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A few days ago, I took some family pictures in my camera and then downloaded them to my PC. Soon after, they were overwritten by some other photographs by mistake. Can I recover my earlier photos back?

Searching for Lost Photos

My first question is about the overwritten photos. I assume you mean that the photos on the PC are no longer there and were replaced by a new set of photos? Or do you mean the photos in the camera were overwritten when you took newer photos? The first thing I would do is double check the photo folder on your computer to be sure that they aren’t really there. For example, did you know that you can sort your images by date rather than name? Since you know the photos were taken a few days ago, it should be fairly easy to sort the photo folder by date and then scan through the list to see if they appear. Here’s how:

• Right-click the Start button and choose Explore
• Navigate to the photo storage folder, typically labeled My Pictures or Pictures (if you store your photos elsewhere, navigate to that folder)
• Click the dropdown arrow next to View and select the view that you prefer. For example, if you want to see a small preview of the image, select medium icon.
• Now, click the Date Taken box, this will sort all images in the file based on date. Clicking it again toggles it from ascending to descending order. If you know the exact date, click the dropdown box next to Date Taken and select the date on the calendar. This will filter the images to only those that were taken on the selected date.

Any luck?  

Recovering Photos

Once you confirm that the photos are not there, the next step is to check your digital camera. Many photo transfer programs delete the photos from the camera once downloaded, so they may be deleted. Not to worry! It is possible to recover your earlier photos with data recovery software. Data recovery software works on hard drives as well as peripheral devices such as digital cameras so long as you can connect the camera or its memory card to your computer and view its contents as a drive letter such as the E:\ drive.

Data recovery software typically costs about $30-$40, so you’ll need to weigh the value of the photos against the cost of the software. We recommend ParetoLogic Data Recovery software. In this case, you do not need the “Pro” version as the standard version does a fine job of recovering photos. What’s neat about this software is that you can download a free scanner version to find out if your photos are recoverable from either your digital camera or your hard drive. If the scanner finds the photos, you will then need to purchase the full version to recover them. On the other hand, if the photos are not recoverable, you will not have spent any money on a fruitless search.

The software is easy to use. I would start with scanning the digital camera. If the photos aren’t found there, then try the hard drive. Data recovery works on a basic principle: when data is deleted, it isn’t deleted until new data occupies its address on the disk or media; only the entry to the file and graphical pointers to it are removed. It’s like tearing out the table of contents of a book. Just because the table of contents page is gone, the chapters remain.

I’m trying to recover deleted emails from Facebook. What is the best way to get these files?

Recovering Facebook Emails

When Facebook sends emails to you, it sends them to the email address that you have on file with Facebook and according to the settings you have specified. Recovering the Facebook emails will depend on how you received them in the first place. For example, do your Facebook email messages arrive in Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail or do you check your email account online such as via Gmail?

Email Recovery Steps

The first step for both email software and Web-based email is to check your Deleted Messages or Deleted Items folder. If you deleted the messages but have not yet emptied your Deleted Messages folder, the messages will be waiting for you. Simply click the folder and browse through the list in search of the missing Facebook emails. Another option is to use your email program’s search box to search all folders for messages from Facebook.

Email Recovery Software

Now, what if you emptied the Deleted Messages folder? If you emptied a Web-based folder, then you are out of luck unless you downloaded the messages to your computer. On the other hand, if you opened the messages from either Outlook, Outlook Express, or Windows Live Mail, you do have options! Email recovery software exists for recovering deleted messages. You need to be careful to select a data recovery program that has specific capabilities for recovering email messages for your specific email application. We recommend Data Recovery Pro from ParetoLogic Software. In fact, this tool has a free scanner so that you can see if your Facebook emails are recoverable before you invest any money in the product. Try the scan and see if your Facebook messages can be recovered.

Recover Deleted Facebook Messages

Here’s another situation: What if you deleted a message on Facebook and want to recover it? If you have the original email notification that Facebook sent you, open that notification and scroll down to the section that says, “To reply to this message, follow the link below” and then click the link. Since the message has been deleted, you won’t see it; however, a new link will be provided labeled, “Show deleted thread.” Click the link and view the deleted message.

My Outlook program was inadvertently erased. It was installed on my computer originally.

