recover deleted files on CF card

[Stephen Beesley]

The other day while deleting some stuff of my CF card, I accidently deleted the entire My Documents Folder 8O

Now I can survice with the backups of have, but there are one or two documents that I would like to get back if possible. I remember that long long ago there were a number of fairly simple free utilities that would search for deleted files and allow you to "undelete" them. However, my search of the web now only finds what seems like a thousand and one commercial solutions (many of which have demos that will allow you to see the deleted files but you have to pay to active the undelete function). At the risk of sounding like a cheapskate ( :D ) I was wondering if anybody knows of any freeware alternatves out there.

Oh year the CF card is has a FAT structure.

Any help/suggestions gratefully accepted...

[delfuhd]

8O you can do that? I wasn't aware that deleted files didnt actually "delete..."

[sylvangale]

You can try using a windows recovery tool on your CF card via a card reader.

I searched C-net and this came up:
http://www.winrecovery.com/undelete/?rid=google&kid=wu0401

Maybe the free trial will recover your files?

[Kaber]

I highly recommend Restorer2000 Pro which you can find here (http://www.bitmart.net/r2k.shtml)

[Darius Wey]

8O you can do that? I wasn't aware that deleted files didnt actually "delete..."

No. The same thing occurs on hard disks, although it's a lot harder to recover files from flash-based memory than it is from mechanical hard disks. Hitting delete only tells the OS that the file should no longer be accessed. On your computer, hitting delete only hides it from view, but unless something overwrites the area on the disk with which it was stored on, it's easily accessible.

[Mark Johnson]

I've had good results with R-Studio.

http://www.r-tt.com/

[Stephen Beesley]

I've had good results with R-Studio.

http://www.r-tt.com/

Looks like a very useful product - but with prices ranging form $49.99 to $179.99 ( 8O ) it is a bit rich for my blood...

I am starting to think I will just survive without the lost files, reformat the card and get on with life....

[Kaber]

8O you can do that? I wasn't aware that deleted files didnt actually "delete..."

No. The same thing occurs on hard disks, although it's a lot harder to recover files from flash-based memory than it is from mechanical hard disks. Hitting delete only tells the OS that the file should no longer be accessed. On your computer, hitting delete only hides it from view, but unless something overwrites the area on the disk with which it was stored on, it's easily accessible.

I believe what actrually happens is that the location of the file is deleted from the FAT (file allocation table). So the data remains on the disk it is just inaccessable as a file and the file system reads it as empty space. That is why there are programs that actually overwrite the file space to prevent recovery.

[Darius Wey]

I believe what actrually happens is that the location of the file is deleted from the FAT (file allocation table). So the data remains on the disk it is just inaccessable as a file and the file system reads it as empty space. That is why there are programs that actually overwrite the file space to prevent recovery.

That's right. I just decided to keep things simple.

As you said - there are programs that overwrite the file space to prevent recovery > And so there are also programs that retrieve it. ;)

There are also different forms of erasing - from a quick one-pass method to different methods that can go over the disk space many times to make recovery near-possible.

[PR.]

Windows puts (I believe) a ? infront of the filename "?Doc.doc". Hence the reason you can't use a ? in the filename.

[Mark Johnson]

I've had good results with R-Studio.

http://www.r-tt.com/

Looks like a very useful product - but with prices ranging form $49.99 to $179.99 ( 8O ) it is a bit rich for my blood...


They had a trial version. It was only limited in that the max file size was Xmegs or some such. If you are only tring to get docs back, they should be well under the size limit.

[Stephen Beesley]

I've had good results with R-Studio.

http://www.r-tt.com/

Looks like a very useful product - but with prices ranging form $49.99 to $179.99 ( 8O ) it is a bit rich for my blood...


They had a trial version. It was only limited in that the max file size was Xmegs or some such. If you are only tring to get docs back, they should be well under the size limit.

Ahhh - didn't see that. I will have a closer look when I get home tonight.

[KimVette]

I've had good results with R-Studio.

http://www.r-tt.com/

Looks like a very useful product - but with prices ranging form $49.99 to $179.99 ( 8O ) it is a bit rich for my blood...


They had a trial version. It was only limited in that the max file size was Xmegs or some such. If you are only tring to get docs back, they should be well under the size limit.

64K is the limit in the trial actually.

I've used R-Studio on both FAT and NTFS drives with 100% success. Whatever you do, stay AWAY from Stellar Phoenix. The product is lousy, does not perform as advertised, their support is inept, and their customer service is nonexistent.

$.02