5 replies to this topic

[Snowman]

I just accidentally deleted these files using Shift+Del from Favorites on my Vista 64 laptop. Recuva is now running for several hours using deep search since did not seem to find otherwise. It shows 1% and 4ays left.
Can someone guide me to finding these files in less time than this?

Snowman

[DennisD]

Hi Snowman, and welcome to Piriform.

You could try a normal search with the settings of Recuva as follows:

Go to "Options\General", and set the "View Mode" to "Tree View".

Go to "Options\Actions" and check the "Restore Folder Structure" box.

Now when you scan you will be able to hopefully find in the tree menu the files you deleted. Of course do as little as you need to with the drive, and save anything recovered to another drive or memory stick to avoid overwriting anything.

I recently targeted some music albums in this way, and I deleted them using "Shift/Delete". A bad habit we have I think.

Hope that helps.

EDIT: From my own experience, recover a small amount at a time if you find them.

[Snowman]

More later have to leave now

Snowman

[Snowman]

I tried all your suggestions with little success. It did come up with the same 3 files as using the wizard for C:\. They have names that make no sense like "~DF2742.tmp and will not open in anything. Trying deep scan after several hours reports that many days are remaining to finish. I tried Recuva on my old XP computer and it gave reasonable results. Just another example of how bad the Vista is.

Thanks again for trying.

Snowman

[Snowman]

CONCLUSION

I found and used EASEUS Recovery tool which worked much better than Recuva. Unfortunately by the time I got to use it Windows had installed 7 updates even though I have set it to "ask me before installing". Also Norton updated twice as it was set to do. EASEUS found a number of older deletions but all recent were gone.

The lesson. As you said don't use Shift+Delete but let it go to the recycle bin.

If it does get permanently deleted then stop everything. Save nothing you are doing unless it its more important the lost file(s). Disconnect connection to the INTERNET. Maybe you can use a networked computer to access the problem one but for sure where the program requires a save do it to some kind of external drive.

[mr don]

Snowman, on Nov 14 2009, 03:40 PM, said:

CONCLUSION

I found and used EASEUS Recovery tool which worked much better than Recuva. Unfortunately by the time I got to use it Windows had installed 7 updates even though I have set it to "ask me before installing". Also Norton updated twice as it was set to do. EASEUS found a number of older deletions but all recent were gone.

The lesson. As you said don't use Shift+Delete but let it go to the recycle bin.

If it does get permanently deleted then stop everything. Save nothing you are doing unless it its more important the lost file(s). Disconnect connection to the INTERNET. Maybe you can use a networked computer to access the problem one but for sure where the program requires a save do it to some kind of external drive.

There is a data recovery program called Handy Recovery that you can use. They have a free version on their website, but versions 3 & 4 work much better than the version 1 freeware. If you cannot recover it with that, it probably cannot be recovered. It will pull up files in the exact folder structure they are on your PC so you can find them faster. It also shows non-deleted in the tree as well.

It has the capability to recover, even from password protected user accounts that normal methods may fail on.

Hope this helps!