Recuva…
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Occasionally there are things in this world that do something amazing but you have to ask yourself, “Where the heck did they come up with that name?” For me, that one was Recuva. I couldn’t stop pronouncing it re-curve-ah. I didn’t know what it stood for, but then it dawned on me: Recover. Recova’. Recuva. Ahh, I get it now.
But really, that’s neither here nor there. What IS here and there is the fact that Recuva will find and recover files that you have deleted. Let’s talk about how it works first.
Delete? Not quite.
In real life, if you wanted to get rid of information, you can toss it in your trashcan and take it back out if you find that you shouldn’t have thrown it away. On you computer you can do the same thing by throwing files in the recycle bin on your PC. At any time, you can restore things in the recycle bin to the original location.
In real life, if you empty your trashcan into the dumpster out back, you could still get your information back, but it might be incomplete and you would most likely need some special equipment to get it back (rubber gloves, a gas mask, some boots). On your PC, you would need to get Recuva. Although you can’t see any records of your file being there any longer, it is actually still there and will be until that area of your hard disk drive gets over-written.
Recovering? Maybe.
As I said, the information, although not showing up, is still there, but you need a little luck and a little skill to be able to recover it. Some things that will help you be lucky are:
- A large hard drive – having lots of space to write new information means the location of the deleted file is less likely to be over-written.
- Infrequent programs – if you information is in an area used by a program that doesn’t write many files, you will be better off.
If you can manage to have these two things in your favor, Recuva may be able to help you out.
Simple to attempt? Definitely.
Head over to the site and download Recuva. Once again, it is free, but if you use it and recover some files. Please show your gratitude by donating to those who put the time and effort into making such a great program. If you aren’t a fan of the Yahoo! toolbar, be sure to uncheck that box during install.
For most uses, Recuva includes an easy to use wizard that should recover most of the boneheaded deletions that most of us make on a day-to-day basis (mp3s, pictures) as well as the gut-wrenching accidental loss of documents after a crash of Microsoft Office or the formatting of a camera memory card.
The types of files are very well explained in the wizard:
In the next step, you are asked for a location. The main thing this will do is speed up the search and exclude files from areas of your computer that you know you don’t want to look.
The last thing you need to do is determine if you want to do a deep scan or not. It will take longer, but it will also piece together information that may otherwise go unnoticed if you do a regular scan. I would recommend a simple scan followed by the deep scan if you don’t first run through.
Now all that’s left is to see if your files are found.
The scan I ran took less than a minute, but I would imagine deep scan could take many hours. It may also depend on the size of your hard drive and the type of file you are searching for (numerous small files will take longer to scan than few large files).
The standard information given is a preview of the file plus the file name. You may notice the ‘Switch to advanced mode’ button near the top right corner.
When you click it, you are presented with a list view as well as green, yellow, and red circles. These circles are an indicator of recoverability. You can find more information on the to the right side of the window.
From this screen, you can also permanently and securely delete any files which you don’t ever want anyone to be able to recover in the future by right clicking on them. This would be very helpful if you are getting rid of your computer and you have tax documents or other personal data that you would prefer didn’t get passed around.
What’s the worst thing you’ve ever accidentally deleted? Ever felt sick to your stomach when all your vacation photos vanished into thin air? Let me know in the comments.
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