WWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
This is a SHINING endorsement of an AWESOME product. Here's the story:
Two days ago: my associate and I are in the middle of pounding out laptops for our new VPN access. We had three brand new systems from Dell, a desktop, and a previous salesman's laptop to work on. The higher ups were briefed about the process SEVERAL times. We will format the comp, load WinNT and install all the necessary VPN tools. I wrote custom scripts for this and everything. The sales laptop was given to us at the same time two other ones were given to us. Sales pukes were told to TELL ME WHAT DATA THEY NEEDED SAVED. On two of them I was told to get such and such files, the old one, I wasn't told to save anything. This was in the AM. In the PM the salesman asked where I had put the data from the sales laptop. What data? (Doing my best to try to not leap over the desk and strangle the guy) You mean you didn't get the data off of the laptop? You did not tell me you needed any data when you submitted the LT for reload, thus, no data was saved.
Further in the day (I am in the process of removing the NTFS partition and trying to find a good recovery tool) the Salesman tells the CEO that we had just formatted the computer when he (the salesman) had told us to save the data! (Bald faced Lie! More of me trying desparately to avoid a prison sentence for throttling the salesman-a judge will find me not guilty by reason of insanity, right?) So I get yelled at for costing the company zillions (a corporate technical term? when do i get a zillihertz processor?) of dollars. I calmly explain that no, it will not cost that much money and I am in the process of recovering the data right now. However it is not an instantaneous push a button and poof it's back solution. I tested just about everything from NDD to Ontrack to several other programs costing HUNDREDS of dollars (thank GOD for trial versions) and none of them recovered a recognizable file structure. I was about to give up (life, job, data), when I read on a previous post the Powerquest Lost & found might work. I tried the trial version this morning and HOLY FREAKING HARD DRIVE! It found 15000 files in 1000 directories. It was able to recognize 50% of the HDD in its original directory structure, 40% in lost directory structure (but still recoverable) and maybe 10% unrecoverable. (I say maybe b/c some files it is not too sure about chances) Remember this is on an origianl FAT32 partition, overwritten with two NTFS FORMATTED partitions, with NT installed, then the NTFS parts removed. And it still found the original crap! From the trial version, of course, I cannot copy them to the HDD, but OMG at least I can get them with the full. (Which I just bought) BTW the full version cost a whopping $69.99.
BTW, did I mention the freakin' users are supposed to back up to their network drive? Apparently this one only did it when it was convenient. But of course, this is all my fault... https://forums.windrivers.com/
I will let you know how the copying goes once it finishes its final run through. (about 2-3 more hours)
------------------
What's this button d--
