I deleted some files, then stupidly emptied the Recycle Bin afterwards. Then of course, I realized I need the files. Is there anyway in Win2K to restore files after the Recycle Bin has been emptied?? Help!!

You may want to try <A HREF="http://www.executivesoftware.com/execsoft.asp" target="_new">Undelete for Win NT/2000</A>

JC-------<*){{{>{~~~~~
Fisher of men

I'm not sure if <A HREF="http://www.symantec.com/nu/nu_9x/features.html" target="_new">Norton Utilities</A> will be of help, but I don't think that there are any gurantees that any software can recover everything deleted 100%. However, I wish you the best in getting your files back.

JC-------<*){{{>{~~~~~
Fisher of men

Thanks, I tried Undelete 2 and it couldn't find the files. I deleted them less than 12 hours ago...Undelete found files six months old but couldn't find these.... Waste of $50!!

I also tried Ontrack's EZRecovery...it is a free download but only finds the files, doesn't recover them. EZRecovery found the files OK, but they want $458.00 (not a typo) for one PC license for the recovery software!!! Frustrating!

look for a utility called "lost and found" powerquest used to do it but I believe they stopped it, I used it once after I'd fdisked/formatted the wrong partition (had put another drive in and got leters mixed up...) it recovered most of my stuff, and showed up partitions that I had created YEARS ago, this was a fat32 drive, I dont know if it works with ntfs, if you cant find it past back and I'll mail you a link. (I'd best not post it here or I'll get in bother...)

Next time you wave - use all your fingers

I recently got stupid and killed a number of important files. The following information will hopefully provide assistance to others that find themselves in this situation.

Firstly, there are degrees of disaster. The simplest case is when you have accidentally deleted a file. Open Windows Explorer, open the Recycle Bin, adjust the View so that the files are sorted by their delete date, and check whether the "deleted" file(s) are listed. If yes, then you can simply restore them. Alternatively, if you have a good backup system in place, you should be able to restore the lost files without losing more than a few days/weeks of work.

The next simplest case is that in which your deleted files are not in the Recycle Bin, but in which you are able to take immediate (and appropriate) recovery action. In this case, the chances of making a full recovery should be excellent. We will consider this case at length.

Nextly, there are two worst-case scenarios. The first is that in which you have suffered a physical hard-drive failure. Typically, impending failure will be presaged by disk-fail messages and audible grinding sounds from the failing disk. Stop using that disk immediately. Take the machine (or mail the failing/failed disk) into a professional data-recovery shop. They will tear the disk apart, replace the bad parts, and run special recovery software. The degree of recovery will depend on the degree of damage. Expect a cost of about $800 and, say, a two-week turn around time if they have to rebuild your hard-drive. The other worst-case scenario is that in which you were either slow to discover or else slow to respond to the discovery that critical data files were missing.

In any case, the probability/degree of sucessful recovery is inversely proportional to the degree of subsequent system disturbance. That is because "deleted" files are not immediately destroyed. Instead, the blocks of disk space that they were consuming are marked as available for reuse. As such, it is important to avoid doing things that will cause the system to reallocate and reuse that disk space for other purposes.

Imagine your hard-disk as being divided into a sequence of numbered blocks with each block containing, say, 4Kb of data. Imagine each of your files as being described by a list of block numbers. If a block that lists the block numbers for a lost file gets overwritten, then the chain of blocks for that file will be broken; and at best you will be able to recover only scattered fragments (ie, blocks) of your original file (and only by dint of significant effort). However, if you respond to an accidental file erasure quickly, then the chain should still be intact; and a full, simple recovery should be probable.

Don't try to recover data from the hard-disk that the operating system is running on because the operating system can overwrite your deleted files. If your files are located on the system disk (ie, the one that contains Windows), then you need to physically re-plug that disk into another computer and reboot the system from the other computer's hard-disk (instead of from the one that contains your lost files). Disable any continuously active virus/spyware scan utilities and avoid restarting your computer. Now you need to run an "unerase" utility from the other computer's hard-disk across the one that contains your lost files. Do-it-your-selfers can do this on a friend's computer. Alternatively, you can take your machine and/or hard-disk into a computer repair shop and have them do it for you. Full recovery should is highly probable, probably simple, and should cost you less (probably much less) than $100.

Alternatively, if the lost files contain only a few hours/days of work, and if you have an unerase utility already loaded on your machine, then simply fire it up and go to town. Your chances of a quick and full recovery should be extremely good. If your lost files happen to be located on a disk other than your system disk (ie, the one that contains Windows), then you should be able to download and execute an unerase utility without destroying the files that you intend to recover. Otherwise, as explained before, you will have to re-plug your disk into another machine.

I obtained trial/freeware versions of several unerase utilities. I was looking for simple tool that could provide quick recovery of accidentally deleted files. I regarded more complex forms of recovery (ie, trying to search for and recover fragments of lost data from files that have been reformatted or otherwise stomped on) as being outside the realm of my intended purpose. Some of the utilities claimed to provide "filetype" specific recovery. I am not competent to determine whether these claims make sense or not. In any event, this manner of recovery will necessarily employ more sophisticated recovery algorithms, require larger amounts of memory, and take much longer to run. My presumption is this: that knowledgeable users should be able to perform quick, simple recoveries themselves, but that even they should seek professional guidance before undertaking a more complex recovery.

