Undelete Folders
It is disturbingly easy to do, and can have dire consequences for the user. Deleting vitally important files can happen much easier than one might think, even to the savviest of users. How is this possible? While unintentionally deleting an important file directly is unlikely, it is far more plausible that a user might delete a folder that contains the file itself. As hard drive sizes have ballooned, it becomes more and more likely that such an accident might occur. With drives that can store more than a terabyte these days, it is very easy to become confused when faced with a bewildering array of folders. This kind of confusion leads easily to the unintended deletion of very important files and folders.
Regular data backup is the best form of prevention against this kind of disaster, but that is unfortunately neglected in many situations. The good news is that despite the lack of backups, much of this accidentally deleted data can be restored. The ability to undelete folders can be found easily on the internet in the form of powerful utilities like File Recovery Wizard, Undelete Plus, and TestDisk. These utilities have the necessary ability to undelete folders, bringing back those important files that were overlooked. As long as a user acts quickly enough, this kind of file and folder restoration is easier than it may seem.
How can a simple free utility undelete folders? The very nature of an operating system makes it possible. In an effort to achieve maximum efficiency, operating systems rarely ever erase data when it is deleted.
All deleting a file actually does is mark it for overwriting. Until that space is needed, the file sits untouched, albeit invisible to the user. File recovery utilities scan a hard drive for these deleted files, telling the operating system to unmark them for overwriting and make them visible to the user again. This is very easy to do if the file is caught before any overwriting occurs.
In cases where some overwriting has already occured, the case may be a little more difficult, although still possible. When some data has been lost to corruption or overwriting, recovery is still possible via RAW recovery mode. In RAW recovery mode, a file utility can scan the hard drive and find files, regardless of their data integrity. Although some information may have been lost, RAW recovery mode allows what is left to be brought back relatively easy.
When a hard drive is nearing its capacity, avoid performing any kind of file operations until the file has been recovered. This extends even to the installation of the file recovery utility itself. In cases like this, it is best to install the utility on a separate drive and boot the operating system from there.
Filed under: Data Recovery