Windows 7 Finding Deleted Files

[Cheemag]

Hello again,

No matter which undelete programme I try, not one of them will ever find a deleted file.

I copy a file to a directory on C: or D:, delete it and then empty the Recycle Bin. Whatever application I care to use, the file, which is very unlikely to have been overwritten, can not be found. No trace of it ever.

The undelete applications are on drive Z: so that running the undeleter should have no effect on drive C: or D: where the deletion has been done.

Is there something wrong with my discs, or is it the security app ? It worked in XP !

Regards

Cheemag

(Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Kaspersky Internet Security 2015)

 

[Josephur]

What undelete programs did you try, are you using an SSD, does it use/support TRIM?

 

[Cheemag]

What undelete programs did you try, are you using an SSD, does it use/support TRIM?

No, just ordinary SATA hard discs.

--
Cheemag

(Finally managed to log in after 3 password resets)

 

[Pauli]

Like we all probably know, deleting doesn't delete, there's questioning about whether Windows can ever delete anything properly or promptly. Seems like what you have put there, remains forever. Not sure, but a matter of security. Deleted files are, however, allowed to be overwritten.

I would ask like Josephur, "What undelete programs did you try?"

 

[Cheemag]

Like we all probably know, deleting doesn't delete, there's questioning about whether Windows can ever delete anything properly or promptly. Seems like what you have put there, remains forever. Not sure, but a matter of security. Deleted files are, however, allowed to be overwritten.

I realise that, and though I regularly overwrite the free space, these attempts at recovery were made within a minute of the file being (deliberately) deleted as a test.

I would ask like Josephur, "What undelete programs did you try?"

Just about every application available. Latest was Power Data Recovery. Not one of the many applications tried has been able to find the test deletion.

Regards,

Cheemag

 

[Neemobeer]

When you delete a file and "empty trash" the data is never really removed. The pointer in the master file table is removed which pointed to the data and marked it's area of the hard drive as in-use. Now if you tried to locate the deleted file immediately after with a decent recovery program such as GetDataBackNTFS you should be able to find it. This is never guaranteed since any write operation could potentially override the old file data or even just part of it.

 

[Cheemag]

When you delete a file and "empty trash" the data is never really removed. The pointer in the master file table is removed which pointed to the data and marked it's area of the hard drive as in-use. Now if you tried to locate the deleted file immediately after with a decent recovery program such as GetDataBackNTFS you should be able to find it. This is never guaranteed since any write operation could potentially override the old file data or even just part of it.

Iknow all that! However my recovery attempts are made immediately after making a test deletion (at the command prompt so that it doesn't go into the Recycle Bin).

I'll try GetDataBackNTFS, but I don't have much confidence that ANY recovery programme will work.

I'll also try recovery on the other (older) Windows 7 machine I have. A machine which seems to work rather differently to this one in many respects (probably due of its being 7 Pro as against this Home Premium).

Regards

Cheemag
.

 

[Cheemag]

Iknow all that! However my recovery attempts are made immediately after making a test deletion (at the command prompt so that it doesn't go into the Recycle Bin).

I'll try GetDataBackNTFS, but I don't have much confidence that ANY recovery programme will work.

I'll also try recovery on the other (older) Windows 7 machine I have. A machine which seems to work rather differently to this one in many respects (probably due of its being 7 Pro as against this Home Premium). .

Tried that: Sorry, your file was not found.

It worked perfectly on the Windows 7 Pro machine using exactly the same method of simulating the loss of a file.

Regards

Cheemag

 

[Cheemag]

Tried that: Sorry, your file was not found.

It worked perfectly on the Windows 7 Pro machine using exactly the same method of simulating the loss of a file.

Further to this saga: I successfully recovered a test deletion on the second NTFS volume, drive d:\.

So it's the C:\ disc that is the problemj.

Regards

Cheemag