Recovering deleted files

[XTERMIN8OR1]

Are there any good free programs that can recover deleted files on a hard drive?

Thanks in advance.

[Toucan]

That depends on how deleted is deleted.

If you have just deleted it ten minutes ago or have just reformatted then its easey
If you are trying to recover some thing that was deleted a while ago, then it could have segments overwritten by other files by now
I recomend using ontrack software, but its not free

[Garrec]

When I formatted my computer, I saved everything... except all my savegames. So I tried searching for some free undelete software, most are trial versions and will only undelete files up to 64k. You can easily find lots of programs like these by some simple google searching. I did manage to find one that could undelete up to 100k, but I can't remember it's name at the momemt.

But, as already stated, if the drive was used, your files may have been overwritten depending on the situation.

[Toucan]

Just get warez or ares or some other peer to peer program.
There are heaps of recovery tools, all full versions as well

[TimP]

Just get warez or ares or some other peer to peer program.
There are heaps of recovery tools, all full versions as well

*Cough* Keep it legal here.

[XTERMIN8OR1]

I managed to find a free program called PC Inspector Smart Recovery, but it has restrictions on which kind of files it can recover. It cannot, for instance, recover .XML-files while the files I want to recover are of this type. For now I am using it to find other kind of files.

The files I want to recover have been deleted since a few months. Is it possible they can still be recovered? I did not format my hard drive.

Do deleted files still have a certain kind of file name? Can I search for a deleted file (by using the right software) if I gave it, in example, the name 'Whichever.XML'? I know that when files are deleted their extension is gone, but does their name (in this example 'Whichever') remain?

Does anyone know about better file recovery programs that meet my requirements?

[Neo]

You might search over @ sourceforge.net for "file recovery" or something similar.

As odd as It sounds, I have always found really kickass programs there.

-Neo

[Toucan]

If you have formated your drive then when you recover your files they will no longer have any name at all, they will still have file extensions.
They will look some thing like:
whatever1.xml
whatever2.xml
.
.
whatever12764.xml
the name will be determined by what ever software you use.

Edit: PS.If you write and delete and install/un-install often, it is unlikely you will sucsesfully recover much, if the hard drive has been pretty much left alone then I dont see why it cant be recoverd.