Recovering Deleted Files on PC

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Permalink Reply by John D on January 3, 2019 at 23:19

Have you looked in your recycle bin ?

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Permalink Reply by Peter on January 3, 2019 at 23:29

I have

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Permalink Reply by Jon C on January 4, 2019 at 0:00

As long as you haven't got any disk cleaning software (including Windows' own - it runs automatically with Win10) running, then your data may be recoverable. I downloaded a piece of freeware called "Pandora Recovery", and it retrieved quite a lot of stuff. You do need to be patient, however, as it fails to recover the actual file names in most cases, so you have to sift through its results to make educated guesses as to what might be the right file/files. And, like everything, it is not foolproof especially if the delete was not recent (other things may have already overwritten the deleted data). Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Emma on January 4, 2019 at 4:59

Paul a local It guy has helped me out. And he works remotely so can do most things Over the phone 07920 008092

good luck! 

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Permalink Reply by Peter on January 8, 2019 at 12:01

Thanks John D, Jon & Emma,

I am currently testing several types of software that are free to download and search, and will pay for retrieval if one of them finds the missing files.

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Permalink Reply by AndrewAW1 on January 8, 2019 at 13:37

The first thing is to stop using the PC and clone the hard drive, including the empty space (or use a different PC). If you're downloading and installing new software on the machine with the deleted files there's a reasonable chance that some of that new software will overwrite the deleted files.

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Permalink Reply by Peter on January 8, 2019 at 16:16

Great advice, Andrew - thank you!

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Permalink Reply by Oisín G. on January 10, 2019 at 23:49

To put it bluntly, I don't think the files are retrievable. 

When you save something on your computer, your computer puts it on the storage and keeps record of where on the storage it is. When you delete something on your computer, instead of the area on the storage being wiped, the computer simply forgets where the file is, and so it basically doesn't think anything is there. This is why deleted files can sometimes be saved: the location on memory may be partially overwritten - 

https://petapixel.com/2013/04/23/photographer-thankful-to-laptop-th...

however since it has been a week (at the time of writing) and my assumption you have used the same computer since, the files will be lost. 

You can think of it as library shelves. If you put a collection of books into the shelf you will remember where they are. If you decide to 'delete' them, you will just ignore their presence. You will push new books into the shelf and let the 'deleted' books fall out the other side. 

Best of luck, though. 

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Permalink Reply by Peter on January 11, 2019 at 14:53

Thanks Oisin,

I guess (know) that you're absolutely right. However, in the meantime, I've struck lucky.

The folder I lost was on my desktop before I upgraded the PC from Windows 7 to Windows 10,

I thought I had backed the folder up, but hadn't, and no recovery software so far has found it on my backup HDDs.

However, I found a folder on the upgraded PC under "System", within the "Windows" folder, called "Windows.old", which contained a backup of the C Drive, including everything I had on the desktop before I upgraded.

So, I have retrieved the "lost folder.

Many thanks again to all of you!

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