undelete tool advice needed

[Marin85]

Hi,
I have just found out that I have mistakenly deleted an important folder (where all my pics are stored) without having made a backup of it Searching in google for recovery tools I found that Recuva and DiskInternals Uneraser were one of the recommended tools for handling such problems. What do you guys think of them, which one should I trust at most? Any other recommendations or advices?

Thanks in advance

Moron85

PS: I tried to minimize the disc activity as much as possible, but unfortunately that´s the only disc (incl. machine) that I can boot from.

[Zender]

In such case you probably need something that is small and does not need installation:
Restoration.
It may, or may not work, but should be worth try. Though you'll need at least some network or flash drive to store the undeleted files to.
Other option would definitely be the DiskInternals Boot CD.

[carbon_unit]

Do you have another computer to use? If so build the UBCD4Win disc. It is a live Windows boot cd with some good file recovery tools on it. You will still need a USB flash drive or some type of external drive to save the recovered files to.

[RealBlackStuff]

These undelete programs should not need another drive to save to.
All these programs do (basically) is restore the first letter/character of the file-name, thus recreating the link in your file allocation.
The file still occupies the same location(s).

The same goes for recovering a (sub)directory.

[GomJabbar]

I used a tool that worked wonders for me. This works with memory cards, but I'm not too sure about hard drives.

Smart Digital Card - Photos Lost?

http://www.datarescue.com/photorescue/

[Johan]

@ Marin85:

First: Stop immediately (if you haven't already, long ago!) using the PC with the drive where your deleted files are! The more disc activity, the higher the probability is that some files (swap file?) will overwrite your deleted images.

I have very successfully used GetDataBack for NTFS on a number of occasions , but it cost money... If we were closer, I would be happy to send you my bootable CD - that should do the job, if it can be done. An alternative free program which I have also used previously (until I got "GetDataBack for NTFS") is Hiren's BootCD 9.6 which includes: "Active Uneraser 3.0: To recover deleted files and folders on FAT and NTFS systems". I haven't used it long though, so I will neither recommend it, nor the contrary.

More data recovery programs are mentioned on the page Hard Drive Data Recovery.

Good luck with getting your files back!

Johan

Moderator edit: The Hirens boot cd contains copyrighted software and is illegal. The links have been removed. Please do not mention Hirens again.

[Marin85]

Thanks all for your real-time replies, I greatly appreciate that! Now some update on the story:
1. The good news is that I have deleted the folder from the backup drive, not from my main drive, so I could successfully reduce disk activity.
2. This made me think that I have cut the folder from the main drive and pasted it onto the backup drive instead of having copied it (ctrl + x instead of ctrl +c). Then I must have deleted it when I tried to make a new backup of that folder as I needed to free space for the new one.
3. However, this doesn´t make any sense because if the folder hasn´t been present, how could I have added new files and hence have to make a new backup
4. The answer: Unfortunately, this isn´t some kind of schizophrenic question as the real cause for the whole @$%&/:. hassle turned out to be quite surprising. The folder in question was the default picture subfolder in the main user folder (e.g. Marin). As it was now missing (due to having been deleted) I created a new one again called Pictures. It was successfully recognized by Vista (Vista even changed the icon and added the default shortcut to "sample pictures"). To my surprise the same folder suddenly appeared on the backup drive in the ultrabay. Then I made a little experiment deleting that folder and the result was that the Pictures folder in Vista main user folder disappeared as well. I guess this experiment explains how my pictures had disappeared...
5. I have no explanation for that as I don´t use any sync software (not even M$ briefcase), just plain copy-paste.
This was the bad news. But the worst news is that using trial copies of recovery software like what was needed here in real-life situations (i.e. not for experimental purposes) is a very bad idea. For it would restore the files, but only the unlocked version would allow to save the restored files (anywhere). And since in most cases this kind of restoration is only one way, so I totally screwed up the restoration of anyway low-quality rests. I wish I was more careful regarding trial limitations.
Anyway, looking at the scan results and the theoretical abilities of each tool I was particularly impressed by PhotoRescue as it even allows to restore an image from "pieces" and by DiskInternals Uneraser tool. Boot CDs weren´t an option for me since the ultrabay is occupied by the HD in question.

Thanks for all hints and recommendations and hope my experience will help other lost souls

Marin


PS: I don´t know what to expect from Vista next...

[RealBlackStuff]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

For some mysterious reason My Documents seems to work fine everywhere for documents etc.

But my suggestion is:
never EVER store any files in the Windows-designed My Pictures or My Music folders.
Windows wants to make thumb print files of the images, and do all sort of weird and wonderful stuff with music files.
By keeping images and sound out of the screwy M$-loop I have saved many a headache.

[aaa]

There's PC Inspector File Recovery...

[Marin85]

never EVER store any files in the Windows-designed My Pictures or My Music folders.

RealBlackStuff, thanks for the advice! I namely have my 120 GB of music stored on a different partition but still under My Music (I have changed the "point to" option). If anything happens to it, it will kinda hurt... So, I´m gonna move the whole music collection out to prevent anything like with My pictures happening ever again...

Cheers

Marin