Deleted Files

[Guest]

I accidentally deleted pictures from my computer, but they weren't sent to
the recycle bin. Is there any way to restore them?

 

[LVTravel]

1st. DON'T do anything else on the computer. Find another
computer and do a search for undelete software. Download on
other computer to CD or floppy or USB drive, take to
"deleted files" computer and run the undelete program. It
may recover some or all of the files. If you continue to
use the computer (even shutting down and restarting it) you
may overwrite the files on the hard drive (see, deleted
files are not removed from the computer, only the entry in
the drive's directory is made available to the operating
system for use. Any use of the hard drive can result in
those entries being used.)

 

[Guest]

try this... it was designed for an issue like yours.....


http://www.pcinspector.de/smart_media_recovery/uk/welcome.htm

they have a file recovery program too, but is limited to tiff's

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I accidentally deleted pictures from my computer, but they weren't
sent to the recycle bin. Is there any way to restore them?

"Deleting" a file doesn't actually delete it; it just marks the space as
available to be used. There are third-party programs that can sometimes
recover deleted files. The problem is that the space used by the file is
likely to become overwritten very quickly, and this makes the file
unrecoverable.

So your chances of successfully recovering this file are decent if you try
recovering it immediately after deleting it, and rapidly go downhill from
there. If you've been using the computer since then (for example to write
this question and read this answer), your chances are probably very poor by
now.

But if the file is important enough, it's worth a try anyway. Stop using the
computer in question immediately, if you haven't done so already. Download
an undelete program (here's one:
http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html but there are several others
to choose from; do a Google search) on a friend's computer and bring it to
yours on a floppy to try.

If this fails, your only other recourse is to take the drive to a
professional file recovery company. This kind of service is very expensive
and may or may not work in your case.