Have you ever accidentally deleted one or more valuable files when you have been doing a tidy up on your computers and then watch that file disappear before before your very eyes never to return? Maybe you deleted the wrong photo off your camera or perhaps an important e-mail on your computer?
I know I have been caught in this situation before and that sinking feeling in your stomach is simply awful not to mention the scrounging around for another copy of the file in your digital world. Of course, backups are handy things but when you create files since the last backup then you can be in a real world of pain.
So what can you do?
There’s a great little application called Recuva (pronounced “recover”) that you can set to work to find your lost files and the easy to follow wizard makes it a piece of cake.
Recuva (1 - File Type)
Recuva (2 - File Location)
It’s a two step process before you let Recuva loose to go and find your files. There is also the option for a deep scan if previous attempts to find your files have failed.
What is most important is that you stop using your computer the instant that you realise you have deleted something you need to get back. The reason for this is when you delete files from your hard drive or a device, the space itself is not overwritten but the allocated space in the file allocation table is marked as being unused. During the time between space being marked as unused and the time you can scan that space for a lost file, other disk activity could overwrite that space for new files.
Hopefully, Recuva will be one of those things that you will never have to use but will prove to be invaluable in those rare instances where you need to get a critical file back from the ether. It’s free and available for Windows.
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