Recovering deleted files from hard drive

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I'm really hoping that someone might be able to help here.

My mam has just got a new computer and in the process of transferring data from the old computer to an external hard drive in preparation for the new computer, she has deleted her folder called, you guessed 'Photos'.

Thought the folder was on the external drive so deleted the folder from the computer AND cleared the recycle bin.

I know and she knows that she should have checked but she was stressing. I'm really gutted for her because there was a lot of personal stuff.

I know that when a file is deleted and cleared from the recycle bin it isn't deleted from the hard drive altogether but has anyone used any of the free software available and can anyone recommend a site. I've probably only got one chance at this so I want to get it right.

Thanks in advance.
:'(
 
There are probably some freeware/shareware utilities for recovering data but I've used this - http://www.r-studio.com/ - to recover data from formatted drives, so pretty sure it will recover stuff emptied from the recycle bin.

Try not to use the PC to do anything else or it will make the job more difficult.
 
That's great thanks.
I'll make sure it's not used.
Will I need to use that machine to download the software, or should I use a different one and put the software onto a cd to use on the old computer.

I know this sounds like a daft question but I don't want to start it up and lessen my chances of recovering the files.

Cheers
 
Piriform's recuva is excellent and free.

You'll need to run it from a USB stick or similar and recover to the same - don't write anything to the original hard disk until you've recovered all the data you can.
 
That's brill thanks.
I'm getting the PC this week. Instructions have been issued not to plug it in.
I'll post how successful it was to keep you up to date.
 
And when you do get things back, get your mum a USB drive and show her how to do backups....
 
arad85 said:
And when you do get things back, get your mum a USB drive and show her how to do backups....
Click to expand...

Hmm, some things aren't that easy.

She was actually backing up files onto an external hard drive and thought this folder was copied over, then deleted the original because the computer was going to be given away. Only when we came to transfer the folders onto the new computer we realised what had happened.

I plan to spend an afternoon over there getting folders set up, files renamed, folders backed up onto CDs, CDs sorted and filed somewhere safe blah, blah. AND I'll back things up onto my hard drive just in case.

Sod's law, something will happen to my HD. :suspect:
 
When you delete files the data itself isn’t deleted, just the index entry that tells the system where the data for those files is located. The area containing the deleted data is also now marked as free space so it is available for any new files to be written there instead. As u said u hav reinstalled windows so d data on drive usually C: where d window is installed is overwritten so dere are less chances of recovery from C: but u can recover data from other drives using data recovery software, i hav personally used one such *** software called Kernel for FAT and NTFS, u can also download d latest version of software from http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Back-Up-and-Recovery/Kernel-FAT-and-NTFS.shtml
 
Thanks guys - so much to choose from now I have to decide which one to use.

Peter - I haven't reinstalled windows. Mam just deleted the folder. Nothing has been saved to the hard drive since. Fingers crossed it should be straight forward.

Probably be the weekend before I get a chance to try now though. :)
 
To reduce the risk of overwriting the deleted folder, you could take the hard drive out of the old machine (PC1) and hook it up as a secondary drive on another machine (PC2).

Then install Recuva on PC2 and get it to search the old drive.
 
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