Hawaii Real Estate Resource

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Ooops, I formatted my drive and lost all my data!

Retrieved All My Computer Files After Accidental Formatting

Data on my computer is key to my business and if you're like me, you'd be lost if something happened to your computer and you didn't have backup files.  I thought I was being very careful about such things but due to a series of computer failures, I found myself "up the creek" and looking for a paddle.  Here's how I got my data back so that my business was not affected.

The problem began with the need to reformat my drive and reload Windows to correct some issues.  After backing up my entire hard drive to a portable, I reformatted the drive in preparation for reloading Windows.  In mid-process, I then  accidentally destroyed the files on my portable.  The good news is that I was able to retrieve all files from the formatted drive without paying thousands of dollars wanted by a professional data restoration company on the mainland.  I bought a software package called "Recover My Files" and it recovered 100% of the information including file names and folder hierarchy.  Cost was only $60. 

The key to full recovery was that I hadn't loaded any software on the formatted drive which would have overwritten some of the data.  It was also key that the drive had 2 partitions and I could load and run the software from the unaffected partition.  I did a little test and learned that even for a formatted drive with Windows reloaded, most of the files were recoverable.

I hope this gives encouragement to anyone out there who has had a similar misfortune.  I have no business relationship with the software company outside of purchasing their product.  And of course your experience may not be the same as mine.

Visit www.KauaiRocks.com for Hawaii real estate information

Richard Dolbeare, REALTOR-ASSOCIATE

Richard Dolbeare
REALTOR-ASSOCIATE®
Accredited Buyer Representative & e-PRO
Century 21 All Islands
(808) 651-4550 (cell)
(866) 757-8239 (FAX)
Aloha@RichardDolbeare.com

Comments

Good information.  Thanks for sharing
Posted by Maria Holland (RE/Max Elite, ABR,GRI, CDPE, SFR) about 1 year ago
Hey thanks for sharing that great info Good luck
Posted by Richard Perkins (Prudential California Realty) about 1 year ago
I had something similar happen a few months ago.. Fortunately I have a friend who is one of the best tech guys I know.  He was able to recover most of my data.
Posted by Randy L. Prothero - Hawaii REALTOR® (Century 21 Liberty Homes) about 1 year ago

Richard, you were very lucky. I had a similar experience and was only able to retrieve about half of my data. I now have a backup drive on every one of my systems and back up my data every three days.

Good information and thanks for sharing.

Good Post!

Posted by Michael Setunsky (Michael's Commercial LLC) about 1 year ago

Thanks for the comment on my similar blog:  This is something we not only need to do for ourselves, but something we need to add as part of our "Gold standard" service to our clients.

Posted by Rachael Hite-Twigg (Realty Negotiations) about 1 year ago

I am glad you got it retrieved, Thanks for posting this information. Sometimes we just dont think about this type of thing happening. Keep up the great informative posts!!!!

Posted by Dione Sage (Nova Home Loans) about 1 year ago

Richard - Thanks for telling us about this software.  It is good to know that it exists if I should ever have a similar problem.

Posted by Pam Dent - REALTOR Charlottesville Virginia Homes and Horse Farms (Real Estate III) about 1 year ago

Hi Pam,

As another person said, I was very lucky.  May we both be lucky with our real estate.

Aloha,

Richard

Posted by Richard T Dolbeare (RA), ABR, CRS, RSPS, BS/MS - Engineering Hawaii Dreams Today (Keller Williams Realty) about 1 year ago

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