HELP (please!) Erased my E-mail Contacts

I foolishly chose the Email Contacts Cleanup option from the Acronis Privacy Expert Suite (on WinXP std) thinking that it would just clean up the file... you know - duplicates, etc. I didn't expect it to sweep the entire Contacts File right out.

There doesn't seem to be any undo (i Just did it and have touched nothing) - and they don't give any real warning.

Can someone help, please. As quickly as possible? I've lost all my business contact info.

Hurry.

Many thanks.
FrankV

[bigc73542]

i am not an expert on acronis products but if it didn't put them in the recycle bin you are probably out of luck. A bit of real bad luck.

bigc

No, not in the Rbin - checked their first.

I can't believe the program would do this. I didn't think 'Email Contacts Cleanup' could possible mean Email Contacts 'CLEANOUT'.

Yargggh say it ain't so that they're gone for good - if so I may as well be, too.

FrankV

[John Farrar]

You could try here Easy Recovery may be able to help. Good luck.
John

[Acronis Support]

Hello all,

FrankV, we regret to inform you that there is no such product that can recover the data deleted using Acronis Privacy Expert Suite 7.0. This product doesn't use Recycle Bin and it not only deletes the information but also wipes the location of this information.

"There doesn't seem to be any undo (i Just did it and have touched nothing) - and they don't give any real warning." - there should be a message saying that you are going to clean up your computer.

We are really sorry.

Acronis Support -

This comes as extremely bad news. The wording you have chosen (Clean Up) is very misleading.
Don't you think that a process choice with this severity of consequences should warrant a statement saying:

'You are about to delete ALL of the contacts in you Address Book. Are you sure this is what you want to do?"

This is not a luxury line, but an industry standard anytime a selected function may have severe consequences.

Also, it should have stated that 'This cannot be undone' - yet another industry standard among utilities.

No, you choose to pop-up the cryptic message:
"You are now ready to proceed with Email Contacts Clean-up. Are you sure?"

Sure of what? That I wanted to CLEAN UP this list, yes. That I wanted to CLEAN OUT (DELETE) the list, NO.

When you state Clean-Up, that very term is never used to imply Remove Forever. "Gee, I decided to Clean-Up my house today, and guess what - it's gone from the street."

This is extremely negligent on your part, and unforgiveable. You pop-up a non-descript box; where you could have easily added a few more words of warning to.

Apologies are not enough.

FrankV

[John Farrar]

Purge, Eradicate, Destroy etc. would be preferable to Clean Out.
My commisserations FrankV
John

[Acronis Support]

Hello all,

I have contacted our Development Team and I will also discuss this issue with the person responsible for documentation and information pop-ups in our products.

Thank you.

John Farrar -

Thanks for the sympathy. At least it helps to have someone else share the pain when things have gone south.

I should be thankful I didn't try out another option in the same Suite of tools which is called 'Hard Disk Clean Up'. I'd be playing the harp (or maybe toasting marshmallows) if I had decided to take that puppy for a spin.

FrankV

Oh, and by the way -

Although I emailed Acronis through it's support link describing the problem, there was no reply.
I guess the support link goes to the same place my address book went.

Sorry if I sound a bit bitter - but it's a lousy way to run a company.

FrankV

[Acronis Support]

Hello FrankV,

Could you please send me a private message with your email address from which you have contacted support@acronis.com?

Thank you.