Data recovery question.

[btcomm1]

If you delete something from the recycle bin, and then the file gets somewhat overwritten, like say something like a quicken data file, which I think needs to be mostly if not completely in tact in order to get it back into the program is there any special software that can possibly recover it? Or at that point is it pretty much a lost cause? I'm interested if there is such software, even if it's not free.

Also is there really much difference in different programs abilities to recovery data that has been deleted or if one doesn't work is it pretty certain the next one will not either?

 

[erickj92]

Im sorry to say but if you have written new data over it, it is gone forever. There may be a slim chance that you did not write over it.





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Rig

AMD 3000+ 2.99 GHz
1 Gig RAM
256 MB GeForce 6200
DVD-RW DL
XP Home

 

[erickj92]

And there is a big differece in programs, some programs only find .doc, .txt formats and some find more advanced ones like .zip, .rar, .iso, and .mp3 and others like that.

 

[btcomm1]

Hmmmm, what about http://www.recuva.com/download/downloading ? It definetly finds other files types then just .doc it shows everything. It even goes as far to tell you if a file has been partial overwritten what it was overwritten by I wouldn't think it would matter what file type it is. Is this one good when it comes to recovering MP3 files and or ISO's? Or is there one in particular that is really good at recovering advanced file types?

What is the best free software for recovering files?

I just used Avira UnErase to bring back an mp3 that I deleted and emptied out of the recycle bin, so far it's playing fine although I understand that MP3's are pretty good about not having to have the entire file to play, I'm just running it through right now to see if it's skipping or anything so far it hasn't.

One thing I don't like about unerase is it does not attempt to get back the original file name as far as I can see.

Also I just tried recuva on a couple of my NTFS partitions and it just gets an error and quits, why would that be? It worked on a fat32 partition.

 

[erickj92]

Ya, I would try that one, it is possible that it did not get overwriten. I hope you get it to work.

 

[erickj92]

I just tried that program and it works well, but you need to be specific on the file name, and tou kinda need an idea of where the file was. Like was it in My Documents or Program Files

 

[btcomm1]

Are there any other programs you would recommend that could bring the file back with the right file name?

 

[erickj92]

I cant really think of any free ones..... That is a good program, just it can be hard to find the file you are looking for.

 

[erickj92]

If you would like I could do some research and find a good free one.

Just tell me if you want me to search for one.

 

[erickj92]

I went out and found some useful programs

http://officerecovery.com/freeundelete/ - Free
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Util...pair_Utilities/Fast_File_Undelete.html - ShareWare
http://www.newfreedownloads.com/find/file-undelete.html - ShareWare
http://www.gold-software.com/download775.html - ShareWare
http://www.gold-software.com/download3032.html - FREE for 30 days

Try some of these

The first one allows you to filter results by typing the file extention Exaple= .iso, .rar, .mp3, .zip

 

[erickj92]

Tell me if they work

 

[btcomm1]

Ok, well so far I have not found a program that will attempt to recover the original file name. I have deleted MP3's but when the file recovery program finds them they are randomly named. This is really disapointing.

Fast File undelete as far as I can see does not have a search funtion on it which makes it not that good. Also it I'm not sure how it is supposed to work, the file I deleted was on th e root of C:. When I used it, I selected root and it showed files and folders that were on th e C: drive but it did not show any mp3, not even an oddly named one. then I went to the recycle bin and did not see it there either.

Then I used recuva and althought in the past I have been able to recover MP3's in testing it, it did not find any MP3 file at all. Then I tried unerase and it did not find an MP3 either, now one thing that might be causing this is that I copied the mp3 from the C: drive to another part of the c: drive then deleted the copy, I wonder if there is a difference in doing this then copying a file from one partition to another.


Search and recover so far doesn't seem very good, it came up with like 6 files on the c: drive so now I'm doing a sector scan which is going to take a long time to see if it can find anything more. It didn't even finish the sector scan and now it seems the program is not responding which is nice especially since this program only gives you 4 or 5 uses as a demo.

