A classic problem...

[adbower]

I'm using a win98 se system and a folder was deleted containing several important files (don't ask). The folder was moved to the recycle bin, and the bin was then emptied. Since then nothing has been done with the system, no defrag, no heavy disk use, it's just sat there. Is there a way to restore the folder and all the files? I've heard that getting Norton Utils would work and I can unerase them. Is there any other way to do it? Is Norton the best bet?

Thanks!

- Tony

 

[DAM]

yeah norton has worked well for me, your documents should be around in your computer, however your computer can not see them because the first character in their name has been changed to a null character, which tells the computer to write over that space.


best of luck


dam()

 

[KarsinTheHutt]

Have had a few friends accidently delete stuff. Norton recovered it 3/4 of the time.

Its actually quite scary though - some files might never die, and when you "delete" them, someone could extract them months or even years later. I wonder if corporations ever think about this when they get rid of old PCs...

 

[Psychoholic]

I read somewhere that the Pentagon can recover data off a hard drive even if it's been formatted 30-35 times. You better watch where you store that porn from now on adbower.

 

[PowerJoe]

several important files (don't ask)

Makes one wonder...

-PJ

 

[pylorns]

The pentagon cant restore if you fdisk!

 

[adbower]

the "don't ask" comes from how it got deleted, not what got deleted.

I let my room-mates use my system (foolish!) and they aren't as careful as could be.

- Tony

 

[frostgiant]

Just put a big magnet on the HD when you don't want it and you'll be ok. But if you used every amount of space possible on the drive, the data would have to be erased (since it has been replaced).

 

[adbower]

Ok, I've recovered what I think is one of the files, but it's in a text format and I'm not sure how to get it back to it's original format. Any help?

- Tony