[evilfantasy]

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Most recovery programs work in much the same way. You need to select the disk where the lost files are located and let the program analyze the content of the disk. Then select the file you want to recover and provide a location where you want to save that file.

Install a data recovery program just in case!

Be prepared beforehand

Installing any software after data loss will increase the risk of the lost data being overwritten. A recovery program installed now is good insurance for your data.

Free recovery software

• Free Undelete
• PC INSPECTOR File Recovery
• PC INSPECTOR Smart Recovery - Specializes in flash card/drive recovery.
• Recuva - From the makers of CCleaner
• Undelete Plus
• Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier - Great for recovering files from scratched CD's or defective floppy/hard disks.

Commercial recovery software

Commercial recovery software will increase the chances of recovering important data. It's not free but can be well worth the price.

• Active@ UNDELETE - Has great reviews with demo results before you buy
• DiskInternals Mail Recovery - Recover and repair Windows email! (Demo)
• OfficeRecovery.com - Data recovery software for email, databases and office productivity
• PC Tools File Recover
• Recover My Files - Has great reviews with demo results before you buy
• Stellar Phoenix Digital Media Recovery

What to do

Use your system as little as possible until you recover all of your lost files.
The more activity taking place on your hard disk, the greater chance that some of your lost data will be over written.
If you are trying to recover files from a media card, stop using that card immediately.

• Turn off any applications you don't need.
• Because they will write to your disk don’t launch any unnecessary programs.
• Avoid browsing the web.
• Don’t restart your computer.
• Don't do a disk defrag or run a disk cleaner.

After the recovery

• Check that everything correct.
• If you’ve recovered applications, check that they still run.
• If you’ve recovered documents, check that your words are still there.

Even the best recovery software can’t guarantee 100% results. Some parts of your files may have been overwritten, meaning that other data was saved to that location on your disk.
After recovery they might contain invalid information. Depending on the type of file involved, partially recovered files like this can be usually recovered by commercial software.

Prevention tips

Make backups

The first and most reliable way to avoid accidental deletion or other forms of data loss is to make regular backups of your important files. User error isn't the only way you can loose important data, photos, schoolwork or projects. You can experience a sudden power outage or power surge or even a dead hard drive.

Note: In case of hard drive failure, don't keep your backups on the same drive you are backing up. Use another drive or burn them to a CD.

There are also free and paid online storage sites. A few offer up to 5GB of free space and include sharing.

Note: With any free storage site read the fine print. Some allow larger amounts of space but they limit uploads per month (1GB or less). In other words you can't get large files uploaded all at once. The free sites listed below have had no upload limits that I have noticed.
Also note that with free storage you need to sign in once and a while. If not then they may purge your account to due to inactivity. Below are just a few.


Free online storage

• Mp3Tunes.com - Unlimited free storage of your music collection
• MyOtherDrive.com - Store up to 5GB of files
• Windows Live SkyDrive - Microsoft 5GB free
• Xdrive - AOL 5GB free

Commercial storage

• Carbonite.com - Backup your entire hard drive automatically
• GoDaddy.com - Paid plans, as low as $5.99 a year for 50MB, sync between multiple computers
• IBackup - Anywhere from 5GB to 300GB of storage

Free backup software

• Cobian Backup
• Karen's Replicator
• SyncBack

Use a Power Strip/Surge Protector

Be sure you have a reliable Surge Protector. These can be found at most retail stores and come in many varieties. Do some comparison shopping and pick the one that suits your needs. These are invaluable, not only to your data but to all of your computer components.
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[Dave Hybrid]

Excellent as ever, thank EF!

[serverguy]

Very well written. Lots of useful information about the free recovery software too.

[evilfantasy]

Since finishing the guide I was inspired to search for anything I may have missed and ran across a few articles about the KNOPPIX Linux distribution CD. This bootable CD has the ability to mount and read FAT, FAT32 and NTFS partitions, even damaged ones. If your hard drive crashed you can use this to recover your data and back it up on a portable drive or another hard drive.

The recovery tools from the first post should work for recovering files, but if you have a damaged hard drive and can't afford to pay a professional then this may be well worth the reading involved.

Go to Computer First Aid Using Knoppix for VERY indepth instructions about how to use KNOPPIX to recover lost data.

Learn about and download KNOPPIX at KNOPPIX.org

Also see Cew27's How to recover files from windows using a linux live cd

[serverguy]

It sometimes works for data recovery but both times I have had someone try to use it on this forum it has failed me..

Those instructions you link to are good. They are a little old but still very usable.

I think it is worth burning a disk so as if you have a problem with Windows you can stick it in and sort things out quickly.

[evilfantasy]

Thanks serverguy. I wasn't about to read all of that without absolutely having to. Hopefully I never will...

[serverguy]

I have some instructions for getting hold of Knoppix and burning it to a disk I wrote one time.... I will try and dig them up.