Recover Lost Data Files

Do not install any large files or software. Doing so may overwrite the data that you are trying to recover thus losing it forever.

Do Not format the drive on which you are trying to recover data. This will wipe your data away for ever.

Live CD Data Recovery

If you've used Linux before you probably know what a live CD or DVD is. For those not in the know a Live CD at it's most basic form is a self contained operating system contained on a CD or DVD. The most common form of Live CD usually contains a linux distribution. The best uses for a Live CD are for troubleshooting a corrupted file system or failed operating system boot up.

When the computer won't boot from the hard drive you can set it to boot from the DVD drive. The live CD is inserted and the computer is booted. If all goes well the Live CD will boot up and you will have access to your ailing hard drive. If the drive hasn't totally self destructed you can copy all of your data files over to a new hard drive that you have installed. This doesn't work on deleted files but you can get yourself out of trouble by testing the hard drive and maybe repairing it if the fault was caused by an electrical surge or some other interference causing corruption on the drive.

For some really cool live CD's try these:

Slax A very neat and user friendly os.

Knoppix Can be a bit hard core but it is good.

Puppy Linux A very small os that fits on a thumb drive.

These things are great for getting you out of a bind. For the nerdy type you also have the capability to transport your favorite os on a thumb drive and have all your files and programs on the one drive which is a snap to backup simply by copying the files over to another drive. Another interesting site that you may want to look at for this is Portable Apps. Take all your programs and data with you. To backup simply copy the whole lot over to another drive.

When you delete files normally from a computer's hard drive the computer actually only deletes an entry from the File Allocation Table or FAT. The FAT is a database of every single file on your computer and where it is on the hard drive.

The file is still there but the space that it is residing on is available for programs to write over. If your computer hasn't written over that newly created space you can still actually restore the file with this software.

This goes for hard drive failures as well. Usually it only takes a few bad sectors to make the hard drive unusable by the operating system. But once you replace the hard drive, install a new operating system and this software then plug in the old hard drive it may still be possible to recover lost data files on the old hard drive. This can provide excellent peace of mind.

Restore My Files feature highlights

• Recovers files instantly from hard drives, floppy drives and other types of fixed media. If you are a home user or a network administrator, Restore My Files fills a critical gap in your data protection strategy.
  
• Rapid scan engine - a typical hard drive can be scanned for recoverable files within minutes.
  
• Scan all files and directories on selected hard drives.
  
• Search for a recoverable file using part or all of its file name.
  
• Utilizing a non-destructive, read-only file recovery approach. Restore My Files will not write or make changes to the section of the drive from which it is recovering data.
  
• Batch file recovery (recovers multiple files in one action).
  
• Works around bad-sector disk areas. Recovers data where other programs fail.
  
• Supports standard IDE/ATA/SCSI hard drives, including drives larger than 8 GB.
  
• Supports hard drives formatted with Windows FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS file systems.

Thanks, I managed to retrieve my very important documents back. Many thanks for an excellent piece of software
Regards,
- Patrick Raylings
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Thanks -- the product seems to be doing the job; I'm VERY relieved.
-Sahil Patel
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Wonderful software!!!
Add google-ad on your site so we can click on it for a return.
Thank you for the password unmask
- Arab
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I'm working now with this software.
The first files I have recovered. It's working very well.
Best wishes Clemens Urban from Germany
-Clarance Eyler
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Just finished using the product and it worked.
Thanks!
-Doug E. Logan
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I would like to congratulate you on your product. It is the only one I have been able to find that can read the damaged disk.
It recovers the directories and files on the disk.
Many thanks!
Greg Tranton