I'm testing out handy recovery on another computer right now, the first analize was able to find the badly named MP3, there is an advanced scan with handy recovery that takes a very very very long time, it's still going and when it's done I'm going to see if it can get the original file name from the mp3.


Update, so far the only program that I have tried that was ever able to get the original file name back has been file scavenger. However it seems that it doesn't take too long for the file name to be lost even though it seems the file may be intact. Are there any better programs anyone can recomend as far as recovering the original file name?

 

[erickj92]

Well, I would love to help you more but im only 14 years old and my knoledge is limited.... If I come across anything I will tell you

 

[btcomm1]

Hehe, well you were the only one that responded so thanks. I did find one program that was able to retrieve directory info as well as the original file name called file scavenger but it was only able to get that info shortly after the file was removed from the recycle bin, I tried it probably about 5 minutes later and it no longer found the original file name.

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: erickj92
Well, I would love to help you more but im only 14 years old and my knoledge is limited.... If I come across anything I will tell you

Excellent job!
Very nice attitude!
Thanks for taking initiative in helping people.



btcomm1, have you tried http://www.runtime.org/?
It is not free. But, the free demo finds the original names.

Edit:
By the way, I hope you are not using the partition containing the file! The more you write onto that partition, the less likely it is that you can recover anything.

 

[btcomm1]

Navid, no I know about that, because the program has no control of where the OS chooses to write on the disk containing the info.

 

[btcomm1]

Ok, I'm trying the edit button and it's not doing anything, so Navid are you talking about getdataback or do they have another program that is specfically designed to get back data that has been deleted from the recycle bin? Also when you use getdataback does it automatically find all files on the drive, ones that have not been deleted as well as ones that have? I've seen it used to get data back on drives that have got corrupted OS's but not specifically used to get files back that have been removed from the recycle bin.

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: btcomm1
Navid, no I know about that, because the program has no control of where the OS chooses to write on the disk containing the info.

!!!!!!!

If you have data deleted from a partition, do not write onto that partition.

If you only have one partition on your hard drive, remove the hard drive from the PC and install the OS on another physical drive. Then, connect the old drive as data and work on recovering the data.

I am sure we are misunderstanding each other.
Until this is cleared up, there is no point talking about data recovery programs and or deleted versus corrupted data!

 

[Navid]

You should not write on that partition and you should not allow anything else (like your OS) to write onto it. If the partition is the same as the partition containing your OS, you should stop using it.

When you delete a file, the data is still on the drive. Only the pointers are removed. If you do not overwrite the bits, there is no difference between deleted and corrupted.

 

[btcomm1]

I know that, I thought I was clear that I was not recovering data onto the same partition I'm recovering from. I will try getdataback and let you know if it finds the names of the mp3s.

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: btcomm1
I know that, I thought I was clear that I was not recovering data onto the same partition I'm recovering from. I will try getdataback and let you know if it finds the names of the mp3s.

If your OS is on the same partition you deleted the data from, your OS could write onto the pagefile or other automatically generated files. If that happens, your OS could write over where the file existed before it was deleted. It could move the pagefile to where your data used to be.
I am still not clear if you realize what I am talking about. It is more than just not recovering the files over the same partition.

Let's do this differently. Answer these questions:
What partition is your Operating System on?
Whar partition did you delete the MP3 files from?

 

[btcomm1]

Yes, I'm not booting the computer up from the OS drive which is the same drive I'm trying to recover from. I'm not writing anything to it, I'm not booting it up. I'm using a bootable cd to run the recovery programs.

I used a program that is specifically designed to recover deleted files from the recycle bin and it found over 3000 files and restored them to an external HD but with bad names. Then I used get data back, when it was done I searched for anything with a .mp3 extension and it only found a little over 100 mp3 files, so obviously it seems that getdataback is not designed to find files that have been deleted from the recycle bin.

 

[erickj92]

The reson it has bad names it cuz the files are overwriten a little bit... Now can I ask what is the file extention your trying to recover?

 

[Laputa]

QBW file for QuickBooks...expensive file repair and may not work since the file is likely to be corrupt.