Recovering Deleted Data

[GimpyFuzznut]

My hard drive on my second computer is partitioned into two drives. I tried using Partition Magic to merge the two partitions and long story short, the second partition got nuked. Right now, the first partition is fully intact while the second partition is marked as unallocated space. I've tried to turn this unallocated space back into a second partition but none of the data that was originally on it is there.

As far as I understand, hard drives don't physically remove the data from the disk when you delete/format files. It marks the space as empty until it needs to be used and then the old data is written over... or something along the lines of that. So it is possible to recover data that has been deleted/formated. I've tried using a program named Easy Recovery Professional and it deleted almost all the data on the unallocated space, but due to the program being a trial, I was unable to actually restore any of it.

So can anyone recommend a program that works well for recovering deleted files? I don't mind paying for it as long as it works.

 

[dmk11]

I used getdataback by runtime software (www.runtime.org) and it worked flawlessly everytime. They have two version: FAT and NTFS. You can download the trial version so you can see if the files are there or not. But if all you did is delete the partition, I'm sure it's all there.

 

[Zepper]

Yes there is a program that seems to be highly regarded on the forums here. It is R-Studio as mentioned below...

Boilerplate-02:
Data Recovery-
. If your drive isn't physically damaged perhaps one of the following will help:
Lost & Found from PowerQuest (the Partition Magic folks). They don't make it any more, but I have seen it listed as "In Stock" here: MSBCD . I've used this to save the bacon for myself and others several times. Be sure to download and install the updates from the PQ web site before using. They would have sold a lot more if they hadn't tried to limit its use to one computer and their protection scheme so easy to circumvent .
. This next is relatively new and even seems to be able to recover data from fragged RAID 0 drives... R-Studio . The software has several versions - one for just the file system you are using and the big package which works with several file systems.
. You can DL a demo which will tell you what R-Studio would be able to recover--so you can see what you would get before you plunk down your $$$s (I just DLd the demo myself for insurance <g> ). Can't beat that!
.bh.

 

[techietam]

As Zepper mentioned, there is R-Studio available but you
will only need R-Undelete.

If your FS is FAT32 then it'll cost you $25. I had to pay $55, since I have NTFS
but let me tell you one thing... I'd pay $300-$500 for this program without
a second thought, since it's recovered digital pictures that couldn't
be replaced any other way.

Just download the demo version from that page and see if it can recover your files.

 

[jmatt]

http://dos.li5.org/downloads/rec.htm
http://home19.inet.tele.dk/svolaf/utilities.htm

I have never seen ANYTHING like this particular freeware device driver. While only weighing in
under 2k, and taking up about 3-5k of memory, this little device driver scans your entire
drive for lost partitions, it then assigns read-only drive letters to them to allow you to
recover data.