How To Recover Deleted Files

The most common cause of data loss is when files are deleted accidentally. The Windows Recycle Bin was designed to make it easy to recover deleted files. But it is no help if you emptied the Recycle Bin, or if you shift deleted the files, nor if the files were deleted from within an application that doesn't use the Recycle Bin in the first place.

It's possible to restore deleted files because when you delete them, the data is not really deleted. Under Microsoft Windows, deleted files are normally moved to the Recycle Bin folder. When the Recycle Bin is emptied, or a file is shift deleted, the folder entry (or directory entry) for the file is marked to show that the file has been deleted.

The actual data is not modified or wiped out at all when the file is deleted. But both the folder entry and the space the file data occupied becomes free for re-use by other files. This means that the longer you leave it, the more you use the computer and the more data you write to the disk, the greater the chances that the deleted file will be overwritten and the deleted data will no longer be recoverable.

Uneraser software

There is some unerase software that does no more than locate deleted files by looking for their original folder entry. But after a while, the folder entry gets re-used by another file, or the folder itself is deleted, and this undelete software is unable to restore the lost data, even though it may still be present.

For the best chance of recovering deleted files, you should use DiskInternals Uneraser. This advanced deleted files recovery software does more than search folders for deleted file entries. Its unique Power Search Technology enables it to identify over 160 different file types, even if the folder entries belonging to the files are no longer present. This software technology emulates what an experienced data recovery technician would do, in a fraction of the time, recovering lost files from the traces that remain on your hard drive or other storage medium.

DiskInternals Uneraser may employ sophisticated technology, but you don't need to be an expert to use it. An easy to use Recovery Wizard is available to guide you through the recovery process.

First, you select the drive you wish to scan for lost files. You can select one of the common folders, such as My Documents or your Desktop, as well as an entire drive.

Next, you can specify the types of file you wish to recover. This can speed up the process of sifting through the results, because if you scan an entire drive, Uneraser can find a lot of files.

Next, you'll see a window that summarizes your selection. If you wish, you can click the Options button which opens a form that allows you to further refine your selection.

After this, the actual scanning will start. This can take a long time, and use a lot of computing power, so your computer may not be very responsive.

After scanning has finished, the Recovery Wizard will close, and you can view the results in a window similar to Windows Explorer. You can view the list of recovered files as large icons, small icons, a Details list and so on. You can also search for specific files using tools in the left hand task pane.

If you click on a file, you can see details about it - and in some cases, a thumbnail preview image - in the left hand pane of the Explorer window.

Not every file found will be recoverable intact, because the computer may have written other data to some of the space the file originally occupied. Uneraser will find things that look like files of a particular type, but only you (or the application that opens that type of file) can tell for sure if they are valid. You can use the thumbnail (where shown) and other information such as the file size to get an idea of whether a file is worth recovering.

After you have found the files that you had lost, you can simply save them to a new location.

DiskInternals Uneraser makes it easy to recover deleted files. Download DiskInternals Uneraser now!