What Happens When
You Delete a File There are few things worse than realizing that you need a deleted file after you have emptied the Recycle Bin or deleted it with by Shift-Delete. Luckily the files are not actually deleted immediately from your disk. Rather the entry is removed from the directory that Windows keeps for the disk, and the sectors of the disk where the files reside are marked as open for possible reuse. If you act quickly enough, your file can be completely recovered. Sometimes even after several days of normal PC use. A file can especially be restored if you have defragmented your disk just before deletion and not any time after it. The data remains on the disk and can only be truly permanently removed by a “data shredding” program which overwrites the file with random 1's and 0's. The government in fact specifies that sensitive files be “shredded” seven times before it is considered truly erased. Please note: Honestly the commercial software and services is the route you will sometimes have to take to recover your data (for deleted files this is only occasionally). That's not to discount the large number of high quality data recovery freeware generously given away by developers that you can see here. On those occasions that you try the freeware and it doesn't work, the software in these pages will appear not be worth the time and effort you put in and this can be frustrating. I try to point out at the top of each page, what I see is the likelihood that and difficulty with which freeware can recover your data. The Google Adsense Ads displayed on the pages should lead you to the standard commercial software and services available for the problem you are having. You can also reach a list of commercial links here. For commercial software always be sure to try the demos first to see if the program works before buying. Also the difference in prices for software that does the same thing, for instance recovering PowerPoint Presentations, can be a large range like in this case $50 - 299. If possible, try several software solutions before buying. For services, be sure there is a no data, no fee guarantee, and a recovered file preview available. If you need help, I charge $22 per incident. You can E-mail me at socrtwo@s2ervces.com. I sometimes do free work to gain experience and just be nice :-). See here for a more detailed explanation of deleted file recovery - http://aumha.org/a/recover.php. | 