I’m not sure if you are talking about Outlook or Outlook Express though I suspect you mean Outlook Express as that version of Microsoft’s e-mail client came preinstalled with Windows whereas Microsoft Outlook is part of the Microsoft Office suite and is usually installed after the fact. With that in mind, let’s examine how you can start sending and receiving emails once again.

Need to Recover Lost MS Outlook Data? Download this scanner and find out what’s recoverable

Outlook Express Program Deleted or Just its Shortcut?

First, let’s make sure that the actual program has been deleted and not its shortcut. For example, if the icon that you normally use to launch Outlook Express is missing, the actual program may still be hanging out on your computer wondering why you haven’t launched it lately.

Go to the Start button and right-click it. Choose Explore. Depending on your operating system, the Outlook Express file may be in one of several locations. Navigate to:

• C:\Windows\Application Data\Outlook Express\{unique long number}

• C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{unique long number}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

• C:\Program Files\Outlook Express

You are searching for a file called msimn.exe which is the application file that launches Outlook Express. Alternately, you could click on the hard drive’s root directory (usually C) and then enter msimn.exe into the Search bar.

If you find msimn.exe, right-click it and then choose Create Shortcut. Once the shortcut has been created, drag it to the desktop. Double click the new shortcut, and Outlook Express should launch.

Reinstalling Outlook Express

Microsoft no longer offers Outlook Express downloads as it has since been replaced by Windows Live Mail. In the past, you could simply reinstall Internet Explorer which included Outlook Express, but the newer versions of Internet Explorer no longer come with this mail program. Therefore, you’d need to download an older version of Internet Explorer such as Internet Explorer 6. The preceding link takes you to a download page where you can do this.

Download Windows Live Mail

If you’d rather not download an old browser simply to get Outlook Express back, why not instead make the leap to Outlook Express’s successor, Windows Live Mail? It’s similar to Outlook Express so there’s not a big learning curve. It also has a lot of neat new features including an integrated calendar, support for multiple Web mail accounts, and an RSS feed reader. You can download Windows Live Mail here as long as you have Windows XP Service Pack 2 (32-bit version) or Windows Vista.

Recovering Old Emails

If your old emails are lost too, a product such as ParetoLogic’s Data Recovery Pro can recover deleted Outlook Express 6 messages. It also recovers Microsoft Outlook 2003 and 2007 messages. You would need the Pro version rather than the free scanner or standard version in order to recover deleted messages. Depending on how valuable they are to you, the Pro version may be a real value. Try the free scan first to make sure that the files are indeed recoverable.  

Hopefully all you need is a new shortcut and all of these additional steps will be unnecessary.

My laptop says HP: Angel Recovery Program and product key. How do I fix this?

I am guessing that you didn’t purposefully enter the recovery partition and access HP’s Angel Recovery Program. I’ll explain a bit about the application such as what it is, how you can access it, and how to get out of it safely.

What is HP Angel Recovery Program?

The HP Angel Recovery Program is designed to recover the computer’s operating system and restore it to proper functioning whenever the need arises. Designed by Soft Thinks, a company in San Jose, California, the Angel Recovery Program is a restoration application that is used by HP and other computer manufacturers for use with Windows operating systems.

In particular, the HP Angel Recovery Program is part of the recovery partition of the computer’s hard drive and is usually bundled with laptops using Windows XP. You can use it to create a back up of your hard drive in case you want to make some changes and restorations. I suggest that if you ever decide to use this application intentionally that you also back up your documents, pictures, and other files on an alternate form of media just in case it doesn’t go well. Otherwise, the HP Angel Recovery Program will delete your data.

What Starts the HP Angel Recovery Program?

In general, pressing a function key on the keyboard will activate the HP Angel Recovery Program.

What is the HP Angel Recovery Program Product Key?

Since this application comes bundled with the operating system on the laptop, the product key is the one that came with your installation disk for the laptop. If you didn’t have an installation disk because everything came pre-installed, then you need to look through your documentation in order to find the product key.

How to Exit the HP Angel Recovery Program

If you have inadvertently pressed the function key that generates the HP Angel Recovery Program, you can exit out of it by turning off the laptop and rebooting it. This should work without any glitches.

Alternatively, you could always enter the product key and then elect to exit out of the HP Angel Recovery Program once you have entered it.

