I'm very sorry for you, Grace. It's the kind of thing that happens to us all at least once and makes us extra-cautious about saving our data! I'm not very computer savvy, but are you sure nothing can be retrieved from your previous hard drive? I believe that sometimes even when they crash some data can be retrieved and somewhat reconstructed, but I may be wrong...

I just went through the same thing. I was devastated that my photos were gone for what I thought was for good.
It took the guy working on it awhile but he did get it working again. When I reinstalled my Canon software, my photos popped back up! I was stunned because Fred told me they were wiped out. Apparently they can be hidden but retrieved with the right software.
Needless to say,I spent all day yesterday backing up all photos on discs.
Have someone else look into it if you can.It will be worth it if they can get your photos. I also purchased a notebook and now I'll keep the desktop for photos and such.With lot's of antivirus protection.

Oh that just stinks when you loose everything I can empathize with you as I had to replace my puter 2 months ago. I am glad to have you back however... You were missed.
Hugs,
Mary

I have norton virus also. I love it. It expires soon so I have to renew it. It's the best anti-virus I have seen.
I forgot to add that up on the previous post.

Nothing I can say could make it better. I am so sorry Grace. It is losing saved memories that hurts the most. It reminds all of us to do better with our back-up systems. Otherwise, this would just have been a pain in the butt and not a lose.

I'm glad you're back Grace and I'm so sorry you lost your data. Witch is correct. Sometimes, data can be retrieved even if the drive crashes.

It's also possible that you contracted the virus while you were on your way to this site or from a link in someone's blog.

Good to have you back. Really annoying / frustrating / depressing to lose all your stuff. Fortunately I've not had this problem...yet. Hope your new computer keeps running smoothly.

That's Terrible! I need to back up more than I do. I would just hate to lose some of the stuff on my computer.

Sorry to hear that.
I'm glad you're back

That's so awful that all your pictures are now gone because of a stupid computer dying. Man, if mine dies I'm totally dead because it'll take a year for me to save up and by another one. Luckily, there isn't really too much on here I'd desperately need. Actually, I don't think there's anything on here I'd die without.

I'm sorry you lost all of your photos My mothers house burned down a couple of years ago, and lots of photos were lost, so I can relate to your situation. It's bad. Glad to see you back online though

That's terrible! I, also, should back things up more often... But at least you've now got a working computer...

You can almost always retrieve data from nearly any hard drive. It just depends on how much you want to spend. When you "delete" a file or program, Windows doesn't actually remove that data from the hard drive. All it does is remove the directory listing for that file, making it difficult to find. As long as that sector on the disk isn't overwritten, you can retrieve that file. This is relatively easy for a computer technician to do.

Even when you overwrite data, you can still retrieve the file. This is a more complicated and expensive process, but it can be done. Because of the cost, it's usually done only in the case of criminal investigations or intelligence matters.

The government specification for cleaning a drive involves erasing and overwriting the disk several times. The only surefire way to erase data is to use the "S.H." method, i.e., sledgehammer.

Ask a couple different computer-literate people you know. You should be able to retrieve most if not all of your data, although it depends on what caused the problem. I wouldn't give up hope yet.

Glad that you're back now I know that's depressing cos the same thing happened to me 2 days ago. I lost everything too because the virus and spyware and stuff I had to format my computer

By the way, if your computer did get infected by a virus, it doesn't necessarily mean that you got it from TV.com. Without a firewall, you can get infected by a Trojan horse by connecting to the Internet without visiting ANY websites. That's the bad news. The good news is that if you keep the OS (Windows), antivirus software, media players and firewall hardware (or software) up-to-date, you can avoid most of these problems. Run the anti-spyware programs too (Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware), but don't expect too much from them.

Yeah my laptop's HD fried last weekend... nearly ruined my semester... i hate these things

That is awful that you lost off of that stuff!

I think she buried her computer, she's been away a while now

Hey!!
Wow, I could never imagine all of that happening. I am really sorry you lost all your pictures, I know that won't bring them back, but at least you will always have your memories. Those are the most priceless ones!!
~Chelhawian~