Can a deleted directory be completely recovered?
This isn't a question only. It is a Windows 7 Pro problem also. Here is the problem. I have wrongly deleted directories. (This has ONLY happen to me when having worked with Windows 7 Pro.) Working in Windows Explorer, I choose a directory on the left pane then a file to be deleted on the right pane. Sometimes there were prompts asking for deleting conformation, sometimes there were not. Being not very careful, I even don't know what the prom has said, I answered "Yes". The results, in some cases, were dramatical - a whole directory deleted. Of course, I have tried recovering every time. And every time the results were the same: The big files (many GBs) were not recoverable. The small one - recoverable. So, it isn't ONLY my problem, related to let me say my carelessness. It is an Windows 7 Explorer Interface problem. It is Windows 7 problem also at least because it destroys the recovering information in such a way that even an Excessive search for many hours cannot find it. And the questions are: Is there any way to get the deleted directory back? How to attract the developer's attention to this problem? Thanks
June 5th, 2010 9:06pm

If this is a Windows 7 Pro problem, how come I have never experienced this phenomenon? I have two system with Win 7 Pro and this has never happened to me. All total I have five Windows 7 systems and none of them have ever done this to me. I've been running Windows 7 since January 2009. If you want to protect yourself in cases like this find a program like Undelete by Diskeeper that collects all your deletions until you empty Undelete. There are other programs to do this also. http://recuva.en.softonic.com/ is just one such tool.
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June 5th, 2010 9:36pm

I wouldn't like for you to experience all possible program bugs. Apart from my being careless not to inspect the prompt, although there was at least one case when a prompt was missing, apart from an User Interface that could lead to such dramatical mistakes, apart from these events happed to me only with Windows 7 Pro, no program I have tried could recover the big files although, the small were recoverable. (The deleting process has lasted milli-seconds and the recovering software has shown 0 sized files. That's why I guess some table has been destroyed.) So, it turned out there is something that need to be done and you have suggested one. Thank you
June 5th, 2010 10:16pm

Windows has never moved very large files to the Recycle Bin and I started using Undelete a few years ago. Before that I used Norton Utilites to recover accidently deletes files and folders. It happens to almost all of at one time or another.
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June 5th, 2010 10:32pm

Because this topic seems to me interesting I would add: It has happened to me to lose files and directories by not allowing Windows 7 to update the tables on the disk, for example by taking the drive out from a hot-swap bay. But they were recovarable. In a cases such this I have tried three or four different recovering/undeleting software without success for the huge files, which beside were much more important than recoverable small files. So, I don't believe Windows 7 intention is to punish such mistakes by making them unrecoverable. I think it is a bug in Windows 7 Explorer not only because one can see objects (directory and file) highlighted in both - the left and the right pane at the same time. And more over: These usually happen on a big volume drives (1 TB). I use a hots-swap bay for them. When I need to take them off the system's Device Manager almost every time needs to reboot the system so as the changes in the drive tables would be made safely (no running third party software during the shut down) even though a device has been used for reading only. In this case, I am talking about, such a dramatical changes have been done instantly. I don't think it is normal.
June 5th, 2010 10:55pm

When a file is deleted, the space it occupies is marked as available. If a small file is deleted, the chances that Windows will overwrite one of the clusters of that file is small. However, if a very large file is deleted, the chances of portions of that file being overwritten increase dramatically thus rendering it unrecoverable.
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June 6th, 2010 3:15am

Try the following and minimize your machines usage until you are able to run this app: Active Undelete from Active@Killdisk Miguel Miguel Fra / Falcon ITS Computer & Network Support, Miami, FL Visit our Knowledgebase Sharepoint Site
June 6th, 2010 3:29am

Open the properties of the recycle bin. Right click on it and increase the disk space used by the recycle bin for deleted files. That way large gig files will be recoverable from the recycle bin.
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June 6th, 2010 11:16am

Thanks for answering me. I'll try changing the Recycle Bin properties, although I can't imagine how some properties can hide and then show something that no recover/undelete program can't discover. With this post I'm trying to attract attention because these have happened to me many times - trying to delete a file and the whole directory is gone - instantly while for a hot-swap device, even used only for reading, the Device Manager needs restarting the OS. And then no software, including Active Undelete, can recover the huge files.
June 6th, 2010 5:30pm

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