Picture Files Recovery Needed: Being in the 90's & not IT savvy, had someone in my bldg. that helped when had computer problems, back up all my files prior to Win.10 installation, but...

Herbie1924 Loc: Woodbury, MN

Being in the 90's & not IT savvy, had someone in my bldg. that helped when had computer problems, back
up all my files prior to Win.10 installation, but it only affected small portion of extensive picture files/sub-
files. Ease Recovery Sys. tried/failed. Any other suggestions prior to Hard-drive efforts?

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Herbie1924 wrote:

Being in the 90's & not IT savvy, had someone in my bldg. that helped when had computer problems, back
up all my files prior to Win.10 installation, but it only affected small portion of extensive picture files/sub-
files. Ease Recovery Sys. tried/failed. Any other suggestions prior to Hard-drive efforts?

How did it affect them? Where is your backup? It is very unclear what problem you are having.

Herbie1924 Loc: Woodbury, MN

The external hard-drive used was My Book & only copied 1-single pic-file w/ a few sub-files & did not copy
any other pic. file or sub-file.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Herbie1924 wrote:

The external hard-drive used was My Book & only copied 1-single pic-file w/ a few sub-files & did not copy
any other pic. file or sub-file.

Then you did not backup all of your files.

Stardust Loc: Central Illinois

If I understand correctly you just had your computer operating system updated to Win 10 and not your hard drive formatted? Even without backup that should not have affected your photo files/folders. They should still be there somewhere. Have some kid help you use File Explorer to find the files or Search for a name of a file you remember.

yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey

I had previously purchased EaseUS back up software, but ultimately switched to Acronis which I found far more capable. Since Win10 shouldn't have over written your image files, they should still be available to back up with the software program of your choice.

Hope you get this resolved.

Dave H2

Use explorer to search the hard drive with the search parameter "*.jpg" assuming your files are jpgs.
Hopefully, the installation chosen was not a total write over all files on the computer. If you have not used the computer extensively since the system install, there are many data recovery aps that may possibly recover some of your files even if the drive was written over during the system install.
Good luck,
D

limeybiker

Download and run "Recuva" from
https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

wish you good luck. If you get your files back Try BackBlaze for $60/yr it will back up your files and keep them safe

11bravo

For searching, I prefer Everything.exe, from voidtools.com. As stated earlier, assuming jpg files, try *.jpg

For recovery attempt, I'd try Recurva first. If unsuccessful, I like GetDataBack, from runtime.org. Free to try, then pay if you want to recover.

In the future, use Teracopy, from codesector.com (free version sufficient). Unlike windows copy, Teracopy will display what it is doing (files being copied), and can do a verify of the copied files to ensure everything ok.

Use Macrium Reflect, free, to make a backup imagine before major updates. Image can be browsed via an explorer like interface to recover files/folders from the image.

Wish you luck 👍

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Stardust wrote:

If I understand correctly you just had your computer operating system updated to Win 10 and not your hard drive formatted? Even without backup that should not have affected your photo files/folders. They should still be there somewhere. Have some kid help you use File Explorer to find the files or Search for a name of a file you remember.

For reasons that elude me the OP later said
"The external hard-drive used was My Book & only copied 1-single pic-file w/ a few sub-files & did not copy any other pic. file or sub-file."
So there is no backup of most files.

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Herbie1924 wrote:

Being in the 90's & not IT savvy, had someone in my bldg. that helped when had computer problems, back
up all my files prior to Win.10 installation, but it only affected small portion of extensive picture files/sub-
files. Ease Recovery Sys. tried/failed. Any other suggestions prior to Hard-drive efforts?

Unless he reformatted your hard drive, or replaced the hard drive, your pics should still be there. Also, if he actually backed up your pics to another drive, they obviously should be there as well. Since you are not "IT savy" my first question would be what are you trying to view your files with? I've seen lots of Hoggers say they "lost" their pictures when using Lightroom, and really, they didn't lose anything, but actually just didn't understand file systems, directories or how Lightroom actually works.

My suggestion would be to finds someone that really is computer savy, and have them search for your files using an appropriate file manager. The first step would probably be to do a wild card search for all *.jpg files on your system. If that fails, then you may be in trouble.