I seriously need computer help.

[imockthepea]

I'll make this as simple as possible because I really need help.Yesterday my dad decides he wants to clean up the family computer to make less time for virus scans. Unfortunately he RESET the computer, and now it is an unregistered computer with very few programs still installed on it (like iTunes and 02Jam). I need to know ASAP if it is still possible to recover all my information (about 12 gigs of music, school papers, and a few movies). It is back down to Windows XP service pack 1. It has a Pentium 4 processor with 1.25 gigahertz of processing and half a gig of ram, with a 120 gig hard disk. Please if anyone knows how to do this it would be very much appreciated.

[freakysnots]

Re: I seriously need computer help.

You formatted the computer.

Unless you backed up all your information, there is no way to get it back.

[silentwind2]

Re: I seriously need computer help.

i dunno about everyone else or maybe i don't know a lot about computers, but im gonna say you're pretty much ****ed

[imockthepea]

Re: I seriously need computer help.

...wonderful... excuse me while I go kill my nerd ego.

[cooldude35]

Re: I seriously need computer help.

hahaha u screwed big time

[freakysnots]

Re: I seriously need computer help.

Imagine this.

You have an iPod filled with music. You leave it in your bathtub for a day underwater. You take it out and expect to find music.

Your computer is like this right now.

[Chrissi]

Re: I seriously need computer help.

I'll make this as simple as possible because I really need help.Yesterday my dad decides he wants to clean up the family computer to make less time for virus scans. Unfortunately he RESET the computer, and now it is an unregistered computer with very few programs still installed on it (like iTunes and 02Jam). I need to know ASAP if it is still possible to recover all my information (about 12 gigs of music, school papers, and a few movies). It is back down to Windows XP service pack 1. It has a Pentium 4 processor with 1.25 gigahertz of processing and half a gig of ram, with a 120 gig hard disk. Please if anyone knows how to do this it would be very much appreciated.

If by "reset" you mean "formatted" then yeah, you're screwed.

[imockthepea]

Re: I seriously need computer help.

Well the problem is I don't know the exact problem. All I know is that my computer seems to be back to factory default, which if I know my dad, he would never be able to find. Any programs that might be able to recover data that anyone knows of? It's worth a shot.

[freakysnots]

Re: I seriously need computer help.

Can you describe what your dad did before the reset?

-Did he pop in a start up disk and type format c: /s?

-Did he drop it underwater?

-Did he keep on turning it off when running causing files to be corrupt?

-Did he delete everything and lied to you about the reset to prevent you from listening to music / playing games?

-Did he open the chassis and carved his name into the motherboard claiming it as his?

-Are you cursed?

[imockthepea]

Re: I seriously need computer help.

Can you describe what your dad did before the reset?

-Did he pop in a start up disk and type format c: /s?

-Did he drop it underwater?

-Did he keep on turning it off when running causing files to be corrupt?

-Did he delete everything and lied to you about the reset to prevent you from listening to music / playing games?

-Did he open the chassis and carved his name into the motherboard claiming it as his?

-Are you cursed?

Probably cursed seeing as earlier today, my work lost my paycheck. No not underwater and no he doesn't know how to do DOS. I looked again in the C drive and the weird thing is, all my games are there. It seems that he somehow got rid of everything on the desktop and the My Music/Pictures/ect. folders.

[freakysnots]

Re: I seriously need computer help.

Ah I know. He deleted you as a user and deleted all the files in Documents and Settings and he knew he was screwed, so he made a new user with your name but all your files aren't there.

That is the most logical thing I can think of.

And if that happened, no you can not get your files back.

[plasmix]

Re: I seriously need computer help.

Try GetDataBack. In the meantime try not to do anything with your HD.

Oh and o2jam is spelled with an o, not a zero.

edit: Here's a d/l link.

http://download.yousendit.com/BB5D46DF45C41016

[imockthepea]

Re: I seriously need computer help.

No we only have one user name. Other than the only reason he would do that is to try to speed up a virus scan, which is bull**** because we always scan it at night and it normally takes about 4 hours at max.

[agent000_77]

Re: I seriously need computer help.

Try PC Inspector. I use sometimes from UBCD4WIN whenever a customer needs data recovered.
PC Inspector also has a Find Lost Data option, which may help in this situation.
DO NOT restore the files to the HDD you are recovering from, always copy to another partition or hard drive. If you use the same Partition your are recovering from you may go over other data you need to recover

Here's the link. If you need more help just ask.

It's my suggestion you get an extra hard drive for backup. I would probably suggest a removable one from Western Digital. Never had a problem with them.
Here a link to a well priced backup hard drive.

[imockthepea]

Re: I seriously need computer help.

All sounds very good. I will go to a PC store in the morning to see if I can find a hard drive to back everything up onto and to do a full system recovery. Thank you again for helping me with this problem and I will post again to let anybody who cares know how it turned out.