Good file recovery software alone is not enough to ensure that you recover most or all of your deleted files. There are some things you should do in between the time you realize the files are missing and before you actually recover them. Before starting data recovery, the most important step is to immediately stop using the machine.
In order to emphasize this point I will explain a bit about data recovery basics and the Windows operating system. In very basic terms, to the file system, a file consists of two parts. The first part is an entry in a file table that tells the OS things like what the file’s name is, and where its data is located. (This entry contains a lot more than that but this is not a deep discussion on OS's). The second part is the data itself, which, usually, is not stored in this file table entry. (It can be if the file is very small and it is an NFTS file system.)
When you delete a file, you do not actually remove the data from your computer. You are telling the file system that the file entry is free, and the space occupied by the data is also free. The OS marks the space as available for new files. It is possible that the OS will choose to write to that entry the next time it creates a file.
If you start a recovery process before Windows uses those parts of the hard drive to write a new file entry, or overwrite the data, you can copy the data consisting of the old files to a different hard drive. It is imperative that you copy to a different hard drive as there is a huge chance that if you copy the data to the same hard drive you will overwrite the data you are trying to recover.
As long as Windows is running, it constantly generates a lot of 'temp' files. If it does overwrite the file entry, the software can no longer determine what was stored there, or where the data to that file is, and the file can not be recovered.
If the drive where the file was deleted is a system drive (has the OS on it), you should, if possible, hook that drive into another machine as a secondary drive. This will greatly reduce the chance of windows overwriting it.
If it already was a secondary drive, you are in better shape. Once the drive is in a position where it is not the OS drive, you can download the software to ANOTHER drive (never write ANYTHING to the drive with the deleted file) and run the software from the other drive.
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Now you can scan your drive and, if you can see the files, you can recover them. ALWAYS recover them to a drive other than where they were deleted. Remember, the OS thinks the space this precious data occupies is free space, meaning it can and will write to it if it chooses. This will cause the very data you are trying to recover to be corrupted.
If you have lost data, and wish to minimize the chance of this happening again, there are a few steps you can take.
BACK UP AND VERIFY ALL IMPORTANT DATA AND RE-INSTALL THE OS.
One of the best methods of guarding against data loss is to partition your physical hard drive into three separate partitions:
- Partition 1 for the OS
- Partition 2 for your data
- Partition 3 for windows temp files, etc.
If you keep your swap file, hibernate file and temp files on a single, separate partition, the chances of data being IMMEDIATLY overwritten are greatly reduced. Keeping your data on another partition also helps this out a lot.
Remember: Do not defragment a hard drive.
When the OS defragments a HDD it moves files to a new place. It does not move deleted files and can easily overwrite their contents while moving things around. Remember, when you delete a file you are creating a hole where the data used to be, and defragmenting fills in these holes (read corrupts deleted data). If you have auto defragging tools, TURN THEM OFF. If the accidentally deleted file was crucial for the OS, and the computer wants you to format the drive, do not format it. The rest of the data may be fine, but the OS just can not see it. Recovery software and or recovery labs can still get the data back. If the drive was nearly filled to capacity, this can also increase your chances of the data being overwritten before you can recover it.
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