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How to recover previously deleted files in Windows

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Security Windows

This tutorial will guide you in using Restoration 2.5.14, a free program that can help you recover files that you may have accidentally deleted (and removed from/emptied the Recycle Bin).

  1. Get started by downloading Restoration 2.5.14. Restoration works in Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2K/XP on FAT 12, 16, 32 and NTFS file systems. When you run the file it will ask you to extract its contents to C:\Restoration, which is as good a place as any. With that said, you can extract the contents anywhere you want, just remember where.

    Navigate to that folder and double-click Restoration.exe.

  2. restoring files in windows

  3. Select the drive you want to scan (the default is C:) from the Drives drop down list. Then, click the Search Deleted Files button.
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  5. Sit back and watch as Restoration searches for files that have been previously deleted. Depending on the size and speed of your drive, how many files you’ve stored and deleted, it can take up to a minute to complete the scan.
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  7. And then you’ll be presented with a list of files that you can recover. On my 200GB C: drive, that I haven’t wiped clean in a couple of years, I was able to find 11,721 files that could be recovered.

    Side Note: that’s a LOT of files to be able to restore. This is another example of why you should use the Eraser utility to securely delete files.

  8. restoring files in windows
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  9. Use the search box to narrow down the files you want to restore. In the example screenshot below there were 2 Firefox cookie files, and one IE cookie file that I could have restored.
  10. restoring files in windows
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  11. You can also search for files by type – for example – enter in .txt, click Search Deleted Files, and all of the recoverable text files will be listed.
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  13. To restore a file, select it by clicking on it once, then click the Restore by Copying button.
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  15. You’ll be prompted to choose a location to save that (recovered) file to. Click Save when you’re done.
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  17. If you opted to save the file on the save drive that it was recovered from, Restoration will ask if you’d rather save it on another drive. Click Yes to save the file anyway (without changing the location) or No, to change the save location. Repeat as needed until all of the files you need to recover are restored.
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Posted in Security, Windows.

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8 Responses

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  1. Marc says

    you can also consider this website http://www.fileslost.com

  2. chula says

    fileslost.com works effeciently in recovering the deleted file, I just got my files back without paying anything

  3. Carolyn Babin says

    I tried to download the file Restoration 2.5.14 (free) that you have informed
    would rid me of the error messages telling me rundll modules are missing..
    And it would not complete the download saying it is not a valid Win32 file??
    What do I do now

  4. ato adam says

    I could not complete the download and run the programm saying it is not a valid Win32 file??
    what is the next step?

  5. Rada says

    thanks dude….its so cooL

  6. anji reddy a says

    i could recover using this site, without any fuss. thanks.

Continuing the Discussion

  1. Kefrotate.Com » How to recover previously deleted files in Windows linked to this post on September 28, 2007

    [...] wrote an interesting post today on How to recover previously deleted files in WindowsHere’s a quick [...]

  2. How to completely wipe all of the data from your hard drive - Simplehelp linked to this post on September 29, 2007

    [...] delete files, they’re not actually removed from your hard drive. Using data recovery tools, many files can be restored from the average hard drive. In fact, even after a hard drive has been formatted, data can be recovered from it. Using DBAN [...]



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