My USER seems to be missing

#1 · 11-05-2011 9:51pm #1

I just got my Inspiron back from Dell to have a new screen fitted. Now when I try to log on to my own user - I can't and I am worried sick that Dell have wiped my hardrive and if they have then I don't know what I will do.

How can I find my own user to get back into my own programs/documents/images etc.

cookie1977 · 11-05-2011 9:58pm

angeleyes wrote: »

I just got my Inspiron back from Dell to have a new screen fitted. Now when I try to log on to my own user - I can't and I am worried sick that Dell have wiped my hardrive and if they have then I don't know what I will do.

How can I find my own user to get back into my own programs/documents/images etc.

Oh that's not good. I've had experience before of dell wiping pc's without warning when repairing them. What os is it running?

angeleyes · 11-05-2011 10:00pm

Its Windows 7 - Home Premium
what possesses Dell technicians to go looking at hard drives when all they had to do was replace the screen. I am so so mad

cookie1977 · 11-05-2011 10:03pm

angeleyes wrote: »

Its Windows 2000

what possesses Dell technicians to go looking at hard drives when all they had to do was replace the screen. I am so so mad

If you open windows explorer under C:\Documents and Settings\username folder
Is your username listed here?

angeleyes · 11-05-2011 10:08pm

I have looked and I can't find it.

I have an awful feeling that all my documents everything is gone. I am in bits here. All my college work (ok I had it backed up) but images and lots of other important stuff.

cookie1977 · 11-05-2011 10:10pm

angeleyes wrote: »

I have looked and I can't find it.

I have an awful feeling that all my documents everything is gone. I am in bits here. All my college work (ok I had it backed up) but images and lots of other important stuff.

It seems that way. Can you run a search for a document you know the name of? I take it you don't have any backup?

cookie1977 · 11-05-2011 10:17pm

cookie1977 wrote: »

It seems that way. Can you run a search for a document you know the name of? I take it you don't have any backup?

Sorry. You said windows 2000 first but then you changed to windows 7. Can you look under start, system tools, system restore
And see if there's any old system restores?

angeleyes · 11-05-2011 10:20pm

I know - sorry about that cookie

cookie1977 · 11-05-2011 10:21pm

angeleyes wrote: »

I know - sorry about that cookie

No problem at all. So could you find a file via search or are there any old system restores?

Chefburns · 11-05-2011 10:24pm

I know some pc repair shops make a new partition when they re-install an OS when you open my computer does it say there is more than just your C: drive? This happened to one of my mates when his computer was fixed.

cookie1977 · 11-05-2011 10:26pm

Chefburns wrote: »

I know some pc repair shops make a new partition when they re-install an OS when you open my computer does it say there is more than just your C: drive? This happened to one of my mates when his computer was fixed.

That's a possibility but in my experience Dell usually take the lazy route and wipe/restore the OS

angeleyes · 11-05-2011 10:26pm

I have tried all that - and when I checked the properties of the hard drive all there is loads of storage available.

There are no other users - when I went to check - and it looks like who ever repaired my laptop has totally wiped my hard drive.

meemeep · 11-05-2011 10:28pm

angeleyes don't panic - as long as it's the same hard disc, you'll get your stuff back. They may have re-installed but they won't have really wiped the drive. I've restored data for others when this has happened and we got most stuff back. You can even do it yourself if you know what you are doing - do you?

I suppose there's no point asking if you backed it up before you let them near it? In fact I'm surprised (or maybe I'm not) that wasn't a requirement of them taking it.

angeleyes · 11-05-2011 10:31pm

meemeep wrote: »

angeleyes don't panic - as long as it's the same hard disc, you'll get your stuff back. They may have re-installed but they won't have really wiped the drive. I've restored data for others when this has happened and we got most stuff back. You can even do it yourself if you know what you are doing - do you?

I suppose there's no point asking if you backed it up before you let them near it? In fact I'm surprised (or maybe I'm not) that wasn't a requirement of them taking it.

Its not the documents etc I am worried about - but I had all the programs for my cameras (student photographer) but my CS5 is gone and I had lots of actions that I had bought in it and thats gone as well.

How can I get my stuff back - I am so upset over this. Dell are a shower of c@@nts

cookie1977 · 11-05-2011 10:31pm

meemeep wrote: »

angeleyes don't panic - as long as it's the same hard disc, you'll get your stuff back. They may have re-installed but they won't have really wiped the drive. I've restored data for others when this has happened and we got most stuff back. You can even do it yourself if you know what you are doing - do you?

I suppose there's no point asking if you backed it up before you let them near it? In fact I'm surprised (or maybe I'm not) that wasn't a requirement of them taking it.

Might running recuva work or would it be better to stop using the pc altogether so you don't damage the deleted files completely?

http://www.piriform.com/recuva

meemeep · 11-05-2011 10:53pm

photorec will do it for you - http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

I'm a bit slammed with work at the moment but PM me and I'll give you a hand.

Overheal · 12-05-2011 1:51am

For whatever stupid reason, this is common practice among all the big vendors. It insures a Standard to their repairs. For instance if you had a bad graphics card, how can they tell its broken or if they fixed it without setting the computer back to factory default? Until they did they cant be sure the problem is actually hardware related, rather than something to do with the software config.

It sucks, but they should have warned you they were going to wipe the hard drive. Usually they list Backing up your data as a primary precaution/checklist point when shipping your PC for repair. You can always request your service history to make sure they actually did this, but the odds are very high that they did.

darraghking22 · 12-05-2011 2:03pm

meemeep wrote: »

angeleyes don't panic - as long as it's the same hard disc, you'll get your stuff back. They may have re-installed but they won't have really wiped the drive. I've restored data for others when this has happened and we got most stuff back. You can even do it yourself if you know what you are doing - do you?

I suppose there's no point asking if you backed it up before you let them near it? In fact I'm surprised (or maybe I'm not) that wasn't a requirement of them taking it.

this is untrue, i can guarantee you that your stuff is gone........once the hard drive has been formatted and written to again, recovery goes out the window

its like drawing a picture, then scribbling black marker all over it, and then trying to get your original drawing back

sorry dude

Lazarus2.0 · 12-05-2011 2:42pm

darraghking22 wrote: »

this is untrue, i can guarantee you that your stuff is gone........once the hard drive has been formatted and written to again, recovery goes out the window

its like drawing a picture, then scribbling black marker all over it, and then trying to get your original drawing back

sorry dude

Only files that have been overwritten , albeit even partially , since and during reinstal are unlikely to be recoverable . If the HD was now full I'd be pessimistic but with a clean instal and limited activity since then I'm sure a significant number of files will be recoverable - I doubt Dell used DBAN before reinstal .

My USER seems to be missing

Comments