Deleted Files Recovery Made Easy

There are thousands of data recovery programs available online, but almost every one of them is flawed in one way or another. Some work well, but work so slowly that the actual time required to scan and recover files from a 100 gigabyte hard drive is over 168 hours. That is a full week. Other programs are faster but will only return a list of files found without the original file names. In place of the file names are labels and numbers such as generic file 001, generic file 002, etc. When you are looking for one particular deleted file in a list containing at least 250,000, finding your missing file becomes impossible.

Still, other programs will recover lost files with the original file names intact, but have no ability to sort the files into helpful categories such as documents, videos or zip files. Once again, this leaves you looking through thousands of files to find the one you lost. The final and perhaps worst flaw in most data recovery tools is that in the case of a crashed hard drive, they can only access the files on that drive by means of a separate working computer and cable connections. A better quality program has none of these data recovery tool flaws.

In contrast to the FAT file system the newer NTFS system is still the mainstay of computers running on a Windows operating system. This includes any computer using any versions of Windows XP and Vista. When we examine the area of NTFS file recovery we really are working with just two types of devices. These are internal disk drives and external Book drives.

NTFS is preferred for large drives due to it ability to be accessed more quickly. Still file corruption and damage from viruses seems to have no limits on which type of file allocation system it will attack. And when drives formatted in NTFS are locked due to lost or damaged files the solution is powerful NTFS file recovery software. Unlike many data recovery programs claiming that you must purchase a separate program for each type of data recovery you need, an advanced tool will recover lost files from computers formatted in NTFS or FAT. Even reformatted hard drives can be restored with better recovery programs.

Photo recovery software varies greatly in application. If for example all you need assistance with is to rescue some accidentally deleted image files then most file recovery programs will work just fine for you and you really don’t need a specialized digital photo recovery software program. But should you be using a high-end camera such as a digital SLR Canon or Nikon, you will need an equally sophisticated suite of photo recovery software.

It is recommended that before anyone invest in specialized digital photo recovery software that they try an all in one tool for recovery of lost, damaged or deleted image files on their computer hard drives or camera smart cards. In almost every instance the all encompassing program will work just as well for digital photo recovery as the more expensive program.

When we think of the need to recover lost files, we must bear in mind that, like anything else we lose, that which we have lost still exists somewhere just as if we had lost our set of car keys. They are not lost per se, we simply do not know where to find them. If the keys are lost in our home, we can usually turn the house upside down until they are located. If we lose our keys while walking along the beach, we will likely need a special tool such as a metal detector to comb the sand and find our keys.

The same principal applies when we want to recover lost files. Where and how we have lost our files determines what we must do to find them. If we simply need to recover deleted data such as an email, document or image file that was accidentally erased from a folder on our hard drive or inadvertently deleted from a flash drive or memory card, the solution is simple. All we need to do to recover deleted data in these instances is use a powerful file recovery program to scan the device our files were last seen on. The software is designed to recognize the structure of our missing files, replace the original file name and present them to us for recovery. If our files are lost and we have no idea where on a massive hard drive they may be located or if the files were lost due to reformatting, we may have to scan the entire drive. Some programs are designed for this type of complete scan file recovery as well.

If you have ever started up a computer, gone into a photo archive and discovered that important photos were mysteriously missing then this information will help you greatly. Photo files are usually stored as a dated archive. And as such many of the programs that store these files are time dated themselves so as to delete files when they “expire”. Not knowing this we leave our photos in these folders and are amazed when after a month our precious digital images are gone.

It is of course a required practice to resave image files to separate, permanent folders but once they have been automatically deleted it is too late for that. So how does one recover photos that have been systematically or accidentally deleted? You can recover digital photos easily by using a versatile file recovery program that can easily find and recover any deleted image files on your computer.

We use the term hard drive recovery to explain a process that has very little to do with the hard drive device itself. A more accurate term would be hard drive file recovery. Indeed, if the hard drive itself is not physically damaged yet cannot be opened by the computer’s operating system, the problem we are facing is the need to rescue valuable files that are locked away from us stored on the faulty drive. Once again, we note that the drive itself is not faulty, it merely cannot be opened. Hard disk crash data recovery is made possible by the use of specialty software designed expressly for this purpose.

Currently, the best hard drive recovery software available uses a PE type Windows OS. What sets such a utility apart from any other hard drive recovery program is that it loads and operates directly from the disk drive on any affected desktop or laptop computer. With this program type, computers on which the operating system will not load and Windows will not start can still be operated so as to access the failed hard drive area and recover any or all files it contains.

When we refer to what is known as a crashed hard drive, we invariably think of a clicking clacking smoking device hidden somewhere deep inside our computer. While this may have been true twenty years ago, today, a crashed hard drive is more likely the result of lost data and is better named as a logic crash. This means that files in your computer’s operating system that are needed to access the stored files on your hard drive have been damaged and will no longer allow your operating system to load. In what could easily be referred to as a “Catch 22″ scenario, the damaged files which are needed to access your hard drive are also on the hard drive itself.

A crashed hard drive usually manifests itself as a Windows error message set on a bright blue background. Should you see this message, it is almost a good sign, as it informs you that your computer is not physically damaged, it merely needs to have Windows reloaded. Remember, before you can reload Windows, you must use a program for file recovery to access the faulty drive and save your files to a safe external location.

In order to understand deleted file recovery, we must first take a look at what actually happens when files are deleted. Selecting a file and deleting it by either pressing shift and delete or emptying that file from the Windows recycle bin does not erase that file. The data on that file is not removed from your computer. All that happens when you delete a file is that the space used for that file is marked as available for rewrite. As long as that space is not overwritten with new data, both the original file contents and its name can be found and recovered. When examining the process of deleted file recovery XP operated computers the processes do not differ greatly than the steps required for deleted file recovery in Vista.

In fact, many file recovery programs offer the exact same software labeled as deleted file recovery Vista or deleted file recovery XP. Both of these operating systems use the Windows NTFS method of formatting. It should never be necessary to purchase separate programs for fast file recovery on different versions of Windows.

There are dozens of companies making quality MP3 players. And one can find just about any song ever recorded online. Indeed many songs can be had for free or a few cents. Others such as those listed on iTunes cost a dollar or more. No matter where you buy your music it all ends up stored on your player. MP3 players including iPods share digital storage technology. All of their songs are stored on a disk type or solid stare hard drive.
And as with any digital storage device, files can become damaged due to program failure or be deleted due to human error. Fortunately MP3 recovery on iPods and other music players can be easily accomplished using a quality data recovery tool. Such data recovery tools are extremely versatile and as MP3 recovery software work quite well. These amazing file recovery tools will access the digital storage area of any USB connected music player for quick file recovery.

We all know how to delete files. You just drag a file over to the recycle bin and drop it in. Then you empty the bin and the file is out of the way. Or if we can delete files directly using the delete key. Yes deleting files is easy… too easy. It is so simple to delete files and we do it so automatically that we often deleted files we forgot we needed. We also delete files accidentally by absent-mindedly clicking on delete instead of save.

What’s worse, sometimes our computer will malfunction and delete files all by itself! When this happens we all wish our computers had an undelete key sitting next to delete. There is no undelete key but there is a simple way to undelete files. That is to use software which will undelete files from any computer hard drive or any device connected to your computer. Those include large external book drives, camera memory cards, and even USB flash drives. Using a quality recovery tool could not be simpler. Just load the CD/DVD that you create into your computer’s disk drive and follow a few simple instructions. Within minutes you can undelete file information that was lost due to any cause.