Ok here's the prob. My dippy niece has somehow screwed up her hard drive.
It's a laptop with Vista and somehow it's now been reset back to the factory settings, and all her photos, documents, as well all internet settings are no LONGER there.
I told her to try the old F8 key method and to restore from last known config. but it just fires up to those factory settings still with none of her files there. (and yes, L told her that she should always backup these up to disk!)
She obviously can't access the internet as l was going to suggest DOWNLOADING the Recuva program.
Has anyone got any further suggestions before it goes in to the repair shop?
Thanks in anticipation. If everything was on the same drive / partition there is little hope of recovery - the "factory restore" likely overwrote most, if not all of the files. But if she wants to try recuva there's no reason she has to download it on that computer (and why is it obvious she can't access the internet? Why can't she?)Thanks Allan, and a big thanks for answering.
That's what l'm thinking though. Although it now boots up to a desktop screen, the reason she can't access the internet is because all her settings have been wiped out and l think need reloading.
I didn't tell her to do this just in case more of the disk was overwritten.
Unless there is a miracle cure, which l very much doubt, if she takes it in to a repair shop could they link to the laptops drive somehow to see if there is anything they could copy off?
Thanks again for your assistance
Sure they can look at her drive, but I still don't understand why she can't access the internet. If she's back to default settings, wasn't she able to GO ONLINE when she first got the system? And there's nothing she's going to do now that would cause more damage. As I said, I don't think she's going to have much success with the overwritten files, but she can certainly install recuva and give it a shot.Thanks Allan,
Well who knows? She gets the desktop up, but nothing happens when she clicks to connect to the internet. (it's a bit of the lost in translation/chinese whispers scenario) so l'm going to leave well alone, l think!
I'll suggest she takes it to the repairers, JUST IN CASE they may be able to claw SOME files back, but won't ask her to hold her breath.
When l asked her if she had backed her files up to a cd/dvd disk, she then says what's a backup!!! OMG!
I rest my case, and couldn't answer her question as l had already committed suicide (ha!)
Anyway, thanks for your help, much appreciated as ever.
Regards