Software Backups

How can your recover your deleted files?

What are the best freewares available and is there a built-in software in windows? I'm not sure if system restore can recover deleted files or if it only restores the settings of your system. Thanks.

Public Comments

1. File recovery- Recuva (pronounced "recover") is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses! http://www.recuva.com/
2. The best freeware available is free undelete. http://officerecovery.com/freeundelete/
3. If freshly deleted .. go to command prompt .. type undo delete and enter. or use data recovery softwares
4. There used to be a program on MS-DOS (if you know how to use the command prompt), it was called undelete or something similar, I can hardly remember the name. You can never see the files you deleted, though they are still in the hard drive. What happens is that when you delete them, the computer just renames the file to something like _ilename.exe, where the underscore ( _ ) is the first letter of the file. In this case you would have to use undelete and restore it saying that the filename was filename.exe. The files are not really deleted because it would take too much time to clear up them from the hard drive. That still happens with new operating systems like Windows XP and I'm really sure Vista also doesn't really delete them. I don't know if there is anything now to do that. These days, I don't even use the Recycle Bin, I just chuck the files out. Personally I'm very sly when it comes to make backups or recovering, still, I survive in the computer world (what am I saying? Yesterday I screwed up a Pentium 4 processor on the computer in the lounge).
5. If you have not "emptied" the "Trash', You should be able to recover the deleted files. The key to recovery either way is as soon as you realize that you have deleted them and want them back to go to town on getting them back. The longer you wait the less the chance of full recovery of the file. Because the deleted file gets an asterisk (*) in the first character of the name that says "REUSE" file. The longer you wait the more chance that it will be overwritten.