Recover Deleted Files with Undelete Software

Have you ever accidentally deleted important files? Don't freak out. With the right tools and timely rescue, there is a good chance that your file or data can still be recovered. Now let's check out what you can do and what tools you can use during your rescue mission.

For Windows users, check Recycle Bin first for the deleted file. If the file is still there, you can simply restore it. However, not everyone is so lucky. In some cases, the Recycle Bin was either emptied or completely skipped over. What should be done now? The answer is to stop what you are doing right away or at least do as little computing as possible. That's because when a file is deleted, it doesn't disappear right away. Though the space occupied by it is marked as free space, the file is still on the hard drive. In other words, if no new data is written over it, your file is temporarily safe. It's good to know that Windows tries to avoid writing new data onto the recently freed space, increasing the chances of recovering files.

Then it's time to choose the right undelete program. There are many free undelete programs available for Windows, such as PC Inspector File Recovery, Restoration, Undelete Plus and VirtualLab Data Recovery Software. The file recovery is relatively easy, if the file is recently deleted and the hard drive hasn't been defragmented since then. But free programs usually have difficulty retrieving files that have been overwritten.

If the lost file is that important, you may consider purchasing undelete software with stronger functions. DiskInternals Uneraser, DiskInternals Partition Recovery and NTFS Data Recovery are excellent paid-for tools for file recovery. For instance, the PowerSearch of DiskInternals Uneraser can effectively recover files that are partially overwritten or that are no long listed in the file system. By reading the surface of the hard drive and applying powerful filters to detect the beginning and end of each file, it can recover files of over 150 files formats, including office documents, pictures, music, video and other common formats. Once you have chosen the right program, the next thing to do is to scan your hard drive and pray your file will come back.

However, if your problem is not simply an accidentally deleted file but a wiped or broken hard drive, the recovery process will be more difficult. The programs mentioned above can still be useful as long as the hard drive can be read by a computer. If not, there are still a few things you can give a try, such as changing the hard drive board and cleaning up the hard drive's contacts. But unless you know enough about hard drives, go for professional help before making things worse.

Well, no matter whether you get your deleted files recovered or not, what's important is to prevent similar tragedies from happening again. Since early warnings are always better than unexpected breakdowns. You should perform regular and advanced system care so as to spot a failing hard drive in time. Besides, regular backups are absolutely necessary. If you always forget to backup by yourself, get an external hard drive and schedule it to backup your computer's hard drive automatically.