[BarbaraW]

Hello,

We have an etower 533ir computer that runs Windows 98. We're planning to get rid of it, but my husband remembered how we used to take digital pictures and upload them to the computer. A few years back, I had put in the disk and reformatted the computer because it was giving me problems. I have heard that even if you reformat a computer, everything is still there, but behind a partition. Over time, what's behind the partition will get written over.

My question is, does anyone know how to get into the partition so that I can see if any pictures still exist?

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Hi BarbaraW, welcome to the forum.

A partition is merely how the hard drive is organised. Data written to the drive is stored and, as you've mentioned, isn't necessarily gone as soon as you format the drive. If you have reinstalled Windows "a few years ago" and used the PC since, I don't hold high hopes much will be able to be recovered.

For advanced PC users there are methods and tools that can be run to try and recover the data, however your best bet would be to have a professional recovery service take a look for you and give you a quote.

Cheers

[Troy]

Hi BarbaraW, welcome to the forum.

A partition is merely how the hard drive is organised. Data written to the drive is stored and, as you've mentioned, isn't necessarily gone as soon as you format the drive. If you have reinstalled Windows "a few years ago" and used the PC since, I don't hold high hopes much will be able to be recovered.

For advanced PC users there are methods and tools that can be run to try and recover the data, however your best bet would be to have a professional recovery service take a look for you and give you a quote.

Cheers

[SleepyDude]

Hi,

You can a use a program like GetDataBack it's not free but the Demo version will show a preview of the files possible to recover (not overwritten) and then you can decide whether it is worth to buy the software.

Make sure you install GetDataBack on a different drive from the one that you need to do the recovery, it's probably better to install the disk containing the data as second drive on another machine to avoid overwrite more deleted files.

[BarbaraW]

Hello Troy and SleepyDude,

Thank you for replying. The computer was hardly used after I reformatted it and because of its age, I disconnected it from the internet.

SleepyDude, I will try your suggestion of GetDataBack! Sounds like a wonderful idea!

[Troy]

You're welcome. Also there are plenty of free programs out there, you may be able to recover your files without having to purchase a program. Take a look at some of these:

http://pcsupport.abo...ry-programs.htm

Cheers