Some files have been erased accidentaly

[pperen]

After cleaning by CC Cleaner some files in one of my directories have been erased that shouldn't have been erased. Now i can't find them and undelete of officerecovery can't restore them (doesn't even show them). Any idea how I can restore these files? The had unusual attachment names like . gpj and now have gone.

[Augeas]

Try running Piriform's Recuva. If possible use your pc as little as possible, download and run Recuva to/from a Flash drive, and recover any found files to the flash drive as well.

[Ishi]

You said you tried to restore them using Undelete. Have you considered doing system restore??? That can hopefully recover some files that were accidentally deleted or even recover uninstalled programs that were still present at the time the restore point was created.

 

Please restore the system using System Restore to a time before you ran CCleaner. This will be your best bet.

[Augeas]

I would disagree, Ishi. A sys restore will copy many older files back to disk, overwriting much of the space which might hold the OP's deleted files. Sys restore does not particularly archive, and restore, data files, especially in XP. The best plan as I see it is to preserve the disk and use a deleted file resorer, such as Recuva or as you say Undelete (of which I have no knowledge).

[Ishi]

I would disagree, Ishi. A sys restore will copy many older files back to disk, overwriting much of the space which might hold the OP's deleted files. Sys restore does not particularly archive, and restore, data files, especially in XP. The best plan as I see it is to preserve the disk and use a deleted file resorer, such as Recuva or as you say Undelete (of which I have no knowledge).

Recuva or Undelete (which I have never used) won't work anyway if the files have been overwritten. If a system restore point was just made recently, it will probably not restore as much older files.

 

Windows 7 has by far a better restore system. You can restore individual folders rather than the entire system so you have the option to restore only the folder where this important data that was deleted was being kept. Perhaps if he is using Windows 7, he has a much better chance of recovering them.

 

Recuva does have an option to deepen the scan of course but its unknown if the deleted data is still not fully overwritten or is still in good shape but he should try it though. Anyway, I have doubts about that since he is probably using that computer everyday, browsing the Internet and making new files, so there is a good chance that the lost files are being overwritten on the process and are being more unrecoverable by Recuva or this Undelete.

[Augeas]

Yes, what you say makes sense. I should perhaps have said try running Recuva before trying sys restore. I don't know much about Win 7 sys restore: I don't think it backs up all changed user data, don't you have to spec what user data is to be backed up?

[Ishi]

Yes, what you say makes sense. I should perhaps have said try running Recuva before trying sys restore. I don't know much about Win 7 sys restore: I don't think it backs up all changed user data, don't you have to spec what user data is to be backed up?

Well I have run System Restore on Windows 7 quite a few times and it was able to revert 2 of my programs to older versions that were there when the restore point was created but I have never tried the single folder restore. I will try to delete a picture in a folder containing but a few pictures and use the single folder restore process to see what goes on. This will be made as a test. Will keep you updated.

[Ishi]

Good news.

 

I deleted the picture from the folder named Environment, it was of course sent to the Recycle Bin. I emptied the Recycle Bin. Right clicked the folder named Environment and chose Restore Previous versions, chose a restore point, clicked Restore and the picture file was brought back to life inside the folder in less that a second!!!

[Augeas]

Indeed that is good, but what puzzles me is this from Microsoft's Windows 7 pages:

 

'System Restore affects Windows system files, programs, and registry settings. It can also make changes to scripts, batch files, and other types of executable files created under any user account on your computer. System Restore does not affect personal files, such as e-mail, documents, or photos, so it cannot help you restore a deleted file. If you have backups of your files, you can restore the files from a backup.'

 

My italics, as they say. I haven't dug too deeply as I am not on Win 7, and I have never run a system restore on my current install.

[Ishi]

Indeed that is good, but what puzzles me is this from Microsoft's Windows 7 pages:

 

'System Restore affects Windows system files, programs, and registry settings. It can also make changes to scripts, batch files, and other types of executable files created under any user account on your computer. System Restore does not affect personal files, such as e-mail, documents, or photos, so it cannot help you restore a deleted file. If you have backups of your files, you can restore the files from a backup.'

 

My italics, as they say. I haven't dug too deeply as I am not on Win 7, and I have never run a system restore on my current install.

Well I guess they have to re-write their sentiments.

 

I made another test. This time, I deleted all six pictures from the folder named Environment, emptied the Recycle Bin. Then I did the single folder restore operation again and all six pictures was restored. Here is a screenshot to show it.

 

http://i399.photobucket.com/albums/pp80/Bi...ng?t=1271149051

[Ishi]

To further support my sentiment above, here is a screenshot of a Help page in Windows 7 about Previous Versions. I have learned that it not only restores individual folders but also individual files.

 

http://i399.photobucket.com/albums/pp80/Bi...ng?t=1271149506

[Alan_B]

Two points

 

This started with

" ... some files in one of my directories have been erased ... "

 

Erased is a very "emotive" word.

It suggests to me that they were NOT deleted and accessible to Recuva etc.

but that "Secure File deletion" was used - in which case Recuva and the like may fail.

 

Secondly on XP, System Restore attempts to protect system files but not user documents.

Some things are both or neither - e.g. it cannot decide whether the latest Firefox cache should be over-written with the older one upon a restore.

Some files will be determined as System or User files based upon extension.

There is of course a registry key that will give a totally different ball-game.

Some files will be dealt with as System files or user files depending upon where they are,

but again there is a registry key to twist that as well.

 

System Restore subjects are determined by extensions, locations, and registry keys/values

 

With different versions of Windows "your mileage may vary" ! !

 

Alan