All my pictures etc are GONE

I had a laptop which died and was replaced by Curry's Whatever Happens insurance.
I sent my laptop off to the Know How people to be repaired, but my laptop died.
I asked for my Hard Drive to be returned to me, which was returned.
But...when a friend tried to retrieve my folders with all my photos on, he found that the drive had been wiped clean.
They did tell me at the time that there would be some data loss.
Is there anything I can do ?
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Comments

  • Knarf44Knarf44 Posts: 4,634
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    Probably not as their terms will state somewhere that they can not be held responsible for any data loss.

    What you should be asking yourself is why you didn't back up your pictures - there has been countless warnings on this board and practically every other computer techie board I have ever visited stating BACK UP your important docs, pics, music etc regularly as hard drives can fail at any time. Even people who don't understand computers know that doing a backup generally means your precious stuff is safe. If you knew this and still didn't do a back up then you can't blame the store for what essentially is your fault. Apologies if that sounds harsh but that is the reality.

    Anyway, what software has your friend used to try to recover your pictures? Even with reformatted discs, Piriform's Recuva http://www.piriform.com/recuva has a decent track record.

    There are plenty of other freeware programs out there on the net that may work but ultimately success will depend on how many times that original data has been overwritten.
  • Andy BirkenheadAndy Birkenhead Posts: 13,450
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    Knarf44 wrote: »
    Probably not as their terms will state somewhere that they can not be held responsible for any data loss.

    What you should be asking yourself is why you didn't back up your pictures - there has been countless warnings on this board and practically every other computer techie board I have ever visited stating BACK UP your important docs, pics, music etc regularly as hard drives can fail at any time. Even people who don't understand computers know that doing a backup generally means your precious stuff is safe. If you knew this and still didn't do a back up then you can't blame the store for what essentially is your fault. Apologies if that sounds harsh but that is the reality.

    Anyway, what software has your friend used to try to recover your pictures? Even with reformatted discs, Piriform's Recuva http://www.piriform.com/recuva has a decent track record.

    There are plenty of other freeware programs out there on the net that may work but ultimately success will depend on how many times that original data has been overwritten.

    I don't know, because my friend took my hard drive back to his house to try to retrieve my folders.
    I know NOW that I should have backed my pictures up, Hindsight is great isn't it ? But obviously I didn't think my laptop was going to go Kaput on me with no warning :(
  • alan1302alan1302 Posts: 6,336
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    But obviously I didn't think my laptop was going to go Kaput on me with no warning :(

    Erm, yeah...that's why you make a backup up of everything!

    If there is one thing everyone should do is make sure they have a backup of anything important.
  • max99max99 Posts: 9,002
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    But obviously I didn't think my laptop was going to go Kaput on me with no warning :(

    That's precisely why you have a backup. A £10 USB stick would probably have been enough to hold all your photos.

    If the old drive has been restored to factory resetting, there's a good chance that a lot of your data will be recoverable. However, there's also a chance that the area of the disk where your data was stored has been overwritten during the restore process.
  • MaxatoriaMaxatoria Posts: 17,980
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    No matter how much we try and mention the word backup all it seems to do is cause people to get their 'back up' against our regular moaning ;)

    I'm sure some nights i can hear the screams of someone who's lost their data over 100 miles away ;)
  • fletchemfletchem Posts: 2,212
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    Signup for Skydrive/Amazon S3 and then download and install Duplicati, which will back up your selected folders directly to the cloud. Painless, easy and totally free.
  • Andy BirkenheadAndy Birkenhead Posts: 13,450
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    I had a laptop which died and was replaced by Curry's Whatever Happens insurance.
    I sent my laptop off to the Know How people to be repaired, but my laptop died.
    I asked for my Hard Drive to be returned to me, which was returned.
    But...when a friend tried to retrieve my folders with all my photos on, he found that the drive had been wiped clean.
    They did tell me at the time that there would be some data loss.
    Is there anything I can do ?

    I meant to say "They did tell me at the time that there MAY be some data loss"
  • Thine WonkThine Wonk Posts: 17,190
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    Spinning hard drive, moving parts, electronics. Yes it was inevitable you'd lose them if it failed.

    You can backup online free these days, or just email them to yourself on gmail, put them on an external or cheap USB etc.

    I cannot stress enough the need to backup, but it's too late now for the OP.
  • whoever,heywhoever,hey Posts: 30,992
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    I meant to say "They did tell me at the time that there MAY be some data loss"

    That doesn't change the fact you didn't have a backup and have ended up having to learn the HARD way. No sympathy from many here i'm afraid. We must sound like nagging housewives, but you MUST backup.
  • RobinOfLoxleyRobinOfLoxley Posts: 27,040
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    Large repair companies and courier companies also manage to permanently lose laptops often enough as well.
  • John259John259 Posts: 28,328
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    Making regular backups is vital, and it's a very good idea to make multiple backups onto a variety of different devices, for example writable CD's or DVD's, USB memory keys, and to remote file hosting servers (Google Drive, etc).
  • PrimalIcePrimalIce Posts: 2,897
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    I don't know, because my friend took my hard drive back to his house to try to retrieve my folders.
    I know NOW that I should have backed my pictures up, Hindsight is great isn't it ?

