BleepingComputer.com: External Hard Drive Help

G'day

I'm seeking all the help I can get. My GF has purchased a new computer and had an external hard drive with all her data. When she got her new computer, she quickly hooked up her external hard drive and then tried to format her computer. She accidently installed Windows XP Home Edition on her external drive and lost all the information she had on there. My question is: Is there a way to take the hard drive to it's previous state before Windows was installed on there so we can get all her documents off and transferred to her new computer? Please, any assistances would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and Regards,
-=RcJ2.com

This is a very complicated situation, and it depends on what exactly has been overwritten.

First, try this freeware file recovery utility (but don't make any changes with it): http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm

Next is to try the appropriate version (NTFS or FAT32) of the GetDataBack software: http://www.runtime.org/ This will install a program that will tell you what it can recover (but you'll need to cough up $80 US in order to get it recovered).

Finally, there's the professional data recovery experts with the high-speed machines that can do anything. They can get your data back for you. The problem is that, when I last priced it, the cheapest price that I could find for an 80 gB drive was $600 US - with most prices between $1200 and $1800.

Thank you very much, usasma. I'm going to try the 2nd option since the link to the 1st one didn't work for me. If I can get an image of the files missing, I'm going to just pay the amount they're asking for.

Thanks a mil
-=RcJ2.com

hold on a sec! more to follow!

Here's a link to alternative download sites (from a google search):
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=pc+in...G=Google+Search

The PCInspector site has frequent problems - but it is a great freeware tool! But, FWIW, I found that it didn't suit my needs when I used it - so I opted to pay for the GetDataBack package (I got the NTFS and FAT32 versions for $120 US about 4 months ago).