Whether you’re a business owner or a personal computer user, it’s a nightmare — you had to re-install Windows and now all your data is gone.

Maybe you didn’t get a chance to back up your data before your realized there was a problem with your computer. A Windows re-install was your only option to return your desktop computer or laptop to a useable state. There are a number of reasons you may need to re-install Windows, including:

– File corruption

– Deleted Windows files

– Windows Registry corruption

– Hardware failure

If your computer is making a clicking noise upon start-up, it could be a problem with your hard disk drive and you may need a physical hard drive data recovery. Data recovery experts can help you with both physical and logical hard drive recovery for your Windows OS.

If you have a software or registry issue and you’ve re-installed Windows before backing up your files, there’s still hope.

Follow these important steps to increase the odds that data recovery experts can perform a successful hard drive recovery.

1. Stop using your computer

2. Do not write any information to the disk with the new Windows install.

When you re-install Windows, the original system files are copied to the hard drive, Windows settings are re-set to default values, and files in the Documents and Settings folder may be deleted.

However, if you do not overwrite those files by adding any new data to your computer, those deleted files can be recovered by data recovery experts.

It’s extremely important to stop using your computer immediately and call data recovery experts right away in order to begin the data recovery process and recover your lost data when you re-install Windows without backing up your files. But don’t panic — 24HourData is here to help.