Retrieve deleted files

Helpline Q&A Directory

There are times when I regret having removed a file. How can I recover deleted files?

If you've recently deleted a file via Windows Explorer by highlighting the file and pressing the Delete key, or by selecting Delete from the right-click menu, restoring the file will be easy. This is because Windows did not really delete the file - it simply moved it to the Recycle Bin. To get the file back, you need only double-click the Recycle Bin icon on the desktop, find the file, right-click it and select Restore.

Things get trickier if you deleted the file from within an application or at the DOS prompt. If you have emptied the Recycle Bin between deleting the file and realising it was a mistake, the deleted file's space on your drive has been made available to other files. But until another file uses that space, the data is still there and perhaps can be recovered. For that reason, avoid creating or changing files until you recover the lost one.

You'll need a special program to undelete the file. Be sure to install it before you need it because installing a program involves putting files on your drive - those files might overwrite the deleted ones you need to recover.

Download a demo of Fast File Undelete, which allows users to retrieve files that have been deleted from a disk or removed from the Recycle Bin, at www.dtidata.com/products_ff_undelete.asp. It works with Windows 9x, Me, NT and 2000. Alternatively, utility suites such as Symantec's Norton Utilities (www.symantec.com) include undelete programs. (In Norton, launch the UnErase Wizard.) We also recommend Briggs Softworks' Directory Snoop, which is a $29 shareware program. You can download Directory Snoop from www.briggsoft.com. Of course, your best solution is to do all your deleting through the Recycle Bin and think twice before you empty it.