Doesn't find files

[markofkane]

I must be doing something wrong. I search for specific files that have been emptied from the recycle bin, and file recover does not find them.

What am I doing wrong?

I wanted to test it, and I created a text document called "f***" (expletive deleted)

I sent it to the recycle bin, then emptied the recycle bin. File recover could not find it.

I used "Deep Scan"

[markofkane]

It can't. Oh well. Good thing I got Norton Ghost 14 to recover files.:p :p

[AChen]

Hi Markofkane,

Recently created and deleted files are harder to recover than older files. This is because of how Windows is designed.

The Windows OS keeps an index of all files (both current and deleted files) in a Master File Table (MFT). When a new file is created and deleted, it is inserted into and freed from the 'beginning' of the MFT. Windows will then re-use that location from the MFT when it needs space for a new file, and always looks for "freed" space at the beginning/top of the MFT.

Windows will read and write from your disk all day long, for various background system activities. So when you delete a file, it is highly likely that the beginning index entry in the MFT is reused within minutes of deleting file and therefore not likely to recover.

File Recover will list all deleted files that are recoverable. It uses a special algorithm to skip certain non-recoverable files.

A deleted file that is corrupted or partially re-used by the Windows operating system will not be readable. This is not due to File Recover itself, but a factor of how the Windows operating systems will recycle part (or the entire content) of deleted files.

File Recover attempts to recover deleted files that remain intact on your hard disk. A percentage of larger recovered files will have missing header information, or be otherwise cross-linked or corrupted. There is no workaround for this issue.

[markofkane]

Thanks, I understand. The purpose was to take back a mistake of deleting something in the recycle bin, because I rarely ever lose files except when I delete them.

However, it is interesting to find out all the files that DO stay on the hard-drive, and I don't know how they got there.

I did not try to delete a file, bypassing the recycle bin. If it works, FR just is almost like a recycle bin of it's own.

Thanks. If I delete a file from recycle bin, it's gone? It seems so. ;)