Recover lost files from PSD

Hi everyone,

Looking for some help on a difficult task, I think its probably impossible, but you guys are quite knowledgable and pull off great work.

Before I get grilled for not backing up my documents, I want to say I did, I just forgot about the files in my PSD ( i know of all files to forget).

So I sent my laptop in for repair, comes back they have done a clean install of windows. I got my laptop back this morning and when i started to transfer my back up files back over i remembered that i forgot to back up my PSD files. Is there any chance of recovering them after a reinstallation of windows? with my knowledge the answer would be no, correct? Hopefully there is some lifesaver out there that knows how to get them back. Awaiting replies and hoping for the best.

forgot to mention my laptop is an acer 6920g.

 

I would suggest that you try an undelete package. This would appear the best bet short of expensive 3rd party disc forensic services. An undelete will scan the harddrive for whatever it can find. Deleted files can remain in place after a windows install unless a secure disc eraser has been used.

However, there are no guarantees, and the less that the computer is used between losing the file and trying to recover it the better the chance of success. For reasons i won't go into the more you do with the computer the lower the chance of recovering anything from it. I suggest you use a different computer to locate and download an undelete which you can run from a pen drive on the problem computer. Many offer a trial which will allow you to figure out if it is worth paying for.

BTW, are you actually referring to PST file (not PSD).

 

yes im sorry i meant the PST, thanks for the correction. Is there any specific undelete software you would recommend?

 

I am not in a position to recommend as I have never had to do this, I have had to recover files from a badly crashed hard disk but that was a few years ago on windows NT.
EASEUS offer a product called data recovery wizard which has a complete recovery option which may be able to claw something back from a formatted disc but is expensive. TestDisk is free (open source) and may also be able to find something.
I would try a few free trials, making sure to run them from a pen drive to avoid overwriting anything on the hard disk, to see if anything can find the file(s) in question. Deep scans will be quite slow so allow plenty of time. Unfortunately a PST file can be quite big and so I would not expect too much but it is worth a try.
I would avoid buying anything unless you can guarantee it will recover what you want.

 

thanks for the help so far. i managed to recover the eDS_psd_drive.vmdf file. it is the size i want so i think the files i want are stored in there. it is now just a matter of opening or accessing the .vmdf file. does anybody know how todo this?

 

Isn't that the VMWare from the virtual drive?

 

im not exactly sure what the file is? but it seems to be related to the Esecurity data program. the one where you can store files password protected. its what i want to recover. I'm just not sure how to open the .vmdf file.