HELP I deleted a Word document and I don't know my odds of find it

Recuva
1

I accidentally shift-deleted a word document that belonged to my boss. He was pretty pissed and I am still under evaluation meaning I am still new to the company.

I deleted the file

I uninstalled some useless IE toolbar

I installed 1 recovery program called Pandora Recovery (taking 4 hours to scan)

then I realized installing programs is a terrible idea

I ran Recuva at the same time but off of a network drive

first time it found the link paths to the file I was looking for but not the file itself.

and I played with the viewing options

Now I'm performing a deep scan (6 hours)

I'm really stressing out, this may cost my job.

Can anyone give me some more insight?

Is there an ultimate way to recover files? (is there such things are professionals who can recover stuff?)

What are my odds of ever finding it?

thanks

2

I don't know that there is an ultimate way. But these things may help. Besides the fact that you should never install files to the drive that you are recovering from (else the files that are still there may get over-written, since they are "deleted" but just not over-written yet).

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- Run portable Recuva from a flash drive. If you have 64 bit Windows, it would probably be faster running the 64 bit version in the portable folder.

- When you are running the scan, if you select documents, instead of searching for all types, it may be faster.

- When you are running the scan, if you select a specific location to check, it may be faster.

Example: You deleted a file off C:/My Company/Business Documents

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Instead of searching the entire drive, you could try searching that folder itself.

You may or may not find it, but it definitely would shave a lot of time off your search.

And if you did find it, it would be much faster than searching the whole drive, & searching for pics/music/docs/everything.

System Restore may be able to bring things back, but you need to be aware of the following first:

- Performing a system restore may remove newer files that were added after you deleted the word file. If none were added, nothing is lost by running it.

- If the file is in My Documents, I believe System Restore does nothing to that location. So, unless the file is NOT in My Documents, System Restore probably won't recover it.

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*** Better yet, why don't you google System Restore Explorer? You don't even have to run System Restore. You just use the utility to mount the restore points, & you can recover the files found inside the restore point. P.S. It's free!

3

Don't chop the deep scan! Unfortunately whatever you enter in the filter box will not reduce the scan time. All files are scanned and the filter applied after the scan has finished. You can change the filter parameters without rescanning.

You can sort the results in filename order by clicking on the filename column header, or you can enter part or all of the file name in the Filename/Path box (you need to be in advanced mode to do this). Chances of recovery are variable, if the file has been edited then there's a good chance of finding a recent edit copy. Word is pretty good at taking edit copies.

Whether sys restore is any use depends on your O/S. You probably won't find much in XP, but Vista and 7 are more diligent. I should tersevere with the deep scan first.