Quote Originally Posted by pyl2os View Post
My question: Is this data really gone and can it be recovered? I do not know for sure what my brother did with recovery console, but from the way he talked to me it sounded like windows was restored to a previous state.
Hi David,

It is hard to give you a definitive answer without more information. From what you describe, it sounds to me as if your brother used the recovery partition to restore the computer to its original state (right out of the box).

If this is the case, then ALL added programs and data will have been lost and you will need to reinstall all Windows updates, old programs, etc....

However, if he had taken this drastic a step, I would imagine you'd be able to tell from talking to him. Perhaps he only did a System Restore?

The recovery console is usually a last resort if Windows won't boot properly, so I'm a bit confused as to why he' start there - Perhaps he wanted to do a system restore and instead did system recovery?

I recently helped a friend restore her compy using steps similar to those outlined in the link below:
http://www.pctechbytes.com/hp-recovery.htm

If your brother did this, then you are not going to be able to recover any lost data without a specialized program or shop.

Best luck
PP