Accident while uninstalling BioniX Wallpaper Changer -Solved

[freakingout]

I ran the uninstaller. The Bionix files were in MY DOCUMENTS. The uninstaller removed everything in MY DOCUMENTS!! Pictures, music, tax returns, etc. etc. Please help me find my stuff.

[admin]

It is obvious that you cannot uninstall a program without deleting it. Therefore, like any other uninstaller, our uninstaller deletes the folder where the program is located. However, it is not doing so WITHOUT SHOWING YOU THE FOLDER TO BE DELETED, and it does not proceed WITHOUT YOUR APPROVAL.

During uninstall you have seen this message:

Are you sure you want to delete this folder?
You can manually delete it later
% FolderNameHere %
Yes/No

Obviously you answer "Yes" agreeing with the deletion of that folder. Therefore, I don't think that the uninstaller behaved in a wrong way.

[pisica]

Microsoft recommends that all programs shall be installed in their own folder in Program Files.

[admin]

Now that we have cleared that it was an user accident and not a problem in our software, let's proceed:

* For the moment DON'T use the drive C in your computer (or whatever letter is assigned to the drive where your files were stored).
* Don't move files around. Don't copy stuff into your computer. The information is still there!
* Don't turn off your computer.
This will prevent other programs to overwrite the disk space where your deleted files were stored.

If you have a second drive, you can safely use it. A flash disk/pen can also be used. Browse for a tool that can undelete your files.
I can recommend:

Active UNDELETE
File scavanger
GetDataBack
OO Unerase v4 (very fast)

Install and run the program from a different drive. If you haven't made massive changes in your computer since that accidental delete operation, you should be able to recover 99-100% of your files.
The chance decreases as you write to that drive.

[freakingout]

Hey I wasn't blaming anyone, I knew I screwed up. Thanks a lot for rubbing it in. I was just looking for help.
Your second post was helpful.

[admin]

This had to be clarified. It is a very sensitive subject, and we don't want people to think that BioniX Wallpaper is unsafe. Thank you for confirming it wasn't BioniX fault.

I really hope you have recovered your data.

[southern_rred]

I also uninstalled bionix wallpaper changer and lost all of my documents, even ones i didn't realize had been associated with Bionix. I was told to run a system restore by two ignorant HP IT guys who didn't know that system restore only works for programs, not documents. I only have one drive. Is there any way I can still get my documents back??? Please help!

ps...my computer has been restarted abt 7 times from all the system restores...

[admin]

Doesn't matter that much how many times you have restarted the computer BUT how much information you wrote on the disk since the accidental delete! This is because the new information will be written in the "empty" space, over the deleted files. The HP support was indeed very ignorant and they totally screw up. The last thing you want is to do system restore! This will dramatically change the layout of your files.

If you have tried to recover the files few minutes or hours after the accidental deletion, the you have a very good chance to recover 99-100% of your files. This "lucky" window is very narrow because sooner or later the Defrag program will start in background (it automatically starts when your computer is idle for few good minutes - something like 10-15 minutes).

Now, after a system restore, I think the chance is slim.

To recover your data, I recommend 'OO Unerase' or 'GetDataBack for NTFS'.

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Sorry for your loss. We will try to help you if possible. At the same time I am also obligated to stress one more (we don't want to scare other users-right?) time that this is not uninstaller's fault. It presented on screen a clear message stating which folder its about to delete and you agreed with the operation to be performed.

[southern_rred]

What drive should i store the GetDataBack, etc to?

[admin]

The files can be restored the same drive. The program (as far as I remember) will NOT create a new copy of that file - overwriting this way existing files. It will "resurrect" the deleted file on the exact position where it was originally located on disk. I think it will "resurrect" the deleted files as new files ONLY when the deleted file was partially overwritten by other files. In this case it is recommended to write the files to a different disk or on the same disk but different partition.

You should read program's documentation. Don't purchase the program until you see that it can actually recover your files (it should work in demo mode where it shows the deleted files but will not restore them).

Don't install the program on the same partition where deleted files are. You can also use a flash disk to download and install the program to it.

Hard drives are very unreliable devices. Remember to backup important data one per week and take the copy out of the house. A very very cheap solution is to put the data on rented web servers (web hosting, ftp, etc).

[southern_rred]

thank you so much. you've been most helpful!