I have been trying to recover files deleted from the recycle bin. I can only find files about 6 months old, nothing newer. I have taken no action to deliberately hide files or scrubbed the disc. I am using Vista home premium
Are you saying that you can't find the files you want under 6 month's old or that you can't find any files under 6 month's old?
If the former then you may be looking at old edit copies, etc. The Recycler renames deleted files as $Innnn and $Rnnnn. The $R files are the data component and may have more recent dates. They keep the same file extension so this can help in locating these files.
If the latter then this is possible (but unusual) if you do a lot of updates or downloads to your pc. Entries in the MFT are used sequentially from the start, so a significant number of files downloaded could overwrite many recent files. (After updating to XPSP3 - some time ago - I ran Recuva and had three files found, so it can happen.)
Sorry for my lack of clarity. I generate a new file called TEST.doc, delete the file then delete it from the recycle bin. Then I run Revuva looking for files which have been deleted from the recycle bin, the file is not there. There are no files newer than about 6 months.
Are you running the Wizard and selecting Recycler? That could explain the only old files found.
The create a new file, delete it and then look for it with Recuva test usually fails, for the reason I stated above. The new file, using the first free slot in the MFT, is very vulnerable when it's deleted to being overwritten very quickly. I find that if you open Recuva and run a scan, then do the create/delete file business, then scan Recuva again there's a good chance of finding the file. I've just run a test and Recuva finds files deleted individually from the Recycler under their correct names. I have found files from the Recycler before that have been renamed. There must be some circumstance where the renaming by Windows is not reverted under final deletion, but I don't know what that is at the moment.
Thanks for your interest but I'm still bemused. If I run Recuva using the wizard an selecting "other" followed by recycle bin there are files with a last modified date 19/07/2011 or older but nothing newer. If I scan the whole drive without making the recycle bin selection many other (e.g. temp internet files) but the ones which originate from the recycler are still older than 19/07/2011. Having made this statement I sometimes find newer files but the process is not repeatable. If I find some newer files and run it again it goes back to the same date.