i started the system and after loging on, i get a message that Norton AntiVirus cannot start. the data error may have occured due to power faliure or improper shutdown. And after that all hell broke loose, I got 3 attacks from a virus W32.Blaster.Worm (the one which took down many computers on 26/04/2003) deleting small files. i ignored and tried to reinstall NAV but before I coulddo any thing Another attack WIPED out an entire Partition. It took 15GB data, All my five most favorite games.

It took me 14 stright hours to get the system back up. but still the virus cannot be removed. the file just cant be deleted.

I know its not BootSkins fault, i only gave you the full story. The problem that i face now and for which i want a solution is that wether can i get my data back or not.

bummer

only worthwhile in commercial systems.

You think a 94% completed GTA Vice City, a 3.78 GB Counter Strike Condition Zero, a 3.76 GB Sims having family net worth values of over a million, a well set WWE RAW, a 3 season completed in a carear of FIFA 2004, and a 9 mission Completed Tom Clancey's Rainbow Six 3 : Raven Shield with self created missions isn't worth it. >

just Found out that the partition was showing up as a nonformated drive so i formated it. is this a bad move...

Uzair...if it's worth possibly thousands of dollars [US] to you to have the data recovered from your drive then feel free...it's entirely your money to waste.

Formatting your drive isn't going to help anyone get your data off any more easily....only with more difficulty.

For all intents and purposes you are up the proverbial creek without a paddle....

It means you are likely NOT going to succeed in getting anywhere.

To put it clearly...

The phrase is 'up shit creek without a paddle' which means if you are ever going to get somewhere along that creek you are going to have to get your hands very dirty.

Professional Data Recovery is expensive, which is why it is always clever to DO NOTHING until you have expert advice...

or...

You are likely to make things even worse...as you have.

When using the FORMAT command, Windows displays a message like this:

 Important: Formatting a disk removes all information from the disk.
 
The FORMAT utility actually creates new FAT and ROOT tables, leaving all
previous data on the disk untouched. Moreover, an image of the replaced FAT
and ROOT tables are stored, so that the UNFORMAT command can be used to
restore them. FDISK merely cleans the Partition Table (located in the drive's
first sector) and does not touch anything else.

    1.2. Advanced Data Recovery Systems

Advances in data recovery have been made such that data can be reclaimed
in many cases from hard drives that have been wiped and disassembled. Security
agencies use advanced applications to find cybercrime-related evidence. Also
there are established industrial spy agencies adopting sophisticated channel
coding techniques such as Partial Response Maximum Likelihood (PRML), a
technique used to reconstruct the data on magnetic disks. Other methods
include the use of magnetic force microscopy and recovery of data based on
patterns in erase bands.

Although there are very sophisticated data recovery systems available at a
high price, data can easily be restored with the help of an off-the-shelf
data recovery utility like Active@ File Recovery (www.file-recovery.net)
or Active@ UNERASER (www.uneraser.com), making your erased confidential
data quite accessible.