DennisD

I think you may like this ...

I posted it because I have used it for some time, but I'm running Malwarebytes Anti-Rootkit as an alternative and a replacement if AVG doesn't update at sometime in the future. It hasn't updated for a while whilst MAR updates regularly. In fact I'll remove it from my post as the updates have probably stopped since it became part of the full commercial AVG A/V suite. So cancel that one.

Hosts File, handles by "Hostsman". (MVPS only) "Windows Worms Doors Cleaner" (link above) passed to me by Andavari when XP was a sprightly youth. Always "Sandboxed" when on-line. Have various services disabled, originally as per "Black Vipers" recommendations for XP. Never use IE and would be limited to IE8 if I did. Strict control of Adobe Flash Player settings. "Settings Manager". (On-line but a real time active settings manager).

It's only a small less than 5mb folder and simply a scanner. Uses the usual resources most scanners do which in this case is about 70% of CPU and 2mb memory. Has two scan levels and is reasonably quick, although I would advise you research anything it finds. Like most rootkit scanners it goes pretty deep and can find unusual items such as hidden files in the prefetch folder (XP), and I mean files that don't show up with show hidden and system files set.

MBAM free version, and Malwarebytes Anti-Rootkit. The latter is a beta. Also still a fan of SpywareBlaster.

I always feel guilty coming into a topic late, after the other guys have done all the work, but I just want to say eloise that this is a "Community Forum" which means you can come here for anything. Advice or help with anything computer related, or simply chat about general stuff in the "Lounge" area of the forum. You don't even have to have a problem. Come here to learn stuff or simply say hello and you'll be more than welcome. You can even let us know when it's your birthday and you'll get congrats from all corners of the globe in the "Birthday Place" topic. That's cool. I'll butt out now.

The only chance you have Kelley, is if the reinstall of Windows produced a "windows.old" folder during the process. An upgrade of windows usually does this, but I don't know about a factory reset. If it did the folder would be in the root directory probably, which is C:\. It would contain all the personal data from the previous install. Other than that I think you're sadly out of luck.

Hi DragonTear, and welcome to Piriform. You can of course post your experience with Defraggler Pro here and it should be picked up by the devs, but you do realize that having the Pro version gives you direct access to the developers here ... http://www.piriform.com/support

Hi Richie, and welcome to the forum. Maybe before you try any repair options you should recover your personal data from that drive, and in this case Recuva is of no use to you. You need to boot that computer with a "Rescue CD" which has the ability to copy files from it to another drive. Not another partition in this case but a separate internal or external drive. There are many rescue CD's out there, but a very user friendly one with the ability to boot a computer and transfer files is "Rescue Kit Express 11 Free Edition". This is the home site ... http://www.paragon-software.com/home/rk-express/ However, to open the downloaded exe file to extract the ISO file, Paragon insist that you register with them to obtain a free licence key. Of course you can do that if you wish, but if you don't want to jump through hoops you can download the ISO in a simple ZIP file here ... http://www.sendspace.com/file/tagxf0 You will need to burn the ISO (Image file) to a CD as an Image with something like "ImgBurn" (freeware). ImgBurn: (portable version) Just run the downloaded file and it will install to a folder in the location of your choice. If you need any help, I have a series of photographs showing the entire process stage by stage after booting a computer with it.

Hi maidenalice, and welcome to the forum. I assume you mean that when you try to open them you get a "No preview available" error? It probably means the files not previewing are damaged in some way or have recovered incomplete. All I can suggest is to try opening them with a program called "IrfanView" with which I have personally managed to open a number of "no preview" flagged recovered photo's. If you do manage to open any, save them off through IrfanView as a new .jpg image. The new image will then open with anything. IrfanView: (Portable version. No install needed) Hope that helps.

She's back ...

Hi Bob, and welcome to the forum. A good question and nicely answered. Thanks for updating your topic so quickly.

