System Restore and Deleted Files

[Guest]

Hi,

I accidentally deleted some very important files today. If I go back and do
a system restore will the files be retrieved? I've read the other posts
about these "undelete" programs, but since the language tends to get a bit
technical for me, I'm hesitant to try them.

Thanks,
shirley

 

[dobey]

Hi,

I accidentally deleted some very important files today. If I go back and
do
a system restore will the files be retrieved? I've read the other posts
about these "undelete" programs, but since the language tends to get a bit
technical for me, I'm hesitant to try them.

Thanks,
shirley

If they were your personal files, system restore won't help. That only works
for restoring system files.

To increase your chances of retrieving the files, you should stop using the
partition where the files were stored. If it was on the d:\ drive. It is
probably safe to use your PC. If it was the C:\ drive, you should not use
the PC al all.

You need something like GetDataBack, which I have used, or you could try
this.

http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html

Restoration is freeware and I haven't used it so don't know how well it
works,but others have recommended it.

P.S. I've done a quick test, and it seems to work, but the filenames came up
differently, (that is to say I wouldn't have found my deleted file based on
its name before it was deleted), so it might be best to retreive all the
files with the same extention as the ones you lost, or based on date
modified.

Don't be afraid to have a look at programs. Just make sure you don't make
changes or "OK" something you don't understand.

 

[PA Bear]

See http://bertk.mvps.org/html/filesfolders.html

 

[dobey]

The authour could have saved himself a whole lot of time and just listed
what system restore does monitor... ;-)

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I accidentally deleted some very important files today. If I go back and do
a system restore will the files be retrieved?

No. System Restore is not meant to be a backup for your data. It
monitors system files only, not data files.

I assume that you've already tried the Recycle Bin, and they aren't
there?

I've read the other posts
about these "undelete" programs, but since the language tends to get a bit
technical for me, I'm hesitant to try them.

That's your only choice. Read below:

"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.

 

[Guest]

Thank you dobey, PA Bear and Ken--
Unfortunately, I didn't realize right away that I'd deleted the folder, so I
did continue to work--I was actually trying to make some space and zipped a
bunch of files, etc.

I'll go ahead and give one of the recovery tools a shot--I had loaded PC
Inspector last night and ran it, but didn't quite know yet what to do with
all the files it had recovered, so this afternoon, I'll sort through it and
hope for the best. Is it possible that this one
http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html that you cited might be
better than the PC Inspector?

I might be back for further questioning--
thanks again,
shirley

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Thank you dobey, PA Bear and Ken--

You're welcome. Glad to help.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize right away that I'd deleted the folder, so I
did continue to work--I was actually trying to make some space and zipped a
bunch of files, etc.

I'll go ahead and give one of the recovery tools a shot--

It's worth a try anyway. You might not be successful but you won't do
any harm.

I had loaded PC
Inspector last night and ran it, but didn't quite know yet what to do with
all the files it had recovered, so this afternoon, I'll sort through it and
hope for the best. Is it possible that this one
http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html that you cited might be
better than the PC Inspector?

I like Restoration, but all these do pretty much the same thing, and
none is really any better than any other. They differ more in ease of
use than in what they can recover.

 

[Guest]

I looked at a couple of the files that the program retrieved and just saw
code--is there something magical I might do in order to see what's actually
in the recovered files?

It did recover LOTS of files for me, but none of the names looked familar,
but I read on another post here that the retrieved files frequently come
through without their original names.

Thanks again.

 

[Bert Kinney]

LOL...


Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org
Member: http://dts-l.org

 

[dobey]

I looked at a couple of the files that the program retrieved and just saw
code--is there something magical I might do in order to see what's
actually
in the recovered files?

It did recover LOTS of files for me, but none of the names looked familar,
but I read on another post here that the retrieved files frequently come
through without their original names.

Thanks again.

That reads like what I typed.
I did a quick test with Restoration, as I had not used it before, and it did
find and restore the test file I deleted, but it did not have the same name
it did when I deleted it seconds earlier. So when I used the name filter in
Restoration to search for the deleted file I did not find it using the
deleted file's original name.

That's why I suggested sorting the column of found files by date if using
Restoration.

The reason Restoration is being recommended is because it is Freeware, (free
to use). It does seem relatively basic though.

GetDataBack works also, I think there is a demo that shows you the deleted
files but you need to buy it to recover your files, (which seems like a
cruel tease to me ;-) ).

Depending on what files were recovered and if they were recovered without an
extention or not. Those with no extention you will need to guess what type
of file they might have been.

So if, for example, you think it was a video file, you would try to use
Media Player, but if the file is damaged it might not play simply because
the entire file could not be recovered.

Same thing can happen with Word documents. If you try to open a corrupted
word file, you may just get a page of characters, and your text might be
there somewhere in the mess.

There could be programs around that will help you identify unknown files,
but I have no knowledge of these programs.

Sorry I can't offer anything more concrete, but you may just need to wade
through the recovered files till you find what you are looking for, and of
course invest in a DVD writer for cheap storage.

<snip>

 

[wutanghax0r]

That reads like what I typed.
I did a quick test with Restoration, as I had not used it before, and it did
find and restore the testfileIdeleted, but it did not have the same name
it did when Ideletedit seconds earlier. So when I used the name filter in
Restoration to search for thedeletedfileI did not find it using thedeletedfile'soriginal name.

That's why I suggested sorting the column of found files by date if using
Restoration.

The reason Restoration is being recommended is because it is Freeware, (free
to use). It does seem relatively basic though.

GetDataBack works also, I think there is a demo that shows you thedeleted
files but you need to buy it torecoveryour files, (which seems like a
cruel tease to me ;-) ).

Depending on what files were recovered and if they were recovered without an
extention or not. Those with no extention you will need to guess what type
offilethey might have been.

So if, for example, you think it was a videofile, you would try to use
Media Player, but if thefileis damaged it might not play simply because
the entirefilecould not be recovered.

Same thing can happen with Word documents. If you try to open a corrupted
wordfile, you may just get a page of characters, and your text might be
there somewhere in the mess.

There could be programs around that will help you identify unknown files,
but I have no knowledge of these programs.

Sorry I can't offer anything more concrete, but you may just need to wade
through the recovered files till you find what you are looking for, and of
course invest in a DVD writer for cheap storage.

<snip>

there's a completely free file recovery program called Pandora
Recovery:
http://www.pandorarecovery.com