Can you recommend an undelete program?

[Thorz]

Hello

I prefer to be safe than sorry. I have used Diskeeper's Undelete http://www.undelete.com/undelete/undelete.asp and OO unerase http://www.oo-software.com/en/products/oounerase/index.html, both look like very strong products.

This is the kind of product that I want to use (that keeps the deleted files on a special folder until some days have passed or until I flush them, Windows Recycle Bin is not an option because it is very unreliable) isntead of a product that tries to recover without garanteeing 100% undeletion and I am on the process of deciding which protection product of this kind will win my money.

Before I decide I would like to read your opinions about which is the best undelete product on the market? I appreciate a lot your collaboration. Thank you.

[Balderstrom]

Windows Recycle Bin is unreliable? Are you on crack? Stuff in the recycle bin isn't even deleted, it's basically just been given a flag, so that the files don't display in filelists.

And for times when I actually have deleted something I didn't mean to,(clearing the recycle bin, or shift-delete by accident), then I just run PC Inspector File Recovery - a free utility.

I've used Norton's Recycle Bin protector and found it a major pain in the azz. I can't imagine the two you list are any less of an annoyance.

[Thorz]

Windows Recycle Bin is unreliable? Are you on crack? Stuff in the recycle bin isn't even deleted, it's basically just been given a flag, so that the files don't display in filelists.

And for times when I actually have deleted something I didn't mean to,(clearing the recycle bin, or shift-delete by accident), then I just run PC Inspector File Recovery - a free utility.

I've used Norton's Recycle Bin protector and found it a major pain in the azz. I can't imagine the two you list are any less of an annoyance.

Believe it or not, Windows Recycle Bin is unreliable. Not everything gets into the recycle bin after deleted. I have done tests, specially when things are not deleted with Winexplorer, it doesn't always catch files deleted by programs like word, games, etc. Sometimes it does, others it doesn't. The advantage with a program like Undelete is that it offers you much more than the recycle bin, it offers f.e. file "versioning" if that's a word. It gives you the possibility to recuperate a prevous version of for example an excel document that have been saved several times.

Thank you for naming PC Inspector. It is a handy utyl.

[Stance]

Hi Thorz
Freeware Data Recovery Tools at snapfiles.com.
PC Inspector File Recovery, PC Inspector Smart Recovery, Restoration
Please read the user opinions for the last mentioned.

Total Commander Wiki:
Shell extensions and addons/Restoration

If you don't want that everybody on your PC can recover each of your deleted file:
Freeware Secure File Deletion at snapfiles.com.

Forum:Using external secure erase programs

Kind regards
Stance

[Thorz]

@Stance: Quality post m8, thank you. I had already checked the forum and wiki and saw some of that tools. They are really helpful, but none of them offers the advanced features of the shareware ones mentioned above.

Due to my work I am downloading lots of stuff from diferent sources must of the time, my pc is doing this almost 24/7. This means that in the event of accidentally deleting a file there is quite a high probability that the space that the file was using is taken by one of my downloading processes that are constantly writing to the hard disk. In that case the utilities mentioned would not garantee me a 100% recovery of the deleted file (or folder).

Thanks a lot for the helpful input until now.

[Stance]

Hi Thorz
like Balderstrom mentioned, deleted files are "flagged" by Windows with: "Can be overwritten".
I don't know a cheap tool that can restore overwritten files.
Shareware Data Recovery Tools at snapfiles.com.
Maybe you could configure the size/place of your Windows Recycler in the Registry?
Take care not to erase files with a recovery tool by accident, they will be "secure" erased in most cases.

Kind regards
Stance

[Sam_Zen]

Recovering wiped files : Scavenger.
Prevent recovering files : the packer-plugin of TC called 'Wipe'.

[Thorz]

Hi Thorz
like Balderstrom mentioned, deleted files are "flagged" by Windows with: "Can be overwritten".
I don't know a cheap tool that can restore overwritten files.
Shareware Data Recovery Tools at snapfiles.com.
Maybe you could configure the size/place of your Windows Recycler in the Registry?

Hi Stance.

That list of shareware was awesome. Thanks, that site has made it to my links collection.

There are several files that never make it into the recovery bin, that's why it is not reliable. For example:

Earlier versions of Microsoft Office files
Files too large to fit in the recycle bin
Files created and deleted by certain applications
Files deleted from the command line

I have decided to install Undelete. This one is definitely the kind of program that I was needing. Thanks a lot for all the help.

[majkinetor]

@ Torz:

Nothing is wrong with Windows Recycle been. Except it doesn't remember view settings.

All things you said are not in Windows domain. Devolopers didn't do it correctly. They should use special Windows API function to send files to Recycle Bin. They can also choose not to do so in which case you get what you got. For console there are freeware utilities which will delete to Bin, but simple del or erase will not work. Also Norton Recycle Bin will catch deleted files in console but I don't recomend Norton to anyone.

The best tool for me is Active@ Undelete.

Also, this kind of tool are not worth a dolar for me if not truely tested. I recomend "try before buy" on this topic.