Had to rebuild PC - anyway of retrieving contacts and mails

[#1]

Had to re-install Windows 7 and have lost my old mails and contacts. Is there anyway I can retrieve these
Thanks
Kwack

[#2]

If you left the information on the C drive and didn't do a repair install or upgrade install you will almost certainly have lost everything

[#3]

You might be in with a chance of retrieving something if you don't turn the PC on again, and send the hard drive off to a specialist data recovery company. It won't be cheap, though.

[#4]

I presume simply restoring them from your latest backup isn't an option?
I accept it might not be a helpful comment right now, but it might prompt you, and others to ensure you have a full, regular backup of everything stored separately for instances like this.

[#5]

It will depend on what install procedure you followed, if there was a choice.
Sometimes the user profile from previous installs is left behind, look for folders with names ending .old or similar or with the previous user name.
Did you reinstall using the same user names or not?

[#6]

Quote from: Denzil

You might be in with a chance of retrieving something if you don't turn the PC on again, and send the hard drive off to a specialist data recovery company. It won't be cheap, though.

In this instance it should not be too expensive and you may not need the type of specialist with their own equipment, clean room facilities etc.  What you do need is another computer running specialist data recovery software.  If the data you want to recover has not been overwritten then it should be possible to find and retrieve it.  If it has been overwritten then I do not believe there is anything even the most expensive specialists can do.

[#7]

probably depends on what email setup/client you use, was leave messages on server ticked?
if so you can re download the lot again relatively hassle free & probably harvest the contacts from the old emails