It may not be too late to rescue deleted files after you've emptied your
Recycle Bin.
Have you ever deleted a file from the Recycle Bin only to find out that you
really needed it?
The whole idea of the Recycle Bin is that it's just a temporary storage area
on the way to the big dustbin in the sky. Normally, when you want to remove
a file from the Recycle Bin you double-click the Recycle Bin and drag the
file to your desktop.
How the Recycle Bin works
Once you've emptied the Recycle Bin, however, it's more difficult to recover
deleted files. To understand what's happening, you need to understand how
Windows deletes a file. Windows doesn't actually delete the data the moment
you hit Delete. It merely modifies the file's entry in the catalog (the file
allocation table) and makes that space available for any other program or
file that wants to use it.
If you delete a file and empty the Recycle Bin but decide shortly thereafter
that you need the file back, it's often possible to recover it. To do this,
you need to use a file recovery utility to restore the catalog entry.
FAT vs. NTFS
One thing you need to know before any files are recovered is the file system
your computer is using. The two types of file systems currently in use by
Windows are FAT and NTFS. FAT stands for "file allocation table" and comes
in two varieties: FAT16 and FAT32.
FAT32 is an updated version of the old FAT16 system that is more efficient
and supports bigger hard drives. A computer running Windows 95, 98, or Me is
capable of formatting only a drive using the FAT (16/32) file system.
NTFS is the other type of Windows file system. NTFS stands for "NT File
System" or "New Technology File System." The ability to format a hard drive
as NTFS is found in Windows NT, 2000, and XP.
To recover deleted files from your system, you must use a file recovery
utility designed for your computer's file system.
Here's how to find out which type of file system you have:
Double-click My Computer.
Right-click any hard drive and choose Properties.
On the General tab, the file system is listed after "File System."
Your main Recycle Bin is probably on your C: drive. However, if you have
more than one hard drive or partition, you might have a separate Recycle Bin
for each one. So if you have Windows NT, 2000, or XP, you may have a
combination of both NTFS and FAT32.
One option for rescuing deleted files is File Rescue by Software Shelf. It
supports both FAT and NTFS. File Rescue searches for all the deleted files
on your system. Clicking the "undelete" button recovers the deleted files.
Another great solution is a freeware program called Drive Rescue by
Christian Grau. It supports FAT, but its NTFS support is incomplete. The
interface is not as simple as is File Rescue's; you have to specify what
directory the deleted files are in. However, Drive Rescue is just as
effective in recovering deleted files.
Christian Grau's website also has a utility called Digital Image Recovery
for recovering deleted files from digital camera media (e.g. CompactFlash,
Memory Stick, SmartMedia).
If the data has been overwritten, however, and if that space has been reused
by another file or program, it's pretty much impossible to get the file
back. So, if you act quickly and you don't install programs or add more
files, chances are pretty good that you'll be able to recover your file.
However, if it has been some time since you've emptied the Recycle Bin, the
chances for recovery are poor.
These undelete programs will, at least, look for the file and give you some
idea whether you have a chance of recovery. If only part of the data has
been overwritten, you may be able to recover the rest of data. If it's a
text file, that might be enough. If it's a picture or a word processing
document, however, recovering only a portion of the data probably won't do
the job.
Remember to back up onto other media (CD-R, Zip, floppy) often to save
yourself the headache of restoring your files.
General Recycle Bin tips
Right-clicking on the Recycle Bin and selecting Properties lets you turn off
the confirmation for deleting an item. It also lets you adjust the capacity
of the Recycle Bin and choose whether you want the Recycle Bin to work
either by drive or globally for all your drives.
If you hold the Shift key down while deleting a file, it will bypass the
Recycle Bin and automatically and permanently delete the file. Be careful!
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