OK, the ability to recover any data is inversely proportional to operating the system. The longer the system is ON, the less chance you have of recovering data.

The very first thing to do is STOP using the system. Pull the hard drive out and connect it to a working system. Now run data recovery software. I would use multiple programs; recuva is just one of them. What one finds, the other may or may not find. If you do not have another system, you can boot your system with a linux live usb. At least windows would not be writing to the disk in question.

Hopefully this can be a lesson. Data you do not have multiple copies of is data you do not care about and you should expect to lose said data. Drives fail, accidents happen. With a current backup, it is a non-event.
Personally I make four copies of important data; two on internal drives, a third on a NAS, and a fourth on an external that is stored in a safe. Maybe overkill however it only takes once loosing important data to make you paranoid about backups.

 

Thanks for your reply! I did have a backup, but the family member destroyed that too.

So even if the computer is asleep, that reduces chances of recovery?

I don't have another system (unless you count my phone and iPad), and i have no knowledge of how to take out or reinstall a hard drive, and would be afraid to try.

What is this about Linux on a flash drive?

Also, what other data programs would you recommend?

 

When you are scanning the drive, the operating system is running and that is what decreases the chances of any recovery. Windows is constantly writing files to the system drive ie making restore restore points, doing a defrag, checking for updates, etc, etc, etc. ALL of these things write to the drive SO if you are running the system, you are writing to the drive.

I did have a backup, but the family member destroyed that too.

That is why I put one backup in a safe.

Linux is an operating system just like windows however it [linux] has the option to run "Live" ie from a flash drive. This makes NO changes to your hard drive. While it would be better to pull the drive and install in another system, running linux live would be better than running your system while scanning.

From the questions you are asking, it would probably be best to take your system to a shop that does data recovery. By shop I mean a real shop NOT a best buy or other chain store. Note this is NOT cheap. A very basic data recovery starts at around $200 plug the cost of whatever media you want the data recovered to ie a new external drive or whatever. The cost goes way up from there.

I am leaving for work. Good luck.

 

Thanks! Unfortunately i don't have the money for professional data recovery.

I know what Linux is, but I've never used it. I used Ubuntu from a flash drive four or five years ago to boot up the computer when Windows was corrupted (based on advice and recommendations from here), but I don't recall how to do that; I'll see if I can hunt that old thread down.

Once I get that squared away, what other programs besides Recuva would you recommend, please?

Thanks again for your help thus far

 

I welcome suggestions for alternatives to Recuva from anyone, by the way.