recover files from a reformatted hard drive?
 

My friend thought she had made a back up of her document files before upgrading her laptop's OS from vista to windows 7. She found out that she just was able to copy the shortcuts when she was trying to restore her files. This may sound ignorant, but we're just hoping against hope: is there still a way of recovering those files from her hard drive?

Probably yes for some or all of them. You could try a file recovery program like PC Inspector or Recuva. Make sure to read the whole article and follow all of the safety tips that you can:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best...te-utility.htm

Wow, really? Great, I'll read it. Thanks!

Forgive my ignorance in this area too, but when I upgraded my own installation to W7 it retained all of my previous files in a folder called "Windows.old" if I've remembered the name correctly. Once I was happy I didn't need these anymore I removed this folder using the Windows disc cleanup tool.

@MC
I remember the same.

Here is an answer so relevant it was posted twice:
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/...b-e06bab6ebe68

Thanks, Rizar and MC, but we did a clean install: deleted existing partitions and made new ones :(

Tried PC inspector but it won't work with windows 7. I checked their website and it says it's compatible only with versions until XP.

RESOLVED. Sorry for the late update but we found this file recovery freeware, Pandora Recovery, and it was able to recover all her files, amazing.