Best (free!) recovery software to use after deletion of files

[ValiantSaint]

Hello everyone, it's me again!

I need some assistance, after a mate of my e-mailed me as has deleted some files by mistake, and was wondering how to get them back (If possible?) I do wish people would stop pestering me, due to my slightly better than average knowledge of PCs! Here's his e-mail:

Hi matey! I have accidentally deleted the public-shared videos folder from my WD MyBookLive 2TB drive (What a muppet, eh?!) I haven't written to the drive since so the data should be intact. I don't have the equipment I need to interrogate the drive, to remove any data, either (Hint, hint!)

Is there anything that can be done? Or will it have to go off to a data recovery specialist? (I have warned him that this might be the case......)

Will an attempted recovery help? Or could it destroy the data even more? How could he go about it? But a caddy etc?

Many, many thanks in advance

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Recuva is the one I see mentioned most often; get it for no charge here:

Piriform - Download CCleaner - Millions of users worldwide!

 

[ValiantSaint]

Cheers for the quick reply. Is there a correct way of using to recover the most files? Can you cause damage or loss if this program isn't set up correctly? Many thanks

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I'm not an expert on the program. I've only used it once.

As I recall, it's quite intuitive and easy to follow. You'll probably have to let it do a complete scan, which could take hours, depending on how much data is involved.

The important thing is to not write anything more to that drive. If you do, you risk over-writing files you could have recovered.

As long as your partition has not been damaged, you should be able to recover at least some files. You never know how many until you actually try.