Thursday, September 20, 2007

How to recover deleted files and folders?

Lets start with some basic i.e. what do we mean by Deletion?

"Deletion means the removal of an item of data from a file or to remove a file from the disk". Deletion are of two types:-

1> Temporary Deletion
In this file is moved to the recycle bin. This operation is performed by simply pressing Delete button on the keyword, or by selecting the property of file or folder and deleting it.

2> Permanent Deletion
In this file is not saved in recycle bin i.e. they are removed permanently. This operation is performed by pressing using Shift + Delete together.

Here we would be taking care of files which has been permanently deleted through Shift + Delete operation through keyboard.

Let's see the other side of coin i.e. inside our hard drive and find out the answers of following question.
1. How data is saved in our computer system?
2. How is this data being managed by operating system?
3. What happens when data is deleted?

Our storage device i.e. hard drive is logically divided into two parts by the operating system. In one part data is stored and in the other part its address is stored. When we delete the data then operating system updates a flag in the address part of the hard drive which makes the operating system recognize that the following file is deleted. Now the truth, that data is still there in the hard drive.

By now we know that data is there in the system, we have to find the means to access this data.

For accessing this deleted data we have to use some data recovery software. You can choose your own data recovery software however I would recommend you to go for Stellar Phoenix Deleted file recovery.

Download the software from: here

Note: Do not install Stellar Phoenix Deleted File Recovery to the partition from which you are trying to recover data. This may result in your lost data getting overwritten and could also cause permanent damage.

Run the Program from the Program Group menu option, for Stellar Phoenix Deleted file recovery.

Select the option logical drive from the 'Drive' menu option or select "Ctrl+O" from keyboard, a window as shown below would appear.

Select the logical drive from which you need to locate the deleted files, and press "Ok" the software would start scanning the logical drive.

And you can see the tree being created at the left side of the window, once the scanning is over it is recommended to use the option "Hide empty folders" to view only those folders which are having deleted files.

Once the scanning is over, you would see the tree.

This is the last but most important process in recovering your lost data. After you have found the files that need to be recovered you need to transfer them to another media. You can recover data on to another logical drive of the same disk or another working hard disk or a network drive.

You can recover data to -

a) Another hard disk in the same machine
b) A mapped logical drive on the network, with write access.

c) A USB drive attached to the system
d) A ZIP drive attached to the system

All the storage devices where your Operating System can save data can be used to store the recovered data.

Recovering All Files in Drive
Use the option "Recover All" to recover ALL (including deleted, lost and numbered files and folders) the files and folders from the inaccessible drive. Select 'Recover All ' option 'Files' menu. Alternatively you can also click on the 'Recover All' icon on the Toolbar to start the process.

A dialog box pops up listing you the drives and folders. Select a destination folder; you're ready to begin moving data. Afterwards click Ok to begin.

Recovering Selected Files
Use this option to perform selective file or folder recovery. Select the files and/or folder by clicking on the check box displayed next to them. When you have completed files/folders selection choose "Recover Selected Files" option in File Menu. Alternatively you can also click on the Recover Selected Files icon on the Toolbar to start this process.

A dialog box pops up prompting you to select the destination path. Select the destination folder; you are ready to begin recovering data. Click Ok to begin.

When this process ends you can see all your deleted files & folders. There are many cases of data loss in my next article I would be discussing the process of recovering data from the formatted hard drive.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

The information is really very helpful. Thank you for providing us with such wonderful article. I had heard from my friend that he had used a Data Recovery Software i.e., undelete software which helped him in recovering his deleted files, which he had accidentally deleted using Shift+Del key.

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