lost a file

[Guest]

hello i deleted a file my mistake and then deleted it again from recycle bin
about 2 months ago and just realized this file is very important to me is
there anything i can do to get it back?

 

[Malke]

hello i deleted a file my mistake and then deleted it again from recycle bin
about 2 months ago and just realized this file is very important to me is
there anything i can do to get it back?

Since you deleted it 2 months ago, the probability of getting it back
using data recovery software is slim-to-none. Nevertheless, see the
general data recovery information below. After you get this sorted, set
up and implement a backup strategy.

*****
If you use data recovery software, install it on another machine and
either use it from that operating system or create a bootable cd/floppy
and work with that. If you don't have the skill and/or equipment to do
these procedures and the data is crucial, take the machine to a
professional computer repair shop that has experience in doing data
recovery. This will not be your local version of BigStoreUSA. In-shop
data recovery is usually not exactly cheap (for ex., my charges are
generally $150-350USD), but it normally costs less than sending the
drive to a company like Drive Savers. You need to make the determination
of the value of your data and decide what to do.

Here are some links to various programs. I use Easy Recovery Pro, but it
is expensive. People whom I respect have recommended R-Studio and
Restoration. YMMV.

http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html
PCInspector File Recovery -
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/welcome.htm
Executive Software “Undelete” -
http://www.execsoft.com/undelete/undelete.asp
R-Studio - http://www.r-tt.com/
File Scavenger - http://www.quetek.com/prod02.htm
Ontrack's EasyRecovery - http://www.ontrack.com/software/
*****

Malke

 

[Richard Urban]

At this point - likely not! Too much time has passed, and the likelihood
that the space occupied by the file has been over written is very great.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

hello i deleted a file my mistake and then deleted it again from recycle bin
about 2 months ago and just realized this file is very important to me is
there anything i can do to get it back?

Malke and Richard Urban have already answered your question,
explaining that there is by now extremely little chance of retrieving
it. I will just add my standard post on this subject, to help you
understand why. Read the following for reference, not as practical
advice as to what to do now:

"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.