Photos lost

[clicking-col]

Hi all, this is my first actual post here so go easy please;) Sorry about the lenght.

I wasn't sure wether to create a sepperate thread for this or add to the other one. Sorry if I chose the wrong option, let me know if so. Anyway for the question:
I had a problem with the computer so brought it to computer guy (cg) to fix it. When I got it back all my photos and photo software (photoshop,Camedia) were gone! Brought it back and and the cg said he couldn't find them, tried loads of things.
Anyway he left this software on the computer :'Recover my files' (RMF) and FileRecoveryAngel so I could try myself.Has anyone had any experience with these programmes?

Gave it a bash and haypresto it managed to recover some of the lost photos and it showed you a small preview of them. When I went to save them to PC it said " to recover/save your files Buy this now", or something like that anyway. Any idea how much this may cost?
These photos are on the old computer which isn't broadband enabled and I couldn't find the normal dile-up cable thing then so with school the next day and father not wanting to leave PC on with no-one home I had to close down programme and computer. Will start it and retry again soon. Does anyone have any other suggestions to try, though I got loads from other post.
Hoping someone can help/has used R.M.F. Any info or comments are much appreciated.

Congrats if you managed to plough through all that!
All the best,
Col

[greghalliday]

First question. What was the initial problem with the computer.

Second question. Do you know what the computer guy had to do to fix the problem.

As far as cost for recovery programs go, you have to decide how much those pictures are worth to you. Anything up to that amount is fair game. I had a laptop hard drive die without a backup (Doh!) and I had to pay 1500 dollars to get about 90% of the data back. To me it was worth it.
Greg

[clicking-col]

Hi, thanks for the quick reply.
The initial problem was that whenever I turned on the computer on, after a minute or two it would just turn off.I couldn't figure out why, I'm no expert and can just about follow in computer class in school! The incredibly annoying thing is that the first time this happened I was going onto the computer to save the photos to a cd, honest. Anyway after this happened severel times in a row we brought it into the cg. He said he replaced the mother board and that all should be O.K now. It was now turning on without hassle and everything else was back as normal except for the photos.
Any folders on the desktop containing photos, the programmes photoshop and olympus camedia were all gone.
As for cost I would only manage to pay about $100, being in school this would be a large amount for me but if its not enough it's not enough.The ones lost were by far and away my best ever, as they were my most recent that I had spent all summer taking, managing to photo some unique oppertunities I doubt will come about again!
All my previous ones were allready saved.
Thanks again again any help is very welcome.
Col

[greghalliday]

I think that the Recover My Files software costs around 70 USD. I think it would be worth it.

I can't think of a reason that replacing the motherboard would only selectively delete image files. What about all your other documents? Are they there?

Anyway, with computers, even deleted files exist on the drive until their space is overwritten. So, I would get the RMF software ASAP before you do any saving or other changes to the hard drive such as defragging etc.

Greg

[JSPhoto]

You can also try Search & Recover 3.0 which is around $30 or $40 and also works. It's what I use. Wal Mart and Best Buy should have it. It will also recover files from media cards as well.

JS

[Chunk]

Make sure that you are not set to ignore file extensions or hide some files.

[freygr]

As with all lost data:

1) You need more than two harddrives, or more than one Partition.

2) Do not install any thing.

3) Use a recovery program from a floppy drive or USB storage, perferrably already installed.

4) Undelete the files or recover the files, to a different drive ( depends on which file recovery program you are using )

5) Remember to do your back ups!

[clicking-col]

Thanks guys, thats great!
Greg, yip all other stuff was back fine. Thats whats so annoying and I can't understand why only the photos are gone . Mabye it's something to do with the fact that with the initial problem I was always looking at the photos when the P.C shut down?
What do you mean by I should recover the files to a different drive? Is it I should not save them back onto that same computer or is it OK to save them onto a blank cd in on a different drive. Say if they are currently lost in drive C is it then safe enough to save/recover them onto a cd in D or E?
Does it matter that there is nothing else on that computer which is needed, except for the photos? ( all others allready saved) I'm sory about my ignorance here
Thanks again,
Col

[JSPhoto]

If you try and save them to the same drive they are already on it may overwrite the files you are trying to recover. You cannot recover them to a CD, you first have to recover them and then copy them to a CD/DVD.
You can get inexpensive hardddrives and add one to copy the recovered files to.

JS

[clicking-col]

O.K thanks that cleared it up. So I got a whole new computer recently so they can be saved to that hard drive, right? How do you go about doing that?

Do I first run the RMF on the old one. Then when it's finished searching and they are located/recovered click the Buy Now button,pay for it to be done online then save them onto the other hard drive? But how do I actually save them onto the other drive?

Again sorry for my inexperience, I'm sure these questions must be getting annoying.
All info or comments you can share are very well recieved.
Col

[freygr]

O.K thanks that cleared it up. So I got a whole new computer recently so they can be saved to that hard drive, right? How do you go about doing that?

Do I first run the RMF on the old one. Then when it's finished searching and they are located/recovered click the Buy Now button,pay for it to be done online then save them onto the other hard drive? But how do I actually save them onto the other drive?

Again sorry for my inexperience, I'm sure these questions must be getting annoying.
All info or comments you can share are very well recieved.
Col

First you have already have on the computer with the lost photos networking set up. Because installing anything could overwrite the photos. If you have networking installed you have to share the directories or drive so your other computer can read & write to that drive. Then run the file/image recovery program ( it could be ran from your new computer if it is network campatable).

Other wise you have to uninstall the hard drive, change jumps on your old drive and on the drive in your new computer (Set the jumps on your old hardrive to {slave}, on your new computers harddrive change from {single} to {master} ). After you get all the jumpers set when you boot you will have two drives and your CD/DVD will be bumped up one drive letter.

Good Luck