Windows 7: Help really needed recovering lost files

Hopfully someone can help me hear, I did a full system recovery about 1 or 2 mounths ago becouse of a bad virus, but in the process i lost all my Media files, pics, movies, music, ex. is there anyway i can get them back without starting from scratch?

Hi! WhiteNight8669, welcome to 7F

If you did not make any back-up disks, no.

Recovery wipes the HDD before it re-installs.
Repair only works to repair system files.

WELL THAT SUX, i would have made a backup disk but whatever virus i had wouldn't let me do access probly about 90% of my files.

but i do have another question,
this HP laptop that i have was givin to me and im not sure what all it has. but when i go into MY COMPUTER i seem to have what looks like a recovery drive of some sorts, but i can't access it, would that be any type of special "backup" built in?

just throwing it out there

WhiteNight8669:
First, Welcome to SF!

I don't have much faith in this idea since there have been re-writes to the drive, but you can try any number of disk Recovery software out there.
A lot of them are free and do a decent job.
Based on what you have said, I don't think you'll have much luck, but it doesn't hurt to try- you may be able to scavenge some of it...

Googling, I got 137,000,000,hits on 'Software Recovery Free', so there are lots of things you can try...
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Regarding the recovery partition that you mentioned, that will only work on the original machine. And it's not a backup- at least not in the way you would like.
Normally the OEM puts an original image of the computer on the drive on a hidden partition so in case of emergencies just like yours, the system can be brought back to its original, factory condition (with all its bloat). This will not bring back any personal data that you have accumulated. In fact, it will destroy any data that you have on the disk. (Personally, I really despise all the software that OEM's put on new computers. But, that's another story, for another time.)
It is really intended as a complete system backup (ie, factory original).
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Try out some of the 'recovery' software out there and, hopefully, you'll be able to get back some of the data files you are seeking.

Good Luck!

Read this:
Restore Backup User and System Files

You may have some luck with step #9
Don't forget to look at the bottom of the tutorial to see if there are any more options.

If you can access the recovery drive it should rebuild the OS, but not anything done by a user. your files folders pix, installed programs etc.

Since you did a full system recovery, it likely overwrote the entire drive. That's one reason I don't like that method, and typically remove the system recovery partition from an OEM systems I use. I'd much rather just clean up the virus and then make sure my data is backed up before doing a clean format. That being said, you should have been given warnings that your data would have been gone.

Since you did this 2 months ago, there's little, if any chance of recovering your files. Recuva could possible get some of them back, but I'd take it as a learning experience.

Recuva

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