HOME
Lesson 23 Recovering Files Deleted from the Recycle bin
|
Today I would like to share some quick tips on file recovery for your PC It's an all too common disconcerting situation: you decide to do some spring cleaning'digital style'by emptying out your Windows Recycle Bin. With the mouse you command Windows to trash everything in your bin. A few minutes later you're hunting around your hard drive for an older copy of a spreadsheet you need to work on, and then you realize the horror. You tossed it into the Recycle Bin, and now it's gone forever! Take a deep breathe and don't stress out. You may have recourse in a situation like this; you may be able to retrieve your precious data from oblivion. Many Windows users believe that once a file is deleted from the Recycle Bin, it's gone for good, not to be found again. This is what appears to be happening, but if you take a look underneath the hood of Windows, you may be surprised at what's happening. In actuality, when trashing files from the Recycle Bin, Windows doesn't erase your data from disk; it's still there, but it's hidden from your view, leading you to believe it's been entirely erased. Windows covertly 'marks' deleted files from the Recycle Bin, so the next time data needs to be written to your hard drive, Windows knows that it can completely erase the 'marked' files (data deleted from the Recycle Bin) with the new data. With this concept in mind, it becomes possible to recover the 'marked' files, retrieving what you once thought to be lost forever. Let's go over a couple techniques to prevent a data lose situation. Windows XP has a neat little feature built into Windows Explorer called 'Briefcase'. Briefcase is essentially an intuitive way to synchronize folders of files across two locations. Instead of working on files in one folder, and then copying over the entire folder to a new location each time you want a backup of it, Briefcase takes care of the synchronization task for you, quickly and easily.
So if you know you have a backup of your data somewhere, you'll be more confident of deleting extra copies of files, and deleting from the Recycle Bin won't produce anxiety. A good way to use the Windows Briefcase is to have one folder that you wish to backup on your PC's hard drive and a synchronized copy of this folder on a USB flash drive, completely separate from your PC's main hard drive. Knowing that you have an up-to-date backup of your data can certainly put your mind at ease. To use the Briefcase, simply open up Windows Explorer, go to 'File', 'New', and select the Briefcase option. Follow the Briefcase instructions that Explorer pops up in a dialog box. With a current backup of all your important data, you'll be able to easily recover from accidental data deletions. Now let's discuss a way to recover files that you've deleted from the Recycle Bin. How does one go about retrieving these files? There's a neat freeware tool called 'Restoration' that lists files that have been deleted from the Recycle Bin, allowing you to recover gracefully from your hasty deletion campaign. So, let's say you've just deleted a file you just realized you really needed from the Recycle Bin. Provided you didn't just write a lot of data to your hard disk, 'Restoration' may be able to find and recover it for you. 'Restoration' is very easy to use: simply select the hard drive that the deleted file resides on and press the 'Search Deleted Files' button.
If you know all or part of the file's name, type this in to aid in the search process. 'Restoration' isn't perfect; there were several instances where this utility couldn't find a file that I recently deleted from the Recycle Bin, but, for the most part, it seems to work great a majority of the time, and it's without any charge. You can download the latest version of 'Restoration' here: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html UNCLASSIFIED / FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Information contained in this document is designated by the Department of Defense (DoD) as For Official Use Only (FOUO) and may not be released to anyone without the prior permission of NHQ CAP and/or CAP-USAF. LINKS OR REFERENCES TO INDIVIDUALS OR COMPANIES DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN ENDORSEMENT OF ANY PRODUCT OR SERVICE YOU MAY RECEIVE FROM SUCH SOURCES. Copyright (c) 1993-2007 TSR Computers Inc. All rights reserved. For information on this website please email webmaster@mer.cap.gov
|
