Recovering Deleted Files From Your Hard Disk  

You all have accidentally deleted an important file at one point of time or another. Sometimes it is just a delete operation and the file is still available in Recycle Bin. On the other hand, if it is a Shift + Delete operation the file has already disappeared from the hard disk. It skips Recycle Bin. In such cases, many people panic, and they would want to recover the deleted file at any cost. In this article, you will see the means of recovering a file deleted from the hard disk.

 
When the operating system deletes a file, you may have noticed that it happens almost instantaneously. Despite the size of the file, the operation completes virtually in a second. This is because Windows does not actually delete every data sector of the file. It simply writes to the file table that the space occupied by the deleted file is available for saving other files. Hence, the data sectors of the deleted file are still there on the hard disk, but the operating system just does not show it to us.
 
In order to retrieve such deleted files, you can use several applications. Most of these applications are available free. In addition, you should initiate the recovery process immediately after you have deleted the file. After some time, the operating system may overwrite the data sectors occupied by the deleted file with data from fresh files, and the recovery process may not succeed.
 
Here are some of the applications you can use to recover files.
 
Undelete Plus
 
This application can easily recover files deleted and then removed from Recycle Bin. Undelete Plus also recovers files removed through Command Prompt. This application works with all versions of Windows (even Windows 95). It also supports all versions of Windows file systems (FAT 12, 16, 32, NTFS). The application also recovers files from the Flash memory card of your digital camera.
 
Panda Recovery
 
The application is very small in size (only 2 MB of download). It also has a portable version known as Panda Mobile Recovery. This version does not require installation, and the company distributes it in a pen drive of 1GB. Panda Recovery scans the entire hard disk for all the deleted files and creates a list. From the list, you can select the files that you want to recover. This way you have full control over the file recovery process.
 
 
PC Inspector File Recovery
 
This undelete application also supports all the file systems out there FAT 12/16/32, NTFS, etc. It scans the hard disk and lists the files based on their health. The application identifies partitions even if there is damage to the boot sector or the file allocation table. It supports recovering files to networked locations. This has a special recovery function that supports rare disk formats, such as CDR, XLS, PDF, PNG, ARJ, ZIP, TIF, WAV, etc.
 
TOKIWA Data Recovery
 
This simple application runs on all versions of Windows. It also supports all kinds of file systems. It can undelete compressed and encrypted files. The application does not require installation. It also supports wiping the deleted files so that those data sectors become irrecoverable.
 
Restoration
 
This is another simple utility requiring no installation. It supports all kinds of file systems and creates a list of recoverable files after scanning the hard disk. The application also supports wiping the files that you do not want to recover.
 
Conclusion
 
You can use any of these applications to recover deleted files that you have removed from Recycle Bin as well. However, you should initiate the recovery process immediately after you have deleted the file. If you continue using the computer in processing other files, some of the data from those other files may occupy the deleted file’s data sectors effectively corrupting the file. You cannot recover corrupted files fully. This is the reason why very old deleted files appear in the list of deleted files, but recovering them is not possible.

If you need help recovering a file call our team in Gerrards Cross and Beaconsfiled, Buckinghamsire on 01753 884700 or 01494 730120.