My computer was recently “fixed” by a friend who said he could not recover my Word documents or any files on the hard drive. He said it was a “partition” problem. Can files be retrieved from a corrupted or crashed hard drive? I’m a church pastor and lost all my sermons. Any help you can offer is appreciated!

The short answer to your question is that yes, in many cases you will be able to recover Word documents and files from a corrupted or crash hard drive. You’ll just need some special software. Read on to discover what you need to do to retrieve your sermons.

Data Recovery Software

Data recovery software is designed to recover lost or missing data from computer hard drives. In particular, this type of software can retrieve documents and files of many types provided they have not been overwritten with new data. This includes Word documents, emails, images, music, folders, applications, and more.

Overwritten Documents

Each time you write new documents, they take up space on the storage media. If you have deleted any documents, it is possible that they will be written over with the new data. If the document that you want to retrieve has been written over with new data, then it will no longer exist and you won’t be able to retrieve it.

How Does Data Recovery Software Work?

Once you download and install data recovery software, you can use it to scan your computer to recover Word documents, files, images, videos, and other data. In many instances, you are able to select the type of data that you wish to recover. You can also recover previously deleted documents and files as long as they haven’t been overwritten with new data. Therefore, not only should you be able to retrieve any files that you have stored on the hard drive, but you should also be able to recover files that you might have recently deleted or accidentally lost. Not only can you recover files individually, you can also recover entire folders and partitions.

ParetoLogic Data Recovery Pro

One data recovery application that I have personally used and can recommend is Data Recovery by ParetoLogic Software. This link will take you to a free trial scanner that will provide you with a list recoverable files found on your computer. If the scanner finds your lost sermons, in order to recover them, you will need to purchase the fully featured product. It’s about $40 or $50 depending on which version you choose. ParetoLogic Data Recovery is designed to recover hard drives that have crashed, lost partitions, the emptied contents of the Recycle Bin, formatted media, and more. The Pro version adds e-mail recovery.

You can choose to recover only those documents that you need or you can recover everything. It’s important that you have sufficient room to save your recovered work as well. One tip that I might add is to make a back up copy of all of your sermons on CDs so that you have them should you experience another problem with your computer’s hard drive.

I have Vista and did a recovery with automatic data backup. Did I lose my photos or are they saved somewhere? How can I find them? Please help!

If you selected automatic data backup, then your photos have been saved and stored as long as you selected “pictures” as one of the file types that you wanted to save. Just to make sure I cover all angles for you, I am going to briefly go over a few things and provide solutions that should work to recover your photos.

Vista Backup with Data Recovery

Windows Vista makes backing up data easy with the special built-in feature that allows data recovery. In fact, users are offered four important ways to secure the existence of data including backing up the computer, backing up files, restoring files, and restoring the computer.

File Backup Wizard in Windows Vista

When you use the File Backup Wizard in Windows Vista, it prompts you with:

• Which files you want to back up
• Where you want to store the files (CD, DVD, server, hard disk, external hard disk)
• When you want to run the backup

Data Backup in Windows Vista

When Windows Vista backs up files, it saves them as zip files. The backup feature in Vista places the data it saves into a series of zip folders, each of which have a maximum capacity of 200 MB. The files are labeled in this way: “Backup files 2.zip,” “Backup files 3.zip,” etc. Vista backup saves files of similar type to the same zip whenever possible. Therefore, your photos should be located together in one or more zip folders.

How to Locate Your Data Backup in Windows Vista

If you want to locate your photos, then you need to open the media used for the data backup (CD, DVD, server, hard disk, external hard disk.) Next, you need to browse through the zip folders until you locate the files that you want. The file extension will be the same as the original file extension. Common file extensions for images include: .gif, .bmp, .jpeg, .png, and .tiff.

Each of the files within the zip folder will have the same name. Therefore, you will probably want to extract and save all of them to a new folder that you create on your desktop. Give the folder a name that will help you to recognize its contents.

Rename each file when you save it to its new folder so that you don’t end up with 10 files of the same name.

Data and Photo Recovery

If your photos seem to be missing, you can use a data recovery application for photo recovery. I can recommend DataRecovery, an application that can retrieve all sorts of missing data files including photos.