I've just opened an application I use for work to find all the associated data for a customer's installation has magically disappeared. The app. now looks like it was freshly installed today. My most recent backup of this data is over a month old so I'd like to get this data back if I can!

I've got system restore running and lots of restore points saved, but I thought I'd ask what it does before I go messing with it - is this likely to reinstate the data if the application decided to nuke it one day? Or does it just track registry changes and stuff like that?

I realise I'm probably out of luck.

I've only used the restore once, and it did in fact recreate my whole MyDocs folder which surprised me.

The thing is though, how many will you need to go back through just to get the data ?

And what other changes you have made to the system (installed apps, removed apps, new drivers etc etc) will be undone by going back through these restore points ?

TBH, I normally disable it if I remember. It eats up HDD space and is rarely used by me.

(I shouldn't be helping you, you were nasty to me yesterday )

Yeah it's probably going to be a pain if I do use it. I do appreciate the advice, and I wasn't trying to be mean yesterday.

I've only made one round of changes to the data in the last month, I might just eat it and restore from backup and do them again, but I am cross that I have to do it.

I just can't believe the ****ing thing has done this...

Does this app have a website or forum ?

There could be a really simple fix, just unheard of to us racers.

I've used it a load with varying degrees of success.

The main thing it does is restore Windows drivers and system files. So if you install some that cause a problem you can revert back and it puts your machine back to the way it was before the update.

It seems to be hit or miss whether it will actually restore documents though. I think the XP version tracks your My Docs folder, but it generally doesn't touch anything in non-Windows folders. So all programs and stuff usually remain untouched. So if it's a game patch causing the trouble, you're screwed unless it can be uninstalled

I've had times where it seems to have randomly changed stupid files, like some .ini's in a Program Files subfolder. But that's pretty rare.

The thing to note is that generally the automatically created ones will fail to restore. I don't know why, but that's always been my experience. The restore points you create yourself work fine, but the auto ones just don't work. I don't think I've tried it since installing SP2, but I wouldn't hold out much hope either way.

Quote from Bean0 :

Does this app have a website or forum ?

There could be a really simple fix, just unheard of to us racers.

We stopped using this software years ago because it's shit, and developed an alternative in-house. There probably isn't a fix given that all the data is gone. We had one similarly fatal problem with it before which is why we dropped it, but we still have a couple of old customers running it so muggins here has to have a couple of versions of it installed just for them.

I remember their CEO offering to take me out to lunch once to shut me up when I complained loudly in public about how shit his software was. Maybe I'll take him up on that now just for the opportunity to punch him in the face.

Quote from Dajmin :

... It seems to be hit or miss whether it will actually restore documents though. I think the XP version tracks your My Docs folder, but it generally doesn't touch anything in non-Windows folders.

Makes sense. Won't help me then - I'll have to take the long route.

Thanks guys.

Unfortunately System Restore (which however generally works) doesn't tinker with data, since it keeps track and backs up only system changes and not application data, since it's not meant for that. It's helpful for rollbacks, but not always. It isn't always the best method anyway, and sometimes you have to disable it to avoid rolling back to a dangerous situation (such as when malware is present) or just to save hd space. Sometimes it may be the only way to save time when system changes are very deep and rolling them back by hand could be extremely long/impossible.

If the system is a Windows 2003 Server you could have shadow copies enabled, so you might be able to retrieve data back in this case, but this depends on a variety of circumstances.

The data may have simply been accidentally deleted or lost because of a hard disk problem. There are however some things that can be tried: some undelete software or, much better in my opinion, some raw hard disk scanning software such as Disk Commander by Winternals. There are freeware alternatives like those offered by Smart PC Tools, which are less sophisticated (and of course, less expensive )

The probability of success varies depending on various factors. Main ones: extent and kind of damage, amount of activity (written files) after the files have been deleted and the space occupied by them has been marked as free. In short: if the sectors previously occupied by files are not damaged and haven't been overwritten, files should be retrievable through raw data readd that doesn't rely upon file allocation tables, but scans whole partitions or HDs. If files have been overwritten even a professional data rescue service cannot help. By the way, such services are extremely expensive.