How to Recover (Almost) Anything [Archive]

Sombeech

09-28-2007, 06:58 AM

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,136677/article.html

Recover a missing or deleted file: The file was there just a second ago--you'd swear to it! Before you panic and start shopping for a file-recovery program, make sure that you don't make things worse. If you're certain that you deleted the file, refrain from running any software designed to save files to the hard drive, a USB flash drive, or a memory card that the files was stored on; doing so may overwrite recoverable data.

Begin by checking the obvious. If the file isn't in XP's Recycle Bin, click Start, Search and use Windows' 'When was it modified?'.....

If you come up empty, there's a good chance you can recover the file with an undelete utility. Two freebies--PC Inspector File Recovery and FreeUndelete--are well worth a try.

Alex

09-28-2007, 08:17 AM

Also, if you manage to delete a partition because you are in too much hurry to leave for a hike (spoken from experience). You can recover a partition quite easily and then use the un-delete utility to recover files.

So when you are reinstalling windows and push L to delete a partition, make sure that your D: (family pictures backup for the last 5 years) is not selected :eek2: or else you will be spending the next 6 hours praying to all gods to help you recover data :nono:

sparker1

09-28-2007, 08:23 AM

I have recovered data from a Compact Flash card even after it was formatted. Inspector file Recovery is a good tool to have, and it's free. Because of bad experiences, I back-up to an external hard drive as well as DVD. Yes, I am now paranoid.

Alex

09-28-2007, 08:27 AM

I have recovered data from a Compact Flash card even after it was formatted. Inspector file Recovery is a good tool to have, and it's free. Because of bad experiences, I back-up to an external hard drive as well as DVD. Yes, I am now paranoid.

I take a step further now, sparker, I take my DVD backups to a safety deposit box in a bank :eek2: plus I have a RAID 1 on my D: drive (two drives work as one) for hardware malfunction.

sparker1

09-28-2007, 10:26 AM

I have recovered data from a Compact Flash card even after it was formatted. Inspector file Recovery is a good tool to have, and it's free. Because of bad experiences, I back-up to an external hard drive as well as DVD. Yes, I am now paranoid.

I take a step further now, sparker, I take my DVD backups to a safety deposit box in a bank :eek2: plus I have a RAID 1 on my D: drive (two drives work as one) for hardware malfunction.

I trust banks with my money, but not with my photos. :roflol:

Iceaxe

09-28-2007, 10:32 AM

Damn..... free undelete does't support a domain server running Windows NT Server :frustrated:

I could have used that right about now....

Alex

09-28-2007, 11:56 AM

Hmm freeundelete should work for you Shane

http://www.officerecovery.com/freeundelete/