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Going, going, gone … sort of
Retrieve deleted files.
You hit the delete key—only you didn’t mean to—and now that file is gone. Well, not really. You can almost certainly find it sitting in your Recycle Bin. Just highlight the file, then click the Restore button. The file will be returned to its original location.
But what if you emptied your Recycle Bin? Believe it or not, you still have a good chance of recovering the file. The data does not disappear from your hard drive until another file overwrites it.
There are some steps you can take to increase your chances of recovery. When you realize you’ve deleted a file you want back, don’t save anything else to your hard drive and limit your computer activity as much as possible until you recover the file. The “deleted” file is treated as empty space on the disk, and will still be there until something else takes its place.
But how do you access the file if you can no longer see it among your folders? You will need a file-recovery utility. Dozens of software companies sell recovery programs, and there are some shareware and freeware titles out there, too. Purchase one of these programs or download one to another computer and save it to a CD. Then run the program and follow the instructions to recover your file.
Two other helpful tips require you to act before you actually lose a file: 1) Defragging your hard drive creates large blocks of empty space, so it’s less likely that the space occupied by your deleted file will be overwritten with something else. 2) If you regularly back up your files to another drive or removable media, you can easily recover the file you deleted.
It’s also possible to recover files deleted from removable storage media, like flash memory cards used to store images from digital cameras. Again, don’t save any new information to the disk, and find a program designed specifically for the type of medium involved.
To recover vital information you have deleted or otherwise accidentally lost, you also can seek out a professional. Data-recovery firms can pull off some impressive feats, sometimes even retrieving data from severely damaged machines.
Photo © Corbis.
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