Accidently started system recovery andthen closed it

[apshu_sarthak]

i accidently started system recovery in my hp laptop...out of fear i immediately turned off my laptop but from then on my laptop goes to windows startup repair...it cant do system restore...when i try to backup data it says no user data i had some very imp stuffs its better to commit suicide than loosing them. pls tell me if there is any way of recovering the data or solving this problem...please reply asap....what should i do now should i complete the system recovery and use a recuva or what?

[mta]

without a lot of info to work with (like what OS, how far did the system recovery get, what did it do, what has the system restore done and what was done by turning off the unit mid-use and other attempts since then to recover), if that was mine and since you mentioned the option of suicide (indicating the data's importance), I would be removing the hard drive and either putting it in another PC or in an external USB enclosure and pugging it into another PC and looking for my data that way.

 

I think that method would preserve your data in a much more potentially beneficial way to extract data off then continuing down the restore, recovery, what-ever path (which maybe fine) but sounds like for you, not worth the risk.

 

for example, if you have Windows 7, you could almost be certain that if you simply bit the bullet and reload Windows from scratch off the install DVD, that your data would be fine, as Windows creates the Windows.old folder and moves all your data (and system files) over to it for you. but can you/I put our hands on our hearts and guarantee that - of course not.

 

priority one: recovery of your data.

best method to achieve that: (in your systems current state) remove the drive.

[Guest Keatah]

If you don't know what you're doing and if the data is that important I wouldn't even try "do-it-yourself". Not even with the excellent Recuva or any other (even more sophisticated) 3rd party "for-purchase" utilities. Stay away from Linux stuff too.

 

Now isn't the time to learn data recovery operations. Hire out a pro. A data recovery pro. And not the consultant guy at the local computer outfit. In fact, not even a professional consultant from like those office buildings (ha!). They are more harmful to your data than you can imagine. I have horror stories to tell. But another time.

 

Please let us know your course of action.

[hazelnut]

Keatah I appreciate you want to help users, but most of your posts just seem to suggest to users that they hire a pro outfit to do the recovery.

 

This area of the forum is about trying to help users use Recuva, and while there are certainly situations when Recuva won't work, please try to resist posting that paid help is the solution for almost all difficult recovery issues.

 

It would be nice to see you putting your knowledge to use in helping posters use Recuva if possible, or helping them use other freeware when Recuva won't work.

[Guest Keatah]

Unfortunately paid help sometimes can be the only solution. Maybe there is a simpler one-click solution. If so I sure as hell would like to know about it! If you wish, I shall never mention pro recovery again. Even if it is the best advice. I'll just stay quiet.

 

Recuva is good enough to cover a lot of the basics in many situations. Good enough so that when it fails the next step is a huge jump up the learning curve.

 

The user said the data was important. I don't know how suicidal the customer is and I wouldn't want to take the risk of working on the "failed" disk and blowing something up permanently.

 

The first step is going to be making a clone of the damaged disk. Good practice in any case. And we will work off that clone.

 

Once the clone is completed we will determine how much damage was done and what is left to recover.

 

There are free linux tools the customer needs to learn; ddrescue, gparted, testdisk, photorec, clonezilla, dd, hxd. All part of hiren's boot cd. Once this is done we can go to the next step of determining how much damage was done, what is left to recover, and what tools to use next.

[apshu_sarthak]

Ok first of all i am not committing a suicide.

Having win 7 OS accident i started system recovery in a matter of 2 or 3 seconds i turned off my laptop...it was reformatting the hard drive. Now when i open it directly goes to system recovery. Cant do system restore. While trying to backup it says no user data found. so i guess the hd was reformatted.

Now can i perform the system recovery install the OS again..and use recuva to recover my data...and to what extent can i recover data with dis software?

[Guest Keatah]

To answer your 3 questions directly: Not likely, not yet, unknown.

 

A tiny portion of the disk was formatted. It is likely a lot of the original data is still on the disk, but not accessible due to filesystem damage.

 

The disk needs to be cloned. Once that has been done, we will work off of that and investigate what was damaged and what is recoverable. Initially Recuva is of no use, not at this stage of the game. It may be useful later on.

 

Perhaps someone will develop a simpler solution for you. I can not.

[Alan_B]

By even reading this post the O.P. is allowing Windows to write to C:\

and if his important files are present on C:\ they are in danger.

 

Most of the automatic Windows writing is unlikely to hit the important files,

but every accidental mistake in the use of unfamiliar tools and misunderstanding of instructions could lead to disaster..

