Lost & Found

[Revenant]

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...

I will let you know how the copying goes once it finishes its final run through. (about 2-3 more hours)

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What's this button d--

[evilcabbage]

damn, that lost and found is EXCELLENT aint it ? .. was the last decent purchase I got. I had to after a dumb bastard decided to re-install windows on his LT (my son told me it was really easy, he said all i had to do was format c: .... )
No backups, 4 years worth of data (apparently), and yes, a zillion $$ worth of time and effort. Took me 7 hours to recover it all, and charged him $800 (australian) .. that'll learn him.

[shawnMt]

Lost and Found is da bomb - BUT if that sales guy had lied on me like that I would've told him to stick that data where the sun don't shine! Sorry but I've had more than a few run-ins with IDIOT sales people.

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Paint your old laptop!

[sprkymrk]

I've only ever tried some rinky-dink "undelete" type utilities that never work. I'm gonna have to get Lost and Found. Power Quest is definately an awesome company.

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Sparky Mark
If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you.

[Revenant]

Shawn: wish I could, but unfortunately we are kind of dependant on this company right now, we just separated from our parent company and these are our main clients (we do contract work). We are currently working to change that, and have landed one big client in San Fran. VPN installation. woohoo. But as soon as we are no longer dependant on these guys, they will be told what's what. If I could get all the previous MIS guys in here that this company has been through, then I could have a thread 8miles long with stories/bithcing about these people. (They are trying to hire someone inhouse to do what we do: This is what they want:
"Position requires IS degree with 2-5 years previous technical experience in a LAN environment with NT, Novell, HP9000/Unix, and Progress. Experience with EDI, MCSE, and CA TNG also desirable. Candidates must have proven hands-on abilities with all software and hardware and be comfortable in a fast-paced, self-motivated, independent work environment."
add to that Lucent Definity and Audix, MFG Pro scripting and user maint, VPN client Admin, Server Admin and Security config, Gauntlet Firewall Security Config, Macintosh Admin, Exchange Admin, SQL, IIS admin, Laptop and PC hardware tech, and many many more... And they want to pay less than 50/yr. ROFLMAO Needless to say, noone has been hired yet.)

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What's this button d--

[Grider]

Originally posted by Revenant:
(They are trying to hire someone inhouse to do what we do: This is what they want:
"Position requires IS degree with 2-5 years previous technical experience in a LAN environment with NT, Novell, HP9000/Unix, and Progress. Experience with EDI, MCSE, and CA TNG also desirable. Candidates must have proven hands-on abilities with all software and hardware and be comfortable in a fast-paced, self-motivated, independent work environment."
add to that Lucent Definity and Audix, MFG Pro scripting and user maint, VPN client Admin, Server Admin and Security config, Gauntlet Firewall Security Config, Macintosh Admin, Exchange Admin, SQL, IIS admin, Laptop and PC hardware tech, and many many more... And they want to pay less than 50/yr. ROFLMAO Needless to say, noone has been hired yet.)

They need to share their crack with you...

That is crazy. These people are going to get some shmoe off the street with a paper cert and let him foobar their network.

Anyway Lost and Found sounds cool. Nice to know that somebodys prog can fix our f'ups. (You know you screw the pooch on occasion, don't try to deny it. )

Grider

[LORE]

Hey, if they share their crack with you,do we get some??? I think I may have to buy lost and found, I have heard of it a few times, all good, sounds like a good tool to fix mistakes made by TOOLS!!!

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We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us.

[digica]

http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/stori...,,001CVX,.html
Restorer2000 is a powerful utility, which can restore files being deleted accidentally in NTFS partitions and even reconstruct formatted and corrupted drives.
Restorer2000 can restore files such non-trivial cases as national language filenames, very long filenames, NTFS compressed filenames and files with an alternative data streams - such as Windows 2000 file information.
Unique SmartScan technology combined with flexibility of adjusting all parameters gives you real control over fastest data reconstruction ever seen.
Usage of Drive Images is very useful for such tasks as recovering drive with a lot of bad sectors.
Detailed context sensitive information and ability to adjust as much as possible bring you incredible quality and data safety in extremely non-ordinal situations.
You can find and restore deleted files in a few seconds using program's powerful algorithms.

[jaeger]

Bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

the above was a test of the emergency corporate shill system. had this been a real emergency everyone would now be experiencing my command of the four-letter english vocabulary.

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Life isn't one damn thing after another, it's the same damn thing over and over.