throw as many different bits of recovery software at it as you can while crossing your fingers... I've learnt the hard way even if you think everything's backed up, always take a copy of the Documents and Settings folder before zapping a machine... There's always going to be something someone has managed to put in a stupid place.
ICT_GUY Posted May 14, 2008 Posted May 14, 2008 We have all done it, Its one reason why I always wait a few weeks before doing anything with old HD's (just in case). You will probably find that the docs are gone, depending on the size of HD. Do not boot to that HD to do the recovery, put the drive as a slave in another PC as if you boot it up XP will start writting over more of the HD.
tech_guy Posted May 14, 2008 Posted May 14, 2008 It's always a noodle in the sales department isn't it!? 1
TornUp Posted May 14, 2008 Author Posted May 14, 2008 the fact i did a FULL NTFS format (as aposed to a quick) didn't help! will run some data recovery software.. but as i explained to the user, its not looking like the future is infact orange!
contink Posted May 14, 2008 Posted May 14, 2008 Ouch... while you're running those recovery utilities you might want to check up, discretely what the requirements are for employees there regarding backups, etc... If he hasn't been following protocol then it should be his backside in the sling. I'd talk to your boss about having some spare hard drives around so you can do a replacement instead of a wipe and start over on the existing to avoid this sort of thing in future though.
MikW Posted May 14, 2008 Posted May 14, 2008 I've had some success in the past with Active Undelete Active@ UNDELETE Recover deleted files on NTFS FAT32. Data Recovery Software Windows XP VISTA 2003 NTFS FAT32 FAT. Just to clarify, did he say all his files are gone or just some? Is it possible that a new laptop has caused a bit of panic? Sorry, i'm just trying to give you a bit of hope to cling on to....
ICT_GUY Posted May 14, 2008 Posted May 14, 2008 the fact i did a FULL NTFS format (as aposed to a quick) didn't help! will run some data recovery software.. but as i explained to the user, its not looking like the future is infact orange! Do not worry, full Format writes the file system then checks for bad sectors. It does not write over the HD any more than a quick format does.
RabbieBurns Posted May 14, 2008 Posted May 14, 2008 GetDataBack - Data Recovery Software Saved my job a few times Its got no problem with formatted volumes. Second nod for this. Used it a lot and its been able to recover almost everything every time.
OutToLunch Posted May 14, 2008 Posted May 14, 2008 It does not write over the HD any more than a quick format does. It's not so much the format as the reinstall of Windows which will have slapped a good 1GB+ of data on there all over the shop that's going to be a problem! Even on machines where I've just nuked the wrong profile by accident, done nothing but realise, yank the plug and dive straight into data recovery I've had nowhere near a 100% recovery rate...
Reaper Posted May 30, 2008 Posted May 30, 2008 I made a very big boo-boo in a similar vain on Wednesday. Formatted the accountants computer because of some issues, realised I had forgotten to take a backup of Albacs-IP. Realised afterwards that her old machine (out of use for two months) might be a viable option except that the hard drive is dead. So have spent a lot of time trying to reinstall it and configure it. There are words to use but probably shouldn't :|
Polski Posted May 30, 2008 Posted May 30, 2008 When using data recovery software, remember anything you "Install" will over-write the hard disk and possibly get rid of the very data you are trying to recover. Either remove the hard disk and recover data with it installed as a slave in another PC (after imagining it!), or use some kind of OS ona CD-DVD. Been there, done that, formatted a schools Admin PC and felt the cold sweat rolling down my neck when I realised I ahd not backed it up first! In that case I turned it off (very, VERY quickly) and all was well. The man who never made a mistake, never made anything! Hope you get the data back!
ahuxham Posted May 30, 2008 Posted May 30, 2008 I just laughed. Sorry. When will people realize saving to network folders means everything is (hopefully) all backed up. Than again saying that and knowing the staff here, every-time a machines rebuilt etc I always check to make sure there is nothing saved locally (and 7/10) there is. Specially when its any of the SMT
Reaper Posted May 30, 2008 Posted May 30, 2008 Just about everything here is saved to the network except some programs run locally and their files are saved in the programs directory. The annoying thing is that every other time I do a format at home or at work I'm obsessive to make sure that all programs are backed up etc Currently waiting on WCBS to get back to me so I reinstall the the program, was going to try and do a data recovery but I've booted the PC various times and I can't authorise spending money on new software.
Michael Posted May 30, 2008 Posted May 30, 2008 @Tom-Kirby - I hope you've had some joy recovering the data. Unless absolutely necessary, access to C:\ should be hidden, making it impossible to save data locally. This can be achieved using GPOs. It sounds to me as though a mapped drive has been setup, but it isn't overriding the default C:\Documents and Settings\ This would point to a permissions issue. Generally speaking users should be given full control to their own mapped My Documents.
TornUp Posted May 30, 2008 Author Posted May 30, 2008 in the end i realised im not recovering his work. im recovering his convinience! it was only quotes, and these quotes was e-mailed out to people(so still reside in his exchange mailbox>sent items/archive) my documents arn't automaticly mapped by default(via GPO) so when setting up a user. we are ment to redirect the my Doc folder manualy... this wasn't done! new domain comming in soon. what means a rebuild in GPO's!(forum topic to follow!)
Michael Posted May 30, 2008 Posted May 30, 2008 my documents arn't automaticly mapped by default(via GPO) so when setting up a user. we are ment to redirect the my Doc folder manualy... this wasn't done! Why do it manually?
AndyD Posted June 1, 2008 Posted June 1, 2008 my documents arn't automaticly mapped by default(via GPO) so when setting up a user. we are ment to redirect the my Doc folder manualy... this wasn't done!It's not painful to setup for this to be done automatically. I did it a couple of years back and it is a godsend when swapping out computers and laptops, their My Docs is ready for them.
Michael Posted June 1, 2008 Posted June 1, 2008 It's not painful to setup for this to be done automatically. I did it a couple of years back and it is a godsend when swapping out computers and laptops, their My Docs is ready for them. Exactly, it adds a true roaming experience so their data is always available and managed centrally. If you need a point in the right direction, Folder Redirection is what you're looking for.
Reaper Posted June 2, 2008 Posted June 2, 2008 We currently do this and it does make life a hell of a lot easier. Maybe there could be a tutorial set up if anyone knows the ins and outs of it.
ICT_GUY Posted June 3, 2008 Posted June 3, 2008 Ok Heres a bargain Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File Recovery - Home From the same people who make CCleaner, its free (for the moment) and very good when using the deep recovery. GRAB IT WHILE ITS FREE!
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