How to receover deleted files thru Recuva

Saturday, June 27th 2009 was not a good day for me.

In addition to existing tensions, I had accidentally permanently deleted the important notes to accounts file on which we had worked for almost five hours on Friday – late into the night. The option was to sit on Sunday or Monday whole day redoing the file. And PWC would not have helped. I got an ultimatum: “Amcha resource hyavar basnaar nahi.”

So I decided to try to recover the deleted file. And here’s my method and account of recovering the deleted file.

1. Even before you want to undelete any file you should have the software installed! I tried three recovery software which were undelete, Pandora, and Recuva. Please use Recuva.

2. We all know for a long long time that when we permanently delete any file, what really happens is that the reference entry of the physical location of the file on the disk is deleted and the physical location becomes free for overwrite.

3. So when you try to recover any file your laptop becomes a Crime Scene. And you a CSI Agent.

4. Refrain from doing any activity while trying to recover a file. This is like stepping on evidence at a crime scene.

5. When you are opening any file, what really happens is Windows creates a temporary file. And if it not your day the file to be recovered will be over-written! Surfing also means storing web-pages. So is mail download. So is practically almost anything.

6. But if you do not have the recovery software installed, you have to take your chances – find the Recuva download site and download it on a flash drive! This is what worked for me. Install the software on the flash drive and not on C drive. If you do not have a flash drive store it on a drive other than on the one where the deleted file was stored.

7. Run the software – it tells you what all files can be recovered. If your luck is in you will be able to see the file and the recoverability condition. Mine was not in.

8. One thing about all recovery software is that it tells you which file partially overwrote your deleted file. I think this is “rub-the-salt” information… L

9. By now everyone in the world (including my family members) knew that I had deleted an important file.

10. I heard somewhere “the true measure of man is not when he is strong, but when he is at his weakest.” J and I was at my weakest concerning file recovery.

11. So I did the last thing I could do. I ran a deep scan. It was frustratingly long and the chances of recovery were remote.

12. I noticed that there were lot of temp files which could be recovered ani ithey mazhi tube petli. As I told you earlier, every time a file is opened in reality a temp file is created. When a file is saved this temp file overwrites the original file and the temp file is deleted.

13. So I tried to recover the temp files. What helped was the file type – Word which I was recovering. The time file was modified. Time created is useless. The file I was trying to recover showed a 2006 date of file creation. This is the day on which the file first gets “created”. And MOST IMPORTANTLY the file size. I knew my file size was around 650 KB.

14. So I could recover the notes to accounts file modified at 10:32 pm and it was exactly the latest file. :)

15. A word of caution though. Not all temp files can be recovered. They are most likely to be corrupt. I had tried to recover 3 files. The other two were badly corrupt.


So this is how I recovered the file in two hours. Hope you do not have to go through this anytime. But anytime you need my help, you know I am always there to help!