crash

It might be useful to know the operating system involved, what the exact error messages were, and what else was going on when the crash occurred.

There are many file recovery utilities available - a websearch will turn up hundreds, from free to very pricey. Before selecting one, do some research, read reviews, and find one that fits your needs and suits your level of user skills. But, if what happened amounted to a format-and-reinstall of Windows, I wouldn't get my hopes too high for "do-it-yourself" file recovery.

Another option would be to take the machine to a reputable computer repair facility, where the pros would have the tools and know-how to tackle the task. It won't be cheap, but there's a fair possibilty it'll get the result you're after.

Pricier yet, though fairly reliable, would be a professional file recovery service, to which the affected hard drive could be sent for data retrieval - that can get into real money real quick, generally practical only for businesses facing catastrophic data loss.

In any event, if file recovery is to have much chance of success, it is important to not use the machine before attempting file recovery; doing so can and likely will render otherwise recoverable files beyond redemption.

If nothing else, your daughter has learned a valuable, if painful, lesson on the importance of external backups.

Thanks timbers
will look up those sites
regards
challie