Member Avatar for jems

I have an old computer Gateway with Windows 98. I took it to my local computer shop to recover the pictures from the computer. They gave me a flash drive with some pictures on it. They didn't find all the pictures on my computer. Some of the pictures on the flash drive were damaged. The computer had other data I want to recover, but they told me they needed to know the file names in order for them to recover. If I did not know the file names, it would be costly.


Is there another option out there where I can recover all my pictures from my old computer? Can I recover all these pictures and they will not be damaged?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by birellar

Dani AI

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Brief expert summary and safe-first approach for and anyone finding this thread later: the single most important rule is to stop any activity that writes to the crashed drive. Running repair utilities or letting Windows try to fix the disk can permanently reduce the chance of recovering intact photos. Several posters correctly pointed out accessing the drive from another machine and trying recovery software; those are valid options, but the best practice is to make a full, sector-by-sector image of the drive first and do all recovery work on that image.

A practical, low-risk workflow (high level):

  • If the drive makes unusual noises, smells, or gets hot, treat that as physical failure and prefer a professional lab.
  • Create a full disk image to a larger healthy drive using a read-only method or a hardware write‑blocker; imaging preserves the drive’s current state.
  • Run recovery tools against the image (not the original) — try filesystem-repair tools when the file table looks intact, and signature-based carving when it’s not.
  • Store recovered files on a separate drive and verify them before doing anything else.

A common imaging tool is GNU ddrescue; example usage (replace device and paths to suit the environment):

sudo ddrescue -f -n /dev/sdX /mnt/recovery/disk-image.img /mnt/recovery/disk-image.log
sudo ddrescue -d -r3 /dev/sdX /mnt/recovery/disk-image.img /mnt/recovery/disk-image.log

Expectations and cautions: older Windows 98 disks often used FAT variants; fragmented files and bad sectors mean some pictures may be partially damaged or unrecoverable. Signature-based recovery can still salvage many JPEGs but not every file. If this feels beyond comfort or the drive shows physical failure, seek a reputable data-recovery service and prioritize which files are most important to recover. Credit to , and for the practical suggestions in the replies — imaging first is the critical extra step that preserves the best chance of a successful recovery.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for abu taher

did you use any recovery software? some software are really helpful. some free version you will get in internet. I think:confused:you will recover 70% data.

Member Avatar for sparkax

Try downloading " Recuva"

Member Avatar for jems

The computer does not boot. The computer is dead.

Member Avatar for caperjack

The computer does not boot. The computer is dead.

you need to remove hard drive and slave it into a working coputer ,eithor by putting it inside the tower or by using a usb external drive case

Member Avatar for abu taher

I think you start this thread before.....................this is twice.....

Member Avatar for bobbyraw

you can get your data back there are many programs available for that soem you would have to buy and there are the ffree ones. but the most important thing you will bneed is an interface cable with another computer. i am going to asume this is an IDE drive that crash. yo can putchane a usb to IDE cable that comes with power also. connect to your present compuer or a fried computer and run the recovery software. i have personally used get date back and got back evry thing that was on the drive. your woule need the fat version seeing that it was windows 98 installed on the HDD

Member Avatar for Ponomous

to better help you, could you post the model number of the Gateway. This will enable us to check on the type of hard drive and the options available to you.

Member Avatar for birellar

You can definitely get back your lost data from crashed system. Many ways are available there, either you can buy a data recovery software or you can get help via data recovery companies which is provide 100% guarantee to get back safely your lost data.

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