 

I am generally competent to fix whatever goes wrong on my computer,

but I would prefer to pay for my mistakes with money rather than my life

[Guest Keatah]

IS the customer using the original computer to post here?

[Alan_B]

Whenever Windows is involved I always assume the worst

[Guest Keatah]

@hazelnut:

I recommend paid help a lot because I know from direct experience that the customer (OP in this case) won't do what is required when some learning is involved.

 

If the customer was listening to me he/she would have stopped at post #5 and began the necessary studies to improve technical skill. Post #6 suggests this might not happen.

 

Post #8 raises the question of whether the data is being destroyed as we discuss this situation. It would be a null point if customer made a disk image like I suggested. I don't think the system *is* booting, and the customer is using another system to post here.

 

In any case, a lot of unknowns are flying around. When (costly) pro service is used, these questions are answered immediately as work progresses and data recovered.

[mta]

@apshu,

so it seems the system restore has started to format the drive - not good.

it seems to want to go into recovery mode as it cannot detect the OS - not good.

Recuva isn't going to help you as you can't use the PC.

 

I assume you have no backup for that 'very important stuff'. (see my sig)

 

Reinstalling Win7 from the install DVD will most likely not give you the choice of saving all the current data into Windows.old as it may not detect the previous OS (depending on what the reformat did).

 

I see little choice but to get that drive into another PC (internally or externally) and maybe then Recuva can come to the rescue (but there is still strong concerns over what has happened, and continues to happen, to that drive).

[Guest Keatah]

If the filesystem metafiles are intact Recuva would help with all the non-fragmented files.

 

If the o/s isn't being detected, then there is likely no damage being done. The system would be un-usable.

[mta]

If the o/s isn't being detected, then there is likely no damage being done. The system would be un-usable.

 

I hope you're right, but with the OP trying restore, backups, reboots, repairs - I'm not getting that warm-fuzzy feeling.

[apshu_sarthak]

No i had no backup

while in system recovery i switched off the laptop in a few seconds. It didnt start intalling the OS but i suspect it had already formatted the hard drive

How do i clone my hard drive?

[Alan_B]

It is possible to use Windows Disk management to select a physical drive (HDD or SSD) and click the "online" status and change it to "offline",

and this seems to make it Write protected so that it cannot be written to under Windows, though I believe Linux would still be able to write to it.

 

That is a precaution that I took when Windows booted up and converted my GPT HDD into an MBR HDD filled with RAW data,

and I was able to try many different types of data recovery tools that had full access for reading and restoring my RAW data.

And most importantly, I had confidence that my HDD data was protected from any mistake :-

in my use of a tool;

or any tool mistake due to the confusion of the GPT / MBR mishmash.

 

You really need a clone to ensure no damage regardless - but that is not a cost free approach.

I know that "offline" will be cancelled and NOT protect when I restore a previous partition image system in which Windows had online access,

and also dual booting or Boot Recovery CD's will not be aware that the drive should be offline.

[login123]

Ok first of all i am not committing a suicide. . . .

 

Hi apshu. A belated welcome to the forum. Post #6 is very good news . . . although I suspected it from the start .

 

Seems like the data are very important to you.

What all the members are trying to do is prevent you doing something that would make your data much harder to recover.

To help prevent that do not continue to use the disk.

 

What I would do is replace the disk in the laptop (a pain in the neck, imho, but I would), then reinstall my OS onto the new disk, and THEN start thinking about recovery options.

New disks are pretty cheap, especially compared to paid recovery services or high-end recovery hardware/software.

And reinstalling the OS will get your computer up and running and give you time to consider your data recovery options.

Be careful how you handle the removed disk.

 

That is just what I would do.

 

I am not an expert, nor even particularly clever at it. Most of the other members here know more than I about your issue.

Keatah is a pro at it. The good thing about that is that a pro really knows the fine details of his job. The bad thing is that all pro's (whether they be auto mechanics, landscape contractors, or watch repairmen) shudder when they think of all the things that could go wrong if an amateur tries to fix their own problem.

 

At any rate, once you get that disk offline, the more knowledgeable members here can help you try to recover the data.

 

That's my 2 cents worth.

[apshu_sarthak]

Well i was thinking of installin OS on a usb stick and the use my laptop with it...then may be i can recover the data..will it be helpful anyone?

[mta]

Apshu, the level of importance you put on your data should decide how you want to proceed.

If you want to put Win7 on a USB stick and reinstall the OS from the stick, that's an option.

