File Recovery Software

[CMF]

Yet another PC question. We lost a Word 2007 file and tried everything to find it. I've heard that files are never truly deleted from a hard drive so it must me in there somewhere. Can anyone recommend a file recovery tool that will do the trick?

Charles

 

[Makai Guy]

I've heard that files are never truly deleted from a hard drive so it must me in there somewhere.

Stop using this computer immediately. Here's why ..

When you delete a file, the operating system just marks the disk sectors that are occupied by that file as available. That means that on subsequent file saves, it might overwrite those sectors with something else. But until those sectors actually get overwritten, the old file should be recoverable - so the less you do on that computer in the meanwhile, the greater the chance that the file will not be overwritten.

Sorry, I don't have a good recommendation for a file recovery program, but there should be lots of them out there. I generally just go to www.tucows.com and see what I can find...

 

[dioxide45]

Yet another PC question. We lost a Word 2007 file and tried everything to find it. I've heard that files are never truly deleted from a hard drive so it must me in there somewhere. Can anyone recommend a file recovery tool that will do the trick?

Charles

Did you check the recycle bin?

 

[CMF]

Stop using this computer immediately. Here's why ..

When you delete a file, the operating system just marks the disk sectors that are occupied by that file as available. That means that on subsequent file saves, it might overwrite those sectors with something else. But until those sectors actually get overwritten, the old file should be recoverable - so the less you do on that computer in the meanwhile, the greater the chance that the file will not be overwritten. .

Way over me head. Are you saying there is something wrong with the PC?

Did you check the recycle bin?

Yes I did.

Charles

 

[TUGBrian]

nah...what he is saying is that when you actually "delete" something...its still on your hard drive.

think of your hard drive as a giant file cabinet.

when you "save" something..you put it in the cabinet.

When you delete something, instead of actually deleting it from the cabinet...you just mark that drawer as "empty" so that the next time someone needs to put something in the cabinet (ie save something to your hard drive) they will use that drawer and what was previously in it will be discarded (overwritten).

there are tools that will let you bring back files that you have "deleted" in this way...provided they havent been overwritten on your hard drive.

thats why doug mentioned to stop using the computer and if its that important...try an undelete software.

 

[dioxide45]

Way over me head. Are you saying there is something wrong with the PC?



Yes I did.

Charles

Nothing wrong with your PC. Just the more you use it the less likely that you will be able to recover that missing file. It really isn't deleted, just the pointers to it are. But if another file overwrites the area of the hard drive where that file still exists it is lost forever. Is it a tough document to just recreate? I usually find this easier and cheaper.

 

[tintoo]

This is right that when a file is deleted it stored in hard drive but the user and operating system can’t see that. To recover deleted files file recovery software is only a weapon which can recover it. There are lots of file recovery software are available on the market. When I lost my file I used stellar file recovery, you can also try this software to recover your file from here: http://www.stellarinfo.com/file-recovery.htm

 

[CMF]

This horsey is dead. I used a file recovery system and it recovered tons of files . . . all of them junk stuff that I then had to figure out how to open and such. I think the file got overwritten before I ran the software.

Thanks,
Charles

 

[Kozman]

Yet another PC question. We lost a Word 2007 file and tried everything to find it. I've heard that files are never truly deleted from a hard drive so it must me in there somewhere. Can anyone recommend a file recovery tool that will do the trick?

Charles

Sorry you couldn't find your file. I've had success with PC Inspector which the last time I checked was freeware. Maybe it's worth a try?

http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/file_recovery/info.htm?language=1

 

[Bonnie_Raitt]

I would suggest you learn from this lesson and start backing up your PC. It's pretty easy. You can use an inexpensive external hard drive or a USB flash drive. I personally use Syncback backup software. It's free

BR

 

[CMF]

Did you know that I prepared backstage food for "the" Bonnie Raitt and her band way back in the 70's one night when she performed at the University of Minnesota? What a co-inky-dink

Any-who, I got one of them back up thingies and it was installed when the file went AWOL. I found a bunch of files in there but they were junk just like the files in the main HD.

Charles

 

[carey_mariah]

I have recentally also lost my word file . One of my colleague suggest me to use file recovery software. I have used used Stellar Phoenix file recovery software.This file recovery software helps me to recover all my word file.Its demo version is free in which you can see the preview of your recoverable file.

 

[calgarygary]

I had the misfortune of having my system crash in the middle of installing service pack 3. Despite the warning and my own knowledge to back up, I have been lazy and hadn't. My pc would not load windows and it became necessary to do a system recovery and all files were gone. A few weeks of painstaking work with File Scavenger returned everything to me but it was a lot of work.

As has been mentioned before, if you lose important files, stop work on your computer and try running a file recovery program from either a separate hard drive or a portable memory device. Be patient and with luck, you will recover the file. Most importantly, don't be lazy - Back It Up! Oh yeh, I haven't done that yet.