For purposes of helping others and also for my own edification, I ran a series of standardized tests against each of the trial utilities. I created two types of deleted files-- ones for which I did, and didn't, delete the parent directory. The results were disappointing. Only one of the utilities found my deleted directory; and none of them found its deleted files. Three found the deleted files from my other test directory and three failed to find any of my deleted files. The results are summarized below.

FreeUndelete ......... Freeware. Too slow, no progress indicators, too much memory--NO.
uData_Unerase ........ Didn't find my deleted files--NO.
SmartUndelete ........ Didn't find my deleted files--NO.

Pci_FileRecovery ..... Freeware. Confusing to use. Quick. Found my deleted files.
GetDataBack .......... Horribly SLOW. Found my deleted files (and directory). Cost?
WinUndelete .......... Quick. Found my deleted files. $50.

The quality of the recovered data was surprisingly disappointing. All of the unerased files had already been clobbered (ie, been overwritten). A few recognizable fragments of the original data lingered here and there, but the files had definately been stomped on. All file unerase capabilities are predicated upon the file system's being architected so that file blocks from erased files are protected from immediate re-use by the system. I used to be able to unerase deleted-files hours, even days and weeks, later with a good hope of full recovery. This capability appears to be quite absent from my current file system (Windows 2000 with Fat32). So the really bad news is this: file unerasure may be structurally impossible (in any meaningful sense) on your system.

For me, the bottom line seems to be that preloading Pci_FileRecovery onto my machine provides "free" emergency file-unerase utility for next time (if I can remember how to use it). But I believe that my current OS structurally precludes file-unerase capability in any meaningful sense.

The following provides more details about the unerase utilities that I tested.

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* FreeUndelete 2.0 by Recoveronix LTD
***********************************************************

Freeware. "FreeUndelete" was a disaster. It didn't give any progress indicators, and it just kept running and running. After an hour or two, I got the "blue screen of death". I later determined that it had consumed not only the entireity of my available system memory, but that it had also consumed the entireity of disk space allotted for paging purposes. I have read forum entries which reported successful recoveries using "FreeUndelete", but I give it a big thumbs-down.

***********************************************************
* Pci FileRecovery v 4.0 by Convar
***********************************************************

Freeware. More than a little confusing to use, but I eventually figured it out. Very fast. It had a file-search utility, but it didn't work. It built a directory tree that listed the erased files. This directory tree did not include my deleted test directories or the files deleted from those directories. But it did include the files deleted from the test directory that wasn't deleted. Pci_FileRecovery allows users to save their undeleted files directly to disk.

***********************************************************
* eData Unerase Personal v 3.3.5 by OctaneSoft LTD
***********************************************************

Easy to use. Not rediculously slow. Claims to provide filetype-specific recovery (I don't understand/trust what they are doing/claiming here). It built a list of erased files. But that list didn't contain either my deleted test directories or any of my deleted test files. So eDataUnerase completely failed to serve its intended purpose. It offered very poor tools for searching-through/selecting-from the list of deleted files. Thumbs way down.

***********************************************************
* GetDataBack for FAT v 3.03 by RunTime Software
***********************************************************

Easy to use. INEXCUSEABLY SLOW. It built a directory tree that listed both my current and erased files. It listed my deleted test directories, but not the files deleted from those directories. It did find the files deleted from the test directory that wasn't deleted. It provided powerful search and selection tools. Cost: I didn't check. I was confused by its "save image" options; and since it was so SLOW, I am not going to run it again in order to explore those capabilities. Unlike other undelete utilities, it allows the user to open undeleted files with a user-selected application (for instance, a fully recovered picture file will display a picture).

***********************************************************
* SmartUndelete v 2.8 by SmartSoft
***********************************************************

Easy to use. Very quick. It built a directory tree that listed the erased files. But the listing didn't even list the directory that contained my test directories or any of their deleted files. So SmartDelete completely failed to serve its intended purpose. Thumbs way down.

***********************************************************
* WinUndelete v 3.10
***********************************************************

WinUndelete looked and felt exactly like like SmartUndelete, and I suspect that SmartUndelete is a downlevel version of WinDelete. Both were very quick. WinDelete built a directory tree that listed the erased files. This list did not include my deleted test directories or the files deleted from those directories. But it did include the files deleted from the test directory that wasn't deleted. WinDelete provides no means for the user to view recovered files in their native format (ie., in a way that will be comprehensible to the average user). But it does allow the user to save selected files into an "image" file. WinDelete says that users can recover their files from the saved image file after purchasing the product ($50).

Just try "easeus data recovery wizard pro" the best file recovery i found after trying more than 6-7 file recovery programs . recomended by pc magazine and can recover formated ,deleted ,raw and blah blah file types .