If you want to clone that disk, also an option. But that can't be done in-situ.

 

If it was my data, you need to stop using that drive. During the OS re-installation it will be writing data (something around 20gigs worth) to your hard drive, maybe rebooting during the process, and doing all sorts of disk writes - potentially killing for good your data recovery chances.

 

Obviously you need to decide the best way forward for you, but moving forward, any method that includes reloading Windows onto the same drive with your data still there is quite bluntly asking for trouble.

[apshu_sarthak]

I am not using that disk. In fact i am not using my laptop.

what do i do..i mean the best and easy option

Clone my drive? (i dont know how to do it)

Install Win 7 on an external drive and then use my laptop thru it and use recuva to recover files?

Or anything else

I had two partitions...D drive being of 5 gb...and all my data was on C drive.

suggestions?

[Alan_B]

If you are using a different computer then not use that same computer with its already installed operating system to work on your laptop disc as an external ?

[mta]

OK, I'm officially confused.

So that hard drive you want to recover is no longder in that PC? Right?

And if you aren't using that laptop - what are you using?

 

Answers to those questions will dictate your options.

 

If that drive is now external, put it into an external USB caddy.

If the laptop isn't being used, then that means you have access to another PC? What PC have we been talking about in the last 20 posts?

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again - put the drive you want to recover into another PC or into an external caddy. Then recover your data or use Recuva.

 

If you don't want to do that, you may have to explain in more detail your current status - frankly, you've lost me. (admittedly, sometimes that isn't hard to do)

[Guest Keatah]

It would stand to reason that doing a system recovery (the built-in hidden partition type) would leave the system in a non-usable state, but still be able to boot up into utilities. Did the OP activate a built-in utility from a hidden recovery partition? My guess is yes.

 

It also stands to reason that blasting the first few tracks in a partition (via restore, recovery, or any other means) will make the system in-operable in anycase. Therefore our customer is not using the original system.

 

The OP seems to want to do a recovery with a utility on that hidden partition. And had accidentally started this process before coming to this forum.

 

This utility would copy all the My Documents and perhaps other user-generated data to a temporary make-shift partition, and then re-write the original OS files and APP files. Drive C partition. When that's done the files would be copied back to a temporary directory in the newly formatted and created C:\ partition and be named something like "My old files". While the exact names will be different, the events occurring are similar.

 

It is important in data recovery ops to get a little bit of history when it comes to logical repairs. Mechanical repairs are different, little or no history of the disk required.

 

The more history revealed, the more exact and precise solutions can be given.

 

At this point (especially if the inadvertent restore process got stopped very quickly) then the partition table can be recovered, or a new one can be built. And depending what tracks the $MFT for C:\ was(is still) on, e can read that, perhaps even with Recuva, but I prefer other options.

[Guest Keatah]

@Apshu_Sarthak:

 

My recommended course of action is to clone or image the disk for data security. This is basically a backup. In case fatal mistakes happen (and they do all the time) when working on recovering a partition; you need to be able to start over from step one.

 

A backup image of the disk will do that. In fact, we will work off that. Actually, I believe (but am not sure without further examination) that if you boot the computer with a disk imager utility, you'll see your original C drive in the list of drives or partitions available to be backed up.

 

It is important to make a copy of that!

 

We can then place that copy/partition/image onto another disk. You'll need a 2nd disk on which to place this working copy. You cannot use your original drive. And you can work stress-free and clear headed to rebuild the table and scan the $MFT.

 

If a mistake is made here, it's no big deal. Just re-image and start again!

 

You will need to read up on data recovery and cloning and disk imaging. Then I also recommend you read up on what a partition and a partition table are. And learn what a $metafile $MFT is, and perhaps read about sectors and clusters and how they are tracked, and how files are allocated.

 

There are many utilities out there to work with these items. Many are very very easy to use if you have a basic "disk knowledge" background. You need to research and find those. I was reminded it was against forum policy for standard users to suggest other products. So I can't really name any names of utilities that will help you.

 

I also won't PM, because there will be conflicting information between what I say and other users say in other PM's or in this forum. Besides, what if I make a mistake myself? Other users will point it out if all discussion is kept in the open forum!

 

Keep in mind that when disks go into shops for recovery, and the tech knows what he is doing, all these questions (and more) are answered right away through the use of discovery tools.

[apshu_sarthak]

I am using Ubuntu Live Usb to boot my laptop...and i was using my friends laptop for using the internet...so now i can boot it to linux...but it doesnt shows my drive..it shows other drive which was not formatted but the other one had all my data