some light reading, HIH

Windows Tip: Get Back Deleted Files

It may not be too late to rescue deleted files after you've emptied your Recycle Bin.

By Call for Help staff


Have you ever deleted a file from the Recycle Bin only to find out that you really needed it? On today's "Call for Help" Chris Pirillo is going to show you how to rescue files or programs once you've removed them from the Recycle Bin.

The whole idea of the Recycle Bin is that it's just a temporary storage area on the way to the big bit bucket 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.


File Recovery Software

One option for rescuing deleted files is File Rescue ($29.95) 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. You can download Drive Rescue from this site.


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).


Recovery Limitations and Tips

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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