SOS !!! Daughter deleted her user acc - & lost all course/homework !

[borischelski1]

SOS !!! Daughter deleted her user acc - & lost all course/homework !

We have a family PC with windows 7 with myself,wife and two daughters each having separate user accounts.

Unfortunately my daughter has somehow (?!?) managed to accidentally delete her user account - and with it I fear all her college course and homework comprising word,powerpoint & exel documents.

I have ran various document and file searches and also looked in recycle bins but cant find anything so am assuming all such traces were deleted from my PC when my daughter deleted her user account.

Please can someone confirm if my worst fears are correct ?

Is there any way of recovering these lost documents ?

Any help or advice greatly appreciated......

 

[richc46]

First stop using the computer, the documents are there, but become harder to find with each use
Follow this advice
Recover lost or deleted files
If that does not work, this probably will not either, but give it a try
Download and try shadow explorer
ShadowExplorer.com - About

Documents that are deleted are just hiding, they are still there. They tend to become harder to find as the computer is used and they will be replaced with other documents

To be honest, however, the above works with document deletion, it becomes more difficult if the account is removed.

 

[gregrocker]

When deleting the User account it gives the user one last chance to save the entire User folder to the desktop in case something is being left behind. So the user has to deliberately delete all of their files by ignoring or declining to make this last-chance backup. For this reason it is always a good idea to accept this folder backup and keep it long enough to know everything needed has been saved.

Unfortunately I know of no way to undo a User account delet except through possibly using data recovery software like Recuva - Features. But maybe someone else will know.

 

[richc46]

I have been thinking about your problem. Although many years have gone by I know how I would have felt in your daughters position. As a last resort and I have big doubts, give system restore a try
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html

 

[LMiller7]

By design System Restore does not work with user files. Otherwise a system restore would undo all document changes since the last restore point.

All files of any importance need a backup copy while those of particular importance (such as those in this situation) need 2 or mare backup copies. Having no backups is asking for trouble. Recovery methods can not be relied on.

 

[marsmimar]

Welcome to Seven Forums Boris.

My usual disclaimer: I'm not an expert at anything. I came across this Microsoft article that talks about recovering lost or deleted files from a previous version. Previous versions are copies of files and folders that Windows automatically saves as part of a restore point. Previous versions are sometimes referred to as shadow copies. As I said, I'm no expert so perhaps one of the more knowledgeable folks will chime in and tell us what they think of this approach.

Recover lost or deleted files

In the alternative, perhaps Greg could comment about MiniTool Partition Wizard or its cousin MiniTool Power Data Recovery to examine the hard drive partition(s) and see if those files are there.

And my apologies for jumping in without really knowing enough to be helpful.

 

[gregrocker]

Partition Wizard would only be helpful if a whole partition was deleted, as it only has an undelete function: Partition Wizard Partition Recovery Wizard - Video Help. There is a link on PW to Data Recovery software however.

When the User Account is deleted, the data remains on the drive but is removed from the partition table which establishes its location. So unless it is being actively overwritten it might be pieced back together by data recovery software. You'd want to stop writing to the drive first, then use a bootable version of the Recovery software. The one which I've been told is best by a mentor John Caronna (Usasma at Eight Forums) is Get Data Back. If it finds the data it will charge you to copy it out, however.

 

[ITcontractor2]

As mentioned above probably Recurva is your best bet. Once I swapped out a customers PC only for them to inform me there was a database file they needed on the C: drive. One of the helpdesk lads recovered the file even after the re-image using Recurva.