Data Recovery

This week I saw several cases of people deleting important files and wanting them back desperately (these things seem to come in waves). I discovered that all data recovery programs are not alike. I believed that they all could get basically the same stuff back but I found out that they must be able to recognize the type of file they want to recover before they can pull them back from oblivion.

The two recovery programs I've had the best luck with are iolo's Search and Recover http://www.iolo.com for the PC side and Subrosasoft's FileSalvage http://www.subrosasoft.com for the Mac (it recovered a composer's very important Finale files). Both of these programs scan your hard drive and list all of the files that can be potentially recovered. Then they reassemble the deleted file in a miraculous Frankensteinesk sort of magic way.

The best recovery happens when the file was recently deleted and no files have been saved since the file was deleted. In fact, if you delete a really important file the best thing you can do is shut the system off and call for help because the more you download onto your computer after you delete that all important file the lower your chances become for recovery. All this to say be careful with your deleting.

Ed Smit
Questions@JustAskEd.net