Lost photos

Hi all
A friend recently took his computer to a repair place. They replaced his power box, and there is also a not on the receipt that said "repaired hard drive" (whatever that entailed he doesnt know)
Anyway, he still has a lot of files left on his computer. but his precious photos have gone.

Is there any possible way to retrieve them????
I have done a search for *.jpg, which came up with lots ..but no photos.
Even searched the hidden files and folders.

Regards
Pam R

(P.S. Of course I've told him to always back up items like photos etc.....
bit late now though methinks)

 

The first step is to (if possible) stop using the drive. This will reduce the risk of new data overwriting the lost files (once written over, there is no chance of recovering them).

If you purchase a Seagate-brand drive, you can download and use Seagate's Disc Wizard - a free, stripped down version of Acronis True Image. It will let you clone the active programs and undeleted data from the old drive to the new one - just be sure the new Seagate drive has at least as much capacity as the old drive.

Now, back to the original drive with the deleted files: There are dozens of file recovery programs available, ranging from freeware to hundreds of dollars. To recover .jpeg files, I've had some success with Undelete 360.

If you are not comfortable doing this, I would call a few local PC shops, describe the problem and get estimates (they should offer a "no recovery, no fee" guarantee). Avoid "Geek Squad" and large chain stores - they usually change a small fortune compared to local shops.

If any fellow geeks have additional ideas, I'm sure Pammy is open to ideas.

Good luck on getting the files back. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks for that fast reply.
I will certainly discuss it all with him.
Pam R