IT Queries: Computer problems answered

I took my laptop and external hard drive to my local computer shop. I wanted them to transfer iTunes and My Photos onto the external hard drive to free up some space on my laptop’s hard drive. I also wanted the computer people to do a minor clean up so my laptop would run better.
The computer people erased both my laptop and my external hard drive. They did not back up my system as “there was no point as we were only working on the external hard drive”. They managed to find about half of my files but I had to rename them all and put them back into some type of order.
I am a school teacher and they erased years of my personal and professional life. They deleted student marks, uni work, past and current school programs etc. I am so angry and upset! They didn’t end up charging me but I’m still so frustrated with the company at fault.
Is there anything I can do:
1) To retrieve my lost information?
2) Is the company legally at fault?
Thank you for your time,
Frustrated & Angry

We’re not in a position to give legal advice so we really don’t know the answer for the second question. You need to talk to a lawyer or contact your local consumer advice service for some guidance 0n this.

To answer the first question, we like the Restoration utility.

Keep in mind with lost data is that every time you use the drive, the less likely it is that you’ll find the lost data.

So stop using the computer NOW!

The best way to recover data is to take the drive out of the computer and put it into another machine, then run the utilities and save recovered files to your external drive. You can also do it by booting from a boot disk and running some recovery utilities.

Generally it’s best to consult a professional. Recovering deleted data is a delicate operation which is best done by experienced technicians.

There are good businesses that specialize in data recovery but, quite rightly, their services are expensive and they don’t guarantee success. It may be possible to get the offending shop to pay at least part of the recovery costs.

Sadly, it may be that data is totally lost. That’s why we recommend backing up as much as possible.

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