Recover Erased Files
It is a difficult situation that has probably happened to every regular computer user. You are doing a little routine clean up of a hard drive, and suddenly remember that an important file was in one of the folders that you so happily deleted. With a glance at the Recycle Bin, that terrible feeling begins to take hold. The file is long gone, emptied from the Recycle Bin hours ago. It is completely beyond reach. Or is it? Erasing the wrong file can mean hours or even days of work lost, and needless to say this is a very disheartening situation to be in. Fortunately, there are many ways to recover erased files, even after they have been emptied from the Recycle Bin.
How can this really be possible? This can seem almost supernatural if a user has little knowledge of how a computer works. Contrary to this belief, however, it is really a very simple situation in concept. When a user clicks “delete”, the operating system makes a note of this within its internal map of the hard drive. The file is no longer displayed because the operating system has been told to delete it. What the operating system has not done, however, is actually erase the file in question. This would take far longer to do than simply making a small note of the status change.
The actual erasing occurs when the operating system is told to store more data, or to defragment the hard drive. While storing a new file, or expanding an old one, the operating system goes in search of available space. When the system comes across a deleted file, it overwrites that old data with the new. The same is true in the defragmentation process, when the operating system is attempting to place every piece of a file directly adjacent. This means that in order to recover erased files, the user must avoid any new data being written to the hard drive.
An easy to use utility like TestDisk, File Recovery Wizard, or Undelete Plus can recover erased files without too much trouble. As soon as a file is lost, run one of these utilities, and a variety of erased files will be shown. Simply find and select the appropriate file, and perform a recovery. If the file is caught early enough, no damage should have occured. When a segment of the file has been overwritten, a RAW recovery can bring back the intact portions of the file. Should a recovery utility not be immediately available, it is best to simply shut down the computer until one comes available. Even if the user avoids saving any new files, the operating system can sometimes damage erased files through its own routine functioning.
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