I need a good unerase utility. From what Ive seen they done seem to restore the original file name and almost all files seen to be recovered as binary rather than ascii text for text files.
When I look at "My PC" all the drives (5) appear to have the data, but when I browse with Explorer they are blank.
I have most of the important stuff on a backup but there are some recent updates that I will lose if not properly recovered.
Suggestions?
I was born in Great Falls, Mt. My parents moved when I was 5. I found them when I was 10 - they were in California.
Are you sure the data was erased? There is malware out there that will make your drives folders and files hidden. This may be what has happened to you. I would say that if the information is important to you go to a professional.
You could try to go to folder options and turn on view hidden files.
Just a thought.
There is malware out there that will do things like this to you and then attempt to get you to PAY to fix it. Don't fall for this go to a professional.
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Most anyone you Google will work, but first a few questions. What do you mean "appear to have data"? If the files have been erased, they will not appear to have data as Explorer is telling you, as they are not there. A normal restore program restores the data as it was written, this means it restores it as a Word Docment, an Excel Document, a JPEG or whatever it was, it does not restore in some cyptic format, nor does it covert ASCII to Binary or visa versa.
Additionally, get rid of "My PC" it is owned by a major spyware vendor. If you created backups with MY PC, I would not feel comfortable relying on them. I suggest you Restore these files to a blank drive somewhere, than delete the orignal backups. Uninstall MY PC and get yourself a better backup software. One that you purchase. MY PC is notorious for infecting your computer with junk.
alid wrote: Are you sure the data was erased? There is malware out there that will make your drives folders and files hidden. This may be what has happened to you. I would say that if the information is important to you go to a professional.
You could try to go to folder options and turn on view hidden files.
Just a thought.
There is malware out there that will do things like this to you and then attempt to get you to PAY to fix it. Don't fall for this go to a professional.
X2. This just happened to a friend of mine. I selected 'View hidden files and folders' for the entire drive and all her documents returned. I used the attrib command from a prompt to remove the hidden attribute for her personal folders, then unchecked 'View hidden files and folders again'.
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Don't understand what your problem is, but if you deleted the files accidently then this program might help. I was cleaning up old hard drives and accidently formatted my "C" drive, i used this program to recover the complete drive. Active@File Recovery It costs, but it works. Even used it at work when we went from Vista to Windows 7 and users forgot to save their data.
Thanks, all. Just discovered that is exactly what happened - all my folders/files were hidden.
Here is the virus program screen:
First it rebooted my PC - I thought perhaps we had a power failure as we do out here in the woods.
Then it went into a loop displaying an error message on the screen about 50 iterations before I could get it stopped.
I could see there was data by the size bars thru My Computer but when switching to the drives they appeared blank.
I ran rkill and it stopped some process but couldnt see any data on my drives. It didnt hide the C: or I: drives but D, E, F, G, & H. I had to run rkill from a command window but it did work.
Im now back up 100 %. Thanks.
* This post was
edited 05/07/12 08:05am by wittmeba *
My daughter had a problem with her netbook.. Suddenly all she could get was a black screen.. (Her standard desktop, blank) no programs, no files.. Took her husband a few hours but he finally got one important file off it to another computer so she could complete her studies and pass a professional test she needed for job certification.
Finally she handed it to me "Get it working and it's yours" (I'm using it now)
Took me.. well, after a couple of false starts, and waiting for the computer to actually fix itself.. About 15-20 minutes.
Here is what I did.
1: Boot into SAFE MODE WITH COMMAND PROMPT (turn on and start tapping the F8 Key to get to boot menu)
Type CD \
Type attrib *.* -H /S /D
Watch the process start.
Now, I did a bit more (like research into the problem)
And do not forget to press ENTER at the end of every command line.
...
Once this process finished I was able to boot normally. ALl files present. However I did not stop there.
I installed a good anti virus agent (There are several, Malwaere Bytes, Avast, AVG) and ran it.. (In fact do a couple of them leave one resident) and a better firewall (Zone Alarm) to help prevent future infection.. I had a bunch more clean up to do as well.
What those command lines did
CD \ - Change Directory to ROOT directory
attrib *.* Displays (or changes) the attributes of all files.. Since I included -H (Remove HIDDEN attribute) it changed them, Then I included /S which means "Recurse sub directories (Dig on down) and /D (Process folders as well as files) it removed the HIDDEN attribute from nearly everything.
SOME files and folders are hidden by the Windows operating system.. These were not changed.
This "Attrib" command, is an old fashion DOS command that goes way back to before windows 1.1. Like nearly all DOS commands it is very powerful and can mess you up big time if you don't know what you are doing.
If you wish to check to see if the files are really still there.. Again booting into safe mode with command prompt.
Try the following two commands.. First however do the CD \ (To get to the root)
dir /a /s
Attrib *.* /s
NOTE this may take a while to run since it will display EVERY file on the system, including files that should be hidden..
But all you want is a stream of file names. If you see it, Go get a cup of coffee and when the c:\> prompt returns, re-type the ATTRIB *.* and add the -H /S /D this time.
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The attributes for Windows files are RASH (Read only, Archive, System and Hidden). The minus sign negates the command.
I realized the files were still there when I tried to copy back from my backup drive - standalone USB 250GB drive. It indicated there wasnt enough space - quick indicator.
It was a pretty scary moment when I tried to view each drive ad found them empty.
Ok so you were able to change the attrib so that you can now see the data. What did you do to remove the malware? At this point you don't know where you stand. You may have root kits or keystroke loggers.. who knows. Even if you are able to "clean" the system... Most Security experts will tell you the best thing to do is to format and re-install the OS. I know that is a big PIA but that's the only way to make sure you are completely safe.
alid writes "Ok so you were able to change the attrib so that you can now see the data. What did you do to remove the malware? At this point you don't know where you stand. You may have root kits or keystroke loggers.. who knows."
Depending on what the Malware writer chose to do, the attributes may have been changed only once during the original infection. Doubtful that the Malware is going to monitor all files then attempt to change the attributes again.
"Even if you are able to "clean" the system... Most Security experts will tell you the best thing to do is to format and re-install the OS. I know that is a big PIA but that's the only way to make sure you are completely safe."
While I would tend to agree with this, I would suggest NOT formating the existing drive, instead buy a NEW unused drive and reinstall your OS on the new drive.
Then install antivirus and anti malware software on the new fresh install.
Once you have system running you then use a USB to IDE/SATA drive adapter (these allow you to connect an internal HD via USB port) and run your virus/malware scans.
Once the scans complete and give you the all clear simply copy your data files to the new install.
Once that is done and you are satisfied you have all your files, you now are free to format the old drive as backup or image your new drive to the old drive (imaging will sector by sector overwrite the old drive, fully removing any root kit virus).
Once the drive is imaged you then keep it as a fully functional backup in case you ever get hit with another virus or malware.
As far as recovering important deleted or formated files, there is a great free program called Undelete360. I have used that to recover files on a SD card which was accidentally formated. The trick with this kind of file recovery is to not overwrite (use) the drive until you have a chance to use a recovery tool.
And yes, DOS still rocks! They keep trying to kill it but sometimes it is the best way to fix the oops moments..
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