Forums Forums Enthusiast Forums A - Z Gadgets & Tech can photos be retrieved from a wiped pc or laptop?

hi peeps do any of you own a business etc which this can be done and can it be done, excuse me i am not very techy at all so will try to provide as much info as i can....

pc and laptop were infected with virus....prob from facebook...so they were both set into factory mode to get rid of them....

before i did this, i placed all the photos on a pen drive, which now does not work....

i asked someone to look at the pen drive but they said it would have to be sent away and i would be lucky if info was retrieved...it wuld cst up to £200 (which may i say will gladly pay as these photos are worth more than that to me)

i am just worried if i send the pen drive away, these photies would be lost forever and i would be devastated...

can this be done or should i prepare myself for the worse ????

Information on Pen Drives can be retrieved, depending on how it has been lost. Formatted or wiped information is a relatively easy task, if the pen doesn't work at all then it depends why.

The PC you have, the one you wiped, the information and pictures that were on that can (usually) be retrieved, even if you wiped it and re-installed Windows.

I have a contract to destroy data on MoD machines, and the method used is VERY secure and does take some time to do, a simple format or delete just wont do it, if you want me to have a look first, either at the pen drive or the PC's, just send me a pm.

thankyou very much thedr, you really do not know how much this means to me...sending pm now xxx

If I was to format windows I assumed that everything history the lot would been erased for good. Am i under faulst pretenses here?

No Andy, how do you think the police catch a lot of naughty people, I think its called a ghost image, can anyone confirm or correct me on this please.

Basically, yes.

When you wipe a PC, or delete something, the information stays on the PC it just marks the space on the drive as being able to be used again, and removes the file from its Index.

Files on a drive aren't stored sequentially, bits of it are all over the place, so when a new file is written it doesnt overwrite all of the old one, just bits of it, so often you can recover enough to be usefull.

To destroy all the data on a disc you have to physically write information over every single part of it, this can be all "1"'s or all "0"'s (usually all "1"'s to ensure that something has been written). Standard business practice is one full wipe and rewrite with this, NHS and MoD require three (and then the drive being demagnetised, dismantled and shredded depending on where it was used).

If you format a drive, or reinstall Windows then files can be pulled back, and remember that the files you recover wont just be the ones there when you formatted the drive, they can quite easily be things that you deleted years before.

A "ghost image" aren't the files that have been deleted, it's what you make to recover your PC, usually to factory settings, and then "hide" it on a "ghost" drive, basically a hidden partition on your hard drive, it's there, it's used, but it doesn't show up on Windows normally so you don't use or delete it for standard storage.

all very scientific, So basically the only way to be sure the drive has been formated is to destroy it.

Thanks for clearing that up for me Doctor.

lol, thats sounds I got hemroids or something.

Remember learning years ago that it only needs the first digit on each file to be changed to make it appear that it is wiped because the computer, which only works on 1 and 0 can't recognise it, then eventually it gets overwritten. In the meantime it is still there and recoverable by those in the know. If you put stuff on a pen for back up, or any other back up media, then check that it works before wiping the originals out, at least you will then know that you have a working copy. Used to reformat my hard drive and reinstall often but can't do it now with the new filing system, technology has moved away from me.

Hope you get it sorted rocketqueen, I know how important these items are!!

thanx maisie, yes thedr is going to look at it for me he is a

star x