[Kith-Kanin]

Ok here's what happened. I was messing around with classic start menu and I put my entire music directory into the start menu thinking that having shortcuts to my music through start menu would be nice. However I didn't realize that these weren't actual shortcuts (like everything else usually is in start menu>all programs, and eventually I didn't like having the shortcuts there as everytime I moused over it took ages to load, so I deleted the "shortcuts".

Much to my surprise I ended up deleting over 10 gigs of mp3's. I have tried using all types of file recovery programs (d/ling them onto my seperate HD so as not to overwrite any possible information, however; I can't seem to find my mp3's anywhere.

Any ideas? I'm really at a loss, thanks.

edit: I'm using winXP, and NO I did not have system restore turned on as I was dealing with some virus problems a few weeks ago.

Edited by Kith-Kanin, 12 May 2005 - 11:13 PM.

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Hope you didn't empty your recycle bin :

Recycle Bin overview

Hope this helps.

Ron

[Major Payne]

Hope you didn't empty your recycle bin :

Recycle Bin overview

Hope this helps.

Ron

[Major Payne]

Know you tried one recovery program, but see if this one is better :

Recover4Allhttp://www.recover4all.com/

Try to use the PC as little as possible until you recover your files. Especially installing/uninstalling new programs. The more you do this the better chance you have of your HD tracks being over written where your music files were since they are now available. Your files should still be there depending on how long and what you have been doing with your PC.

Ron

[Kith-Kanin]

Hehe if only Recycling Bin could FIT 10gigs of information friend, then perhaps your suggestion would help. As it is, it wouldn't fit it.

I ended up buying the license for a program and I seem to have gotten back a majority of the songs. Unfortunately a lot of them are fragmented but I guess thats what I get for being stupid.

[flip]

thanks for your post. Yep, I just did the same thing.. I don't think we were 'stupid' - maybe just ignorant.

I did have a restore point just hours prior to my deleting mishap - but that did not work to restore the mp3s.

I used recover4all and it found the massive amount of mp3's I accidentally deleted by sending the 'shortcut that wasn't' to the recycle bin. Unfortunately, it kept giving me an error message TD2. I discovered I would have to purchase the program for $70 if I wanted to recover anything over 10kb.
Well, the mp3's were free downloads.. not worth the $70. But, I learned a valuable lesson that NOT EVERYTHING YOU PUT IN THE RECYCLE BIN IS RECOVERABLE..... for free.

I did learn there are over 4000 deleted files still in my system!

Edited by flip, 14 May 2005 - 10:19 PM.

[Major Payne]

Try this one, it's suppose to be freeware ;

PC INSPECTOR™ File Recovery 4.x is a data recovery program that supports the FAT 12/16/32 and NTFS file systems.

PC INSPECTOR™ File Recovery 4.x is so-called FREEWARE. This means that the software does not cost you a single penny.

All you have to do is go to our download area to download the latest version of PC INSPECTOR™ File Recovery 4.x.

PC INSPECTOR™ File Recovery 4.x cannot help if you have mechanical problems with the disk drive. If the hard disk is no longer recognised by the BIOS or is making unusual noises, you should contact the specialists, "CONVAR - The Recovery Team". They will certainly be able to help.

Let me know if this gets them for you.

Ron

[flip]

Major Payne (very cute) - downloaded the PC Inspector. It did not find ANY deleted files. Have you used this before? There is a place where it asks to choose a logical drive - If I ask it to rescan a warning comes up saying:
" This will clear all lost drives that have been found from the list! Are you sure you want to do this?"

Well, uh, no I'm not sure. I do not have another hard drive to load this on (just my C) - so I loaded it there and thought it would find something even if it had overwritten some of the deleted files - but nothing at all came up. Might be missing something but it seemed pretty straight forward.

Only change I made was just prior to doing the scan I disabled the indexing options (just finished reading xp tweaks link on g2g about this). Don't know if that would have changed things -but still think it should have found SOMETHING since prior scan with Recover4All showed me 4000+ files. ?????

[flip]

Major Payne (very cute) - downloaded the PC Inspector. It did not find ANY deleted files. Have you used this before? There is a place where it asks to choose a logical drive - If I ask it to rescan a warning comes up saying:
" This will clear all lost drives that have been found from the list! Are you sure you want to do this?"

Well, uh, no I'm not sure. I do not have another hard drive to load this on (just my C) - so I loaded it there and thought it would find something even if it had overwritten some of the deleted files - but nothing at all came up. Might be missing something but it seemed pretty straight forward.

Only change I made was just prior to doing the scan I disabled the indexing options (just finished reading xp tweaks link on g2g about this). Don't know if that would have changed things -but still think it should have found SOMETHING since prior scan with Recover4All showed me 4000+ files. ?????

[flip]

While on the subject.. do you know of a freeware that will permanently delete the thousands of 'previously deleted' files on my system?

And..by doing that do I run a risk of damaging something??? My thinking is if I previously deleted it...on purpose.. I don't want it on my system.

Thanks again.

[Major Payne]

While on the subject.. do you know of a freeware that will permanently delete the thousands of 'previously deleted' files on my system?

And..by doing that do I run a risk of damaging something???  My thinking is if I previously deleted it...on purpose..  I don't want it on my system.

Thanks again.

I never have had a need to recover any deleted files...yet. Possibly the tracks may have been over written, but you would think the program would have found something. It's free and I like free. Sorry it didn't work for you. The longer you use your PC, the less chance you have of recovery.

As to the above question, are you asking from a security standpoint? Do you want your files shredded? If you have Spybot's Search and Destroy on your PC, you can use the File Shredder that's available. Think you have to use the Advance mode of S & D to get the Tools tab to show. I open Explorer to my HD and find the folders/files I want to shred and just highlight either the whole folder or a series of individual files then drag and drop them into S & D's window. Click the button and they shred as many times as you've selected.

There is a data recovery service I know about that charges about $250+ if they recover data from a disk, but I'm sure most people haven't got something that important on their HD. File deletion even after "emptying" the Recycle Bin is not a sure thing as it can be recovered with the right recovery tool. Same if you use Shift+Delete sequence. Best is to shred files to begin with. If you are disposing of a HD with sensitive stuff, there are several utilities that will safely delete data. Then you can smash, burn, staple and mutilate HD.

Ron