Recover lost files with Recuva

Sometimes people delete files when they don't mean to. This can happen to anyone. I've installed Recuva on the main file server in an effort to not have to deal with a restore from the backup tapes.

Recuva (pronounced "recover") is a Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!

Like all other Piriform products (including CCleaner), Recuva is free for both commercial and personal use.

This software isn't much more complicated than it sounds. If a person has deleted a file and lets me know about it as soon as possible I can usually recover it. If, however, the file has been deleted for a few days or longer there is a possibility that the system has written over that file during a defrag or other file write. The sooner you search for a deleted file the better your chances of a full recovery.

There's a nice Wikipedia article about Data Recovery here.