undelete

It's a rare Windows user who has never deleted the wrong file. But the data you delete isn't really gone until you overwrite it, and even then it's sometimes possible to recover the data without expert help. Undelete 360 is a free tool that can recover deleted data from your hard drives, USB drives, floppies, and digital cameras. It can recover files that have been deleted from the Recycle Bin as well as those too large for the Recycle Bin that have been deleted directly by Windows. Of course, there are no guarantees your data can be … Read more

It's all too easy to delete critical files accidentally, though viruses, uninstallers, and running programs can also delete data you'd prefer to keep. When you delete files and folders in Windows, they go either to the Recycle Bin or, if they're very large, are deleted directly, bypassing the Recycle Bin. But deleted data isn't really gone until it's overwritten, and even then it's sometimes possible to recover data. While forensic labs use expensive equipment and software to recover deleted data, there's a free tool that can recover deleted data from hard drives, flash … Read more

When the iPhone originally launched, it brought with it a new way of doing voice mail.

No longer did users have to dial a random number to listen to each voice mail played back, all the while interacting with a computer voice. Visual voice mail allows you to skip the voice mails you don't want to listen to, and get to the messages that are truly important. One small feature of visual voice mail is the ability to restore deleted voice mails. … Read more

FinalData Standard Demo by AOS Technologies America automatically recovers files that have been accidentally deleted from your Windows PC. It will also perform more complex operations, including recovering data from damaged Master Boot Record files, directories, file allocation tables, and hard-drive partitions. It works with all Windows files systems from FAT12 to NTFS as well as most portable media, including floppy, ZIP, and Jaz drives, so it supports legacy formats and hardware. It has some nice extras, too, such as the ability to place files in password-protected folders to prevent them from being accidentally deleted or deliberately tampered with.

FinalData … Read more

Over the weekend, I accidentally deleted all of my MP3s. Using SHIFT+Del, I wiped them from my hard drive without stopping at Go or the Recycle Bin. After running to go get the dunce cap, my initial reaction was to pull out the iPod and copy them back over. In some ways it would be the easiest solution, but it wasn't the most elegant. Wouldn't it be easier if I could just restore all those files to their original locations?

Recuva, from the makers of CCleaner, scans your drive for files you've deleted or damaged and … Read more

I've been raving a lot lately about the importance of backing up, and it seems I still haven't done enough to get my point across.

Case in point: since my most recent backup-related post, I have received multiple e-mails asking how to retrieve files that have been accidentally deleted.

The right question is: Is it even possible to retrieve lost files? And the answer is, it depends. Once you have deleted a file (and even emptied the Recycle Bin), the information from the file is still on the hard drive. As long as the same spot of hard disk hasn't been used by another file, it's possible to get that file back. So, the earlier you try to recover, the more likely it is you will be successful.

Note that during a normal operation, a computer does a lot of writing to the hard drive, because it uses hard drive space as scrap notes for different computations. If you need to recover a lot of data from a main hard drive, where the operation system is installed, it's best to put that hard drive into another computer to do the recovery.

There are many software applications that can recover data, and I was given the opportunity to try out the new 3.0 version of Undelete Plus Tuesday. This is the update to the free version of Undelete Plus 2.93, which can be found at Download.com.

Compared with the free version, this update's new interface is much easier to use.… Read more

How many times have you deleted a file, emptied the Recycle Bin, and then had that sinking feeling in your gut. You need one of those files. Or maybe you just had a hard-disk crash, and suddenly all the files have disappeared.

I'll tell you how to recover your files, and show you how to do it, in this video.

For this example, I'm going to use a USB drive. But the same thing applies to most data drives. If your disk is still readable by the computer, you can recover all kinds of cool stuff.

See when … Read more