My computer crashed a couple of times and had to be completely re-booted. The computer man who performed this task told me that all I had to do if it happened a third time was put in the appropriate disc and follow instructions on screen. It did and I did, but proceeded to completely re-format the hard disc, wiping it clean of everything. I miss my photos, downloaded from a digital camera, some of which mean a great deal to me and cannot be recaptured.

I have been told about undelete programmes but tried a couple with no success. Now someone else has told me that my photos can be undeleted but by an expert. I thought my computer man was such an expert but says it cannot be done.

Can it be done?

PS I back up everything now.

Thanks Tricia

You need to fire your computer man for not making sure you knew the right procedure. Drives can be unformatted and files can be undeleted, but only if the drive is untouched after the format or undelete. This is because files are never really deleted, the space they previously occupied is just marked as free in the drive's tables. If the disk is used after the format or delete, then that space gets overwritten, destroying any ability to recover. If you installed anything to the drive after the format, then it is most likely photos are lost for good.

You can try Recuva, from the makers of CCleaner. It might let you recover some of your files - it's free and worth a try.

There are file recovery services where you can take the drive. They use sophisticated equipment and forensic analysis tools, but this service can get very expensive so you would have to weigh the value.

Of course, this illustrates the need for a good back up program as all hard drives will fail eventually.

Another free program is Recover:
DataRecovery