Hi mac_user, and welcome to the forum. There aren't too many Mac using volunteers on this forum although we do have a few, and with any luck one of them will be along at sometime and they will respond if they have an answer for you. I take it from your post that you do only have one drive, so I can see your concern re the mention of "disks0s2 Macintosh HD" and the apparent hang of the Wipe Free Space process when it appears to be finished. I can't tell you what to do with any accuracy, but if it was me I would simply stop it if it's still running, and in case you don't get an answer from one of the members, I'll point I've pointed the devs to your topic and with any luck a response from them should be able to clarify things and put your mind at rest. Hope that helps.

Hi Emjay, and welcome to Piriform. The "Google chrome portion of CCleaner" you didn't download is nothing to do with CCleaner itself. It's extra software bundled with the CCleaner installer. It won't add to CCleaners functions and/or features. Other than to tell you that I don't have an answer for you, save to say that the devs will pick up on your observations.

Hi oldcameraman, and welcome to Piriform from another old camera man. Does that mean the computer has given the card a drive letter and you've been able to scan it with Recuva and/or the other programs? If yes, or even if no, there are options to explore. A bit of info as to exactly what you've been able to do or not do would help in the meantime.

Hi Kelley, and welcome to the forum. First thing, what do you mean by ... Is that an online (cloud) backup, and if so, is it not what you want? Secondly, there's nothing to stop you scanning your drive, but if the return to factory settings was a destructive recovery (are they still done or even called that after XP?), then the drive would have been wiped before the reinstall of the Operating System. That's the way XP worked and if it's still the same, then you have little chance I would think. A non destructive recovery would have removed everything but your personal data, and I do believe iTunes music and settings files are stored in the "My Music" folder, which is recognized as personal data. Win 8 may do things completely differently to the XP days, but you would need input from a Win 8 owning member. Worth a try, but don't hold out too much hope is the best I can tell you.

The MFT is wiped first, with this clearly displayed with a countdown, and the Free Space Wipe is then clearly displayed when it begins, again with a countdown estimate. How do I know? Simply tried it. The MFT wipe uses a multitude of ZZZZZ named file and folders, which are deleted immediately upon completion of it's run. (As the free space wipe begins). The free space wipe creates one file, which in my experience is deleted immediately if cancelled before completion.

If you do get to the stage of eventually looking at suggestions Bo, please be aware that we are mindful of your level of knowledge and wouldn't put you into a position of doing anything which could make matters worse. For example, booting your PC with the MiniTools disk would only be to get a picture of the state of your drive. Which partitions MiniTools could see, and the condition of the file systems on any it finds. Just investigative. All the procedures would have various stages of investigation only, without writing to or changing anything on your drive. And links to your discussions on the Linux forum would be appreciated. Can I ask, did you prepare a properly formatted partition for the Linux install, separate from the Windows installation (obviously), and do you have any info, or a link maybe, to the procedure you followed to install the Linux operating system? And did the process appear to go well and complete? Finally, do you know how to do screenshots? If not ... How to do Screen Capture and use Image Hosting Sites:

I've just dusted off 508MB of Hotfix Uninstallers, and given them over to CCleaner. Can't properly say why, but it actually felt good.

You're welcome.

Hi nosmiley, and welcome to the forum. If you go into "Options\General\View mode" and select "Tree view", then the results of the scan will be displayed in the original folder structure of the files and folders found. This will enable you to open up the file tree and target the original locations (folders) of the particular images you are looking for. As shown here ... Bear in mind though that your C: drive is in constant use which means constant writing to the drive, which means you will find a lot of files have been overwritten during the preceding 3 years. I hope you are lucky and find what you want, but I thought that worth a mention. If you do find your files, and in case you aren't aware, recover them to a different drive or partition. That's very important. Good luck.

Hi Hot Potatoes, and welcome to the forum. Yes, it does come bundled with the toolbar, but you do have the option to uncheck and opt out of the bundled install. Or, you could download the portable version which isn't bundled with anything ... http://www.piriform.com/speccy/builds

You made that yourself? Love it.

Why unlikely Alan? It's an external drive and the MBR or whatever is damaged, it will pop up the "drive needs to be formatted" error. But, you go ahead mate.

Thanks for updating the topic, and you did well recovering that jpg. Recovery isn't an exact science, and sometimes a perfect file won't open, and as you have found out, a poor one will. Someone may be able to explain why, but it ain't me.