Laptop Crashed, all data lost - BEST RECOVERY COMPANY??

[R11ysf]

So Windows 10 crashed and after all of HP and windows self repair systems and even a system restore it wouldn't fix itself. Our IT guy at work tried to recover it with a Windows 10 media disk and despite it saying that it would save all data in "windows.old" file this appears to be empty and there is now 20gb in a recovery partition that wasn't there before all these files now appear empty.

He has run some recovery software on it but I've read you should limit putting any new software on as it may over-write the previous data which may be recovered by a professional company.

This has lost 10 years worth of photos, videos etc but crucially it also has a lot of my financial information and passwords which were kept in a folder locker locked file. I would like to give this to a recovery company and get back all of my information but does anyone know a reputable company to give this too. Will the company be looking through all my photos and information?

Any suggestions and also how much this would cost?

Thanks

[R11ysf]

alock said:

The original windows folder will have been renamed. A new windows folder will have been created in the space where your photos were. Some might be recoverable depending on the size of the disk.

Fire your IT guy.

After your power supply failure a few months ago where you were worried you might lose stuff, you've now had a disk failure where you probably have lost stuff, maybe you should now start performing backups?

You had a warning and ignored it. No sympathy.

Thanks for the smart arse reply, there's always one internet hero out to not provide any help but use it as a means of making their pointless life seem more worth while.

This was a BRAND NEW LAPTOP. And I had recovered all of the old data from the old laptop by taking the hard disk out and using a caddy. I have a lot of data but it is a massive chore to do that again.

[R11ysf]

Rawwr said:

1st up: BACKUP STUFF.

2nd up: Places like RDR (https://www.rapid-data.net/) will have a stab at it and will probably be able to get most stuff back. Places like Vogon will definitely be able to get everything back but you may need to pay for it via a mortgage.

Thanks for this, looking at the link they say laptops from £97 which is similar to another recommendation I had of https://www.krollontrack.co.uk/

I suppose my real question is do you TRUST them? This has all my bank and financial information and passwords with some accounts I never use but do have stuff in them. With all that information someone could legitimately empty 5-10 places without me noticing for a while.

Essentially if this was a laptop full of your wife's nudes who would you give it to?

[R11ysf]

saaby93 said:

Thats a fair question
If youve got a drive thats stopped rotating but should have good data in it (wife or business) , who would you trust?

Yes essentially this. In today's world you read about a celeb here or there putting in their laptop to get fixed and having their photos leaked or the repair guy finding photos of child p**n etc so it's abundantly clear that they look through the data. My concern is when they find a large file entitled "Private Banking" they are obviously going to look through it and then you are totally down to the honesty of the individual repair man. I mean if I saw a file called "Coca-Cola Secret Recipe" I'm going to look at it and this is my concern.

With regards to backing up of data I have 90% of it from the old laptop and I looked at creating a recovery drive but didn't really understand how to do it. I just can't believe that they don't give you a simple old recovery disk anymore. My Xp laptop lasted 10 years and was still working well until the charging pin physically broke off through overuse and the modern windows 10 craps itself in 1 year.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I guess I'll have to just go and speak to some people directly and see what I think of them and then take a leap of faith.

[R11ysf]

Rawwr said:

Also, as mentioned, C:\windows.old\users

When the Window 10 Media disk was being put in by the IT guy it said that it would keep all data and put it in windows.old but when I go to the directory it seems to be empty?

[R11ysf]

NoIP said:

Please tell me you didn't actually put all your financial details, log-ins and passwords in one big unencrypted file and named it "Private Banking"? With all due respect, no-one is that dumb, are they? If you did actually do this, did it never enter your head whilst creating it that it wasn't a good idea?

No I didn't, it was in a password protected folder locker folder.