It is an odd feeling to look back twenty years and remember some of my first computers. I had an Apple clone with a huge 40 meg hard drive. My first PC used 5 and ¼ “ floppy disks. And my first Windows equipped PC ran Windows 3.1. All of these shared one particular fault. There was no reverse gear. When you made a mistake and deleted a file you simply had to live with it.

Many people are still of the mindset that once a file is deleted it is irretrievable. Yes we all know how to rescue files from the recycle bin or the trashcan but what of files that are deleted bypassing these safe guards? A quick right hand mouse delete and most files are wiped off the Earth. And when one uses a cut action that data is lost as well. Of course the most popular way to lose files is to empty the recycle bin without giving it a quick once over. Finally we lose files when we uninstall no longer wanted programs and needed files are attached to these programs.

Those are all the most common ways to delete files. And for each of them there are ways to undelete files. Yes we can undelete files just about as easily as we delete them. To begin with one must realize the process to undelete files is not fool proof. If a file has been over written or subject to fragmentation it is far more difficult to recover. Also the factors for a successful undelete data recovery can depend upon what type of file system was used to store the file in the first place. Some systems erase all traces of a file’s existence. However most files are eligible for undelete.

Windows files are stored on either a FAT system or an NTFS system Data stored on both of these systems is almost always recoverable. FAT or File Allocation Tables were the primary Windows hard drive division system until the creation of NTFS segmented hard drives.
When attempting to undelete files in a Windows storage system the undelete will be successful provided the file is not drastically overwritten with new data. Consider that deleting a file does not actually remove the data saved. It merely labels the space allocated for that file as available for rewrite.

All of the major computer operating systems have simple file storage segmenting systems and as such if one purchases a tool for the express purpose of scanning such a system any file that is not overwritten can be found and restored. There are programs to undelete any file on a Windows application including those used in Vista. The Linux superblock system is supported for undelete. Even the new solid state Mac drives can be delved into to find accidentally deleted files. Quality undelete programs allow the user to target the exact kind of file lost and speed the rescue immensely.

When we discuss the need to undelete files one should definitely look past the requirements of or PC hard drives. Thanks to the recycle bin on Windows and the Trash used for apple applications we are able to rescue a large percentage of our errors. True we still need undelete software for those situations detailed above. But the greatest need for a program to find and recover deleted files falls in to the area of simple data storage as used in flash drives, USB drives, SD Cards, MMC, Firewire and Zip drives. These storage systems, most of which are solid-state include no failsafe design.

When we accidentally delete digital photos from our smart card they are very deleted. These files can easily be rescued using an undelete program but as is almost always the case we must use the undelete program before we overwrite the card.
Obviously data stored on large external hard drives is not placed into a temporary storage container for later retrieval. These drives are prime candidates for undelete need.
Popular Zip drives also fall into this category. Even those flash drives that we use to store personal information can have files restored to original condition using undelete software.

Not all deleted files contain top-secret proprietary information. In fact most files needing restoration are just contain simple personal entertainment. Still when one has taken the time to download onto their MP4 player a hundred videos one sure doesn’t want to lose them due to an accidental deletion. And those vacation photos of the entire family on holiday are in their own way priceless. A quality undelete program will recover lost data from ipods, Zune players, and pretty much any music player made. That same program will scan for and locate lost photo files on smart cards as well. Very rarely is data lost forever. There are undelete file programs available for general purpose usage as well as file recovery programs built for specific applications such as recovery of RAW files form high end digital cameras. Regardless of your need there is almost always a way to undelete a file.