Undelete Tool
Accidentally erasing an important files happens all too often, even to computer savvy users. Although directly erasing a crucial file may be unlikely, it is easy to imagine a user accidentally deleting a folder that has important information within it. As hard drive sizes balloon, and more and more data is stored on these drives, it becomes easier every day for this to happen. As users entrust increasingly valuable data on their hard drives, an industry has appeared to support the restoration of those files in case of disaster. What can cause this kind of disaster? The root causes are numerous, with both software and hardware failures frequently to blame.
User failures, or accidents, are also commonly to blame in data loss situations. Luckily, these cases are usually the easiest kinds of data recovery. Dozens of undelete tools are on the market today, and better yet, a great deal of these tools are absolutely free. As valuable as data has become, the data recovery industry has become a major sector of information technology. The market for an effective utility or undelete tool is very competitive, with both proprietary and open source projects offering more and more functionality.
An open source undelete tool like TestDisk can be used without paying any kind of fee. Fortunately for computer users, TestDisk is one of the most mature products on the market today, with a broad range of features and support for several operating systems. File Recovery Wizard is another effective undelete tool, as is Undelete Plus. All of these tools can quickly and easily restore files that have been accidentally deleted.
How can this be done? When a user deletes a file, the hard drive actually keeps that file intact. It is inefficient to actually go through and physically delete a file, so operating systems delay that action until the space is needed. When a new file must be stored, the operating system will then allocate space where old information is currently taking up room. To restore a file, the user must act before the operating system decides the space is needed.
A tool like TestDisk will go through and find deleted files, displaying them to the user. The user may then restore the file, bringing it back to its intact state. This is usually a very easy task. The problem can be more complicated when the user has saved over parts of the file. Some of the information can still be recovered if a RAW recovery is attempted, which is possible in some utilities like TestDisk. For a free and very powerful undelete tool, users cannot really go wrong with TestDisk. This utility is both powerful and flexible, working with a variety of operating systems and drive types.
Filed under: Undelete Tool