    Not really hindsight is it? Its basic planning.
    But obviously I didn't think my laptop was going to go Kaput on me with no warning :(

    You really are not aware that things in this world tend to fall apart?

    If you don't have a backup you are GUARANTEED to lose your stuff because nothing lasts forever. And the longer it lasts, the greater the loss, that's the nasty thing about it.

    Hopefully other people will learn something from this.
  • chenkschenks Posts: 13,231
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    PrimalIce wrote: »
    If you don't have a backup you are GUARANTEED to lose your stuff because nothing lasts forever. And the longer it lasts, the greater the loss, that's the nasty thing about it.

    backups also don't last forever.
  • PrimalIcePrimalIce Posts: 2,897
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    chenks wrote: »
    backups also don't last forever.

    The chance that both the primary and the backup data were to be lost within the same time window is <100%. Unlike having no backup at all which is 100%. If you go to update your backup and find the drive has failed (assuming flash/HDD) then you replace the backup. If your primary device fails you pull from the backup.

    Another consideration is that some types of dive are reasonably reliable when sitting on a shelf never being touched (DVDs or memory sticks)

    Depends on your choice of backup solution/media.
  • John259John259 Posts: 28,328
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    There's also a variety of reasons for making backups, not just equipment failure and corruption by faulty software but also user error (accidentally deleting or overwriting a file, etc).
  • ZenithZenith Posts: 3,868
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    I had a laptop which died and was replaced by Curry's Whatever Happens insurance.
    I sent my laptop off to the Know How people to be repaired, but my laptop died.
    I asked for my Hard Drive to be returned to me, which was returned.
    But...when a friend tried to retrieve my folders with all my photos on, he found that the drive had been wiped clean.
    They did tell me at the time that there would be some data loss.
    Is there anything I can do ?
    Was your laptop returned to you in "factoty default" state, as if you had bought it from new?

    Was there anything other than your photos that you had on your laptop which are still on it now, & were not deleted?

    Is there a folder somewhere on the hard drive labeled "old data" or something like that where they may have saved your old data?

    As mentioned above, ask your friend to try a program like recuva on the returned drive and the drive in the laptop.
  • John259John259 Posts: 28,328
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    I suppose someone ought to mention the possibility of copies of the pictures still being in the mobile phone, digital camera or an SDHC card.
  • sealionsealion Posts: 240
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    There is a free program called Recuva which works very well. If you set it for 'deep recovery' you might be pleasantly surprised at what it can find.
  • Ulysses777Ulysses777 Posts: 741
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    Maxatoria wrote: »
    No matter how much we try and mention the word backup all it seems to do is cause people to get their 'back up' against our regular moaning ;)

    Sorry to break this to you and the rest of the 'backup brigade', but the universe does not stop and look whenever you post on here.

    Your lot have not told people countless times to make backups.

    You have told countless people once.
  • alan1302alan1302 Posts: 6,336
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    Ulysses777 wrote: »
    Sorry to break this to you and the rest of the 'backup brigade', but the universe does not stop and look whenever you post on here.

    Your lot have not told people countless times to make backups.

    You have told countless people once.

    Oh, Mr Pedantic is here :D
  • John259John259 Posts: 28,328
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    alan1302 wrote: »
    Oh, Mr Pedantic is here :D
    What did he want, the moonfaced assassin of joy? :)
  • PPhilsterPPhilster Posts: 1,742
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    There is data recovery software out there for not too much cost that could retrieve some, many or most of your photos regardless if the drive was wiped. The loss of data on it becomes more widespread and permanent the more it gets written to.

    In the end take this as lesson learned and pass it on to everyone you know. There is no reason why anyone should not be backing up their most important files. It's very simple to do, especially for anyone with a Mac.
  • max99max99 Posts: 9,002
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    Ulysses777 wrote: »
    Sorry to break this to you and the rest of the 'backup brigade', but the universe does not stop and look whenever you post on here.

    Your lot have not told people countless times to make backups.

    You have told countless people once.

    The universe does not stop and wait for you to make a backup, either. That's why backups are important.

    There you go, we've now told countless people twice.
  • d'@ved'@ve Posts: 45,452
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    chenks wrote: »
    backups also don't last forever.

    That's why I don't rely on incremental backups, every so often I do a complete backup onto a 2nd backup device and then increment that, alternating betwen the two. This backup rule of three also tends to protect against the risk of say a power cut or lightning strike occurring while a backup is in progress, which could in theory corrupt the main computer hard drive and the backup, at the same time. Offers some protection against sudden nasty viruses appearing, too.

    Using the cloud is a handy alternative to the 2nd backup these days, as long as if it's a free service, you don't forget about it. Free cloud services tend to delete all data after an account hasn't been used for a certain period.
  • PPhilsterPPhilster Posts: 1,742
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    PrimalIce wrote: »
    The chance that both the primary and the backup data were to be lost within the same time window is <100%. Unlike having no backup at all which is 100%. If you go to update your backup and find the drive has failed (assuming flash/HDD) then you replace the backup. If your primary device fails you pull from the backup.

    Another consideration is that some types of dive are reasonably reliable when sitting on a shelf never being touched (DVDs or memory sticks)

    Depends on your choice of backup solution/media.

    Yep. Properly burned (at low speeds) and stored DVD and Blu-Ray will last a lifetime. Permanent storage for me is Blu-Ray and before that was DVD.
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