[Mikem3]

Good afternoon.

Is it a waste of time to even try?

I had a problem with my PC at the end of last year, at that time
I was running windows 8.1. The error message told me to do a
recovery, but to save my files first, this I did, but the programme
only saved a few PDF files. So I installed windows 10.

I would like to try to find the lost files, I did have a copy, but only
up to June 2015 and there are a few text and website publishing
files that I would like to have, to save me doing a lot of work all
over again.

Can anybody recommend a half decent recovery programme that
will find any of these files and show them in a way that I can read
and understand, I remember a few years ago trying a recovery that
produced lots of deleted stuff, but with no lucid indication as to what
they were! Hopefully things have progressed since then.

Thank you for any help you might be able to give me.

Mike.

 

[JimE]

You can try any data recovery software that you like. I've used EaseUS Date Recovery (not free) or there is Test Disk (free).

However, I doubt that you have much luck. First, the "Recovery" restores Windows to how it shipped with the PC. In the process, it overwrites the drive (thus the message to backup your files). Second, you installed Win10, which again overwrote the drive with the new OS. It's possible you may find a few files untouched, but don't get your hopes up.

This is why it's important to create frequent backup copies of important files/data.

 

[Alt-rtt]

This article File Recovery after Re-installing Windows explains what to do in your case and why you shouldn't expect much from such data recovery.

 

[Mikem3]

Thank you for the reply Jim, there were another two
that I got Emails about, but they are not here, must
have had second thoughts.

I think that you are correct about not recovering very
much from my situation and I think that I might just lose
more if I play around with it.

I have a 1TB Seagate back-up disc, but am wondering if
I should use it to mirror my HDD, is this a good idea?

Mike.

 

[spunk.funk]

You can mirror image or clone the HDD, but if you have installed Windows over your old installation, then the original files are probably overwritten by the new installation. You're probably not going to recover any files.
But it's worth a shot. EaseUs is a very good program, or you can try the free TestDisk program. I have had the best luck with GetDataBack. which like Easeus, is free to download and to scan the HDD but will cost to recover your files. If it doesn't find your files on the scan, you don't have to pay for it. You will need another drive of the same size or larger to restore your files to.

 

[Mikem3]

Thank you spunk.funk, I don't think I will bother trying to
recover anything.
I would really like to copy all my files to another disc and
to set up an auto-save system, to save having to keep
saving all my work twice.
A back up is very good, but any virus could also be put
in there with a back-up.
The O.S. and programmes can always be reinstalled if I
get another crash.

Thank you for your time.

Mike.

 

[Rich-M]

First of all if you use a decent software protection, Malware won't get through it. Easiest backup would be to a small external hard drive and there is free software like Karen's Replicator that can be set to schedule backups easily.

 

[spunk.funk]

If you're backing up to an separate drive, like a USB external then a virus on your C: drive usually wouldn't affect your backup.

 

[Mikem3]

Thank you Rich-M & spunk.funk.

I have a HP 110-352na AMD A Series desktop PC,
8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, 2GHz CPU. I also have a Seagate
external 1TB back-up drive, where I have a couple of
large files saved.

I know nothing about back-ups, I assume that after the
initial back-up, it only saves changes. I was wondering
why the OS and other content is put in the same place,
wouldn't it be better if it was split and separate access
available?

Is it possible to tell a programme to save to two places
at the same time, or do I just use "Save As" to get it
where I want to put it?

Thanks again for all you help.

Mike.

 

[spunk.funk]

Backup programs are designed to be easy to use for the user. Initially they make one big image of your data and store it on your drive. Called a Differential backup or Full Backup. After that, depending on how you schedule it, You can make more Differential backups or just do Incremental backups (eg) just files that have changed since the last backup. Depending on how much data you have. At anytime, You can browse this image if you want to restore a specific file or restore the whole thing.
You, of course, can manually backup any files you want by dragging and dropping, copy and pasting, or Saving As to your External drive.