Data Recovery FAQ

Question:

So I accidentally made a wrong operation on my Nokia Lumia 900 and now the multimedia gallery has been emptied! And all my taken photos & videos are deleted from phone! Any way that I can get them back? Really important photos & videos for a friend’s wedding! Please help me find a solution to undelete my Nokia phone for the erased items.

Answer:

Don’t worry. Your Nokia Lumia phone stores the multimedia files you take as separate files on a flash memory card (as far as I know the phone supports up to 32GB extended memory). When you erase or delete some items off the card, the real data are not wiped out right away. Instead they are waiting to be written over by new data.

To increase your chances of recovery DO NOT TAKE ANY MORE PICTURES OR VIDEOS once you have deleted them! Because eventually that free space will get used when you take new pictures or save new files, so hurry up and grab good photo recovery software as soon as possible to get your pics/videos back!

1. You’d better take the memory card out of your NOkia smartphone.
2. And then connect it to your PC or Mac machine (via a card reader).
3. Then download and install Stellar Photo Recovery (it is one of the best tools available for digital file recovery, and best of all they offer a free download for PC & Mac computer).
4. Let it scan your Nokia memory card and within seconds you will have a thumbnail of every single file that you can recover.

It’s just that simple, hope your lost Nokia Lumia files can be recovered soon!

Read for more:

• Nokia Lumia 900 Windows phone support
• Nokia phone mass memory data recovery solution
• Recover photos from Nokia N8 phone

Question:

Recently I am unable to access any of my data on the external hard drive on my Windows 7 based computer, and it seems like the only way my PC will recognize my hard drive is if it formats it because Windows says “the disk drive is not formatted, do you want to format it now?” But I worry that if I really format the external HDD, it will result in erasing all of the data. However, I have very important files on this hard drive and I would like to recover them if possible. Your solution would be greatly appreciated.

Answer:

A couple of things regarding the problem.

If the issue is that the drive is erroring out or severely damaged and unrecognizable by your Windows’s BIOS you have very few options except send it to a recovery center to rescue the data.

If your hard drive is recognized by the BIOS, just not by windows as a formatted drive, therefore you cannot assign a drive letter or read the contents. Get a good data recovery software and attempt to recover from the drive without formatting it first.

If this is not possible, let your computer do a quick format. Note: do not perform a standard long format. This is because in a quick format Windows will go to the table of contents at the beginning of the book (so to speak) and erase the chapter names but (with the appropriate software) you can still turn the pages and see that your ‘book’ is still written there. With a long format, windows will zero-out the drive… replacing the ‘book’s’ entire content with a bunch of zeroes.

If you’re still unable to retrieve the information with a drive letter (quick formatted) and with the data recovery tool – you would need to determine likely causes why this would be the case.

Hope this helps, best regards!

Question:

Please help me out and rescue data from my formatted Mac hard drive. The fact is I was trying to install Windows 7 on my secondary drive on my MacBook. But during the set up it asked me to select a drive to use. It wouldn’t let me select one as it was not formatted for Windows, so I assumed this was my Mac drive and went for the second drive. Now when I try to launch into Mac OS X Lion and it can’t find the Macintosh HD. I guess it’s probably that Windows had formatted the Macintosh partition to MS-DOS (FAT). I know how to reformat it back to a Mac, but I am wondering if there is a way to recover the data stored on that Mac partition? Plz help!!!

Answer:

Well, you just found out the hard way that Windows does not have the capability to recoginze any other operating system including Mac OS X 10.7 Lion your Macbook is now running. That is why the rule always is, that when you create a dual boot system you always have Windows installed FIRST. The Windows installer will instantly over write your current operating system as if it isn’t even present on the computer.

Now the only thing I can recommend to you is to use a data recovery software. For example, you can try Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery (free download Windows version or Mac version). And maybe you’ll have to take the hard disk out and install it as a secondary drive in another PC or Mac and use some kind of data recovery program to see if you can still retrieve it from the magnetic surface. But note: there is no guarantee it will retrieve all your lost data. Because there are too many factors influencing the recovery results, however hope you good luck.

Another thing to remember – it is suggested that you not reformat and install OS X until you retrieve the data, or you probably will lose the chances.

Best regards!

Question:

Hello, there. I just want to jailbreak an iPhone 3G with firmware 4.2.1 on my Windows PC. Here is my case, I have the iPhone 3G AT&T without no contract or services and it just practically an iPod to me. I heard a guy said that I should use redsn0w but it that untethered? I have no idea now what program to use to unlock my iPhone 3G 4.2.1. And what to care about before the phone is jailbroken. Please advise me how to get the job done under Windows 7. Oh, forget to say that I am not a tech or a professional. So the easier solution is better. Thank you very much!

Answer:

First of all, for a non-professional, I would not recommend you to use redsnow as it might causes a lot of problems for your iPhone 3 including fail on boot and battery % shows wrong.

Instead, you can always opt to use a software to jailbreak your iPhone 3G. You do not need to have any technical skills or a big amount of money to spare. All that you need is your Windows 7 computer, your computer software and of course, your iphone – and you are set to go. This is certainly the better and more affordable option that you can use for your benefit because with it you can easily do the jailbreaking at the comforts of your own home and without having to spend hundreds of dollars.

iJailBreakTool – enables you to jailbreak or unlock any iPhone as you like. It is fully compatible with your iPhone 3G 4.2.1. After jailbreaking, your iPhone 3GS is free and you gain 100% access. Both Windows & Mac are supported. To begin the process, you first will select the version of your iPhone as well as some basic information such as iOS and baseband. After that, their easy to follow instructions, which are available in text, screenshots, and video guides, will take you through the rest of the process.

As to what should you care before you start the unlocking procedure, it is recommended that you backup all the information on your iPhone 3GS.

Hope this helps, greetings!

Question:

I am a Mac user, but recently I am trying to install Windows 7 on my Mac (dual-booting), the thing is that one of my Mac partitions is lost! I guess it’s probably caused by my mistake. Now I want desperately to recover data from the old Mac partition, is this possible? What should I do? Note: all of my major files and important data are on that partition! I know there are software out there that can supposedly recover the partition, but I don’t know which one to get. By the way, the virtual Windows 7 operation system has been installed successfully. I can now access to either Windows or Mac OS X.

Answer:

If you have a Time Machine backup, things can be pretty much easier.

But if you don’t, to recover data from the lost Mac partition, I highly recommend Stellar Macintosh Data Recovery. It’s the best recovery software I’ve ever used, install the app on your Mac OS X, run it and it will start analyzing selected Macintosh HD for recoverable data.

Meanwhile, since Windows 7 has been installed successfully, if you don’t have too much result recovering data on Mac, try entering Windows OS and using some data recovery software to see if you can gain new harvest.

Remember – backup everything before you act!

More useful artilces:
Right steps to retrieve lost files on Mac
How to backup your Mac
Recover Files after Mac Time Machine Backup Failure