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Deleted Files

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by yvonne

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I had a user who deleted files from his hard drive. Since the deletion, he has found he needs these files. Is there a way to retrieve them? And yes, he emptied his recycle bin.

5 replies

by ann777

Backups?

If none, then the only other option is to download "recovery" programs and see if you can recover the needed files. The problem is that if the user has persisted in using his computer, the lesser the chances of recovering the data. When files are deleted, the pointer to the file is removed. The actual file contents can be overwitten at any time... and if they are, then data recovery becomes that much more difficult. If a defrag or compact has been done, then the files are probably unrecoverable.

But you can go to http://www.download.com/ and type in a search for "recover files" -- it'll pull up 197 possibilities to try. download the program to a different computer.... install the recover utility to a floppy disk and run it on the computer with the deleted files.

by yvonne

Thank you! Unfortunately his hard drive has been defragmented since the deletion. Your answer just confirmed what I believed to be true.

by lamvidao

You can try to access temp files which in the Temp folder or Temporary folder under username if this is Windows 2000. Most of documents have their temp file somewhere.

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