Retrieving deleted files

[M.A.X.]

I just accidentaly deleted 29.1GB of music from my pc.. I am completely
clueless as to how to retrieve these files, if that's even possible.. Please
help me, I need these songs for work

 

[Malke]

I just accidentaly deleted 29.1GB of music from my pc.. I am completely
clueless as to how to retrieve these files, if that's even possible.. Please
help me, I need these songs for work

If you have Vista Business or Ultimate, you can use the Previous
Versions feature to get the files back. Refer to Vista's Help for
"previous versions". If you have Vista Home Basic/Premium, stop using
the computer immediately. The more you use it, the less chance of
getting the files back. 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 professional data recovery company. You need
to make the determination of the value of your data and decide what to do.

If cost is no object and the data is crucial and you don't have a
competent local shop, call a professional data recovery company. My
preference is DriveSavers (www.drivesavers.com) but there are others.
Professional data recovery normally starts at around $500 and goes up
from there. Drive Savers recovered all the data on a failed laptop drive
for one of my clients and it cost $2,700. He thought it was worth the
money; only you know what your data is worth. I understand that some
insurance companies are now covering data recovery charges so check with
yours.

So if you want to try this yourself, 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.undelete.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

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, M.A.X.

I just want to second what Malke said. She's giving you the straight story.

Since she didn't deliver the mandatory standard sermon, I will: If these
songs are that important to you, why in the world didn't you make backups?
The minute you get them back - if you do - create backups and maintain them
religiously. And test the backups periodically to be sure that you can
actually restore them when needed.

OK. Lecture over. You're suffering enough already. Good luck!

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)