[bigdan]

Hi

I've erased some text and xml files from my computer about a week back, that I really need now. Is there a way to recover them?

Thanks
Dan

[VIII]

Unless they are in ur recycling bin.. No chance... unless your comp is part of one of those networks where EVERYThing is backed up

[drworm2005]

Have a look at this site, will this help.

Undelete

Drworm2005.

[furtivefelon]

well, here is a good place to google for software..

mmm.. well, when you pull something into recycling bin, and then clean from recycling bin, windows doesn't actually erase the file from your harddrive (it's very very hard to erase a file.. as you'll see later).. they just change the first character of the file into a special character, so that the windows can't see it.. and thus assuming the file and all it's associated bytes are deleted.. when you write stuff onto your harddrive, it will overwrite the sector where windows can't see the file.. so you can recover the files deleted a while ago (depends on how much I/O you have from the time you deleted the file to the time you want to recover it).. If you overwrite the sector once or twice, it's very hard to recover the full file.. depends on the file type, it's either useful or useless to recover parts.. for secure delete, you have to overwrite your data 7 times to render it completely unrecoverable. Even format a hard drive cannot delete the files.. with a boot disk and a recovery software (i used to know a very popular recovery software.. now i forgotten as i haven't recovered anything in quite a while..).. When you choose secure delete from norton internet security and such software, they will actually create random data and overwrite the sector several times to ensure actually deleted the files

try google "file recovery software", and try download.com for software names.. usually good quality software of this kind is very very expensive (200-600 at least.. some better software sells for thousands)..

[bigdan]

OK cool. Since it's msn chat logs Im trying to recover would it have something to do with opening it in a certain directory or what not? I know somestimes xml files are dependent on each other.

[bigdan]

I've downloaded a number of programs, recommended here and by other people. So far none of them have worked. They've all located the missing xml file (my msn chat log), but when I undelete them I get this strange message:




The XML page cannot be displayed
Cannot view XML input using style sheet. Please correct the error and then click the Refresh button, or try again later.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An invalid character was found in text content. Error processing resource 'file:///A:/surj_roops3877769168.xml'.




Is there anything I should do about this message? Or if I see this message after using a couple of the programs, would that mean none of them programs out there can recover it properly, or are some more effective than others?

Thanks
Dan

[NewCents05]

dunno if this will work but maybe system restore back a couple of weeks

[bigdan]

that sounds interesting. how does one do a system restore? what exactly is the purpose (ive heard of it but never in detail) and are there any possible consequences of doing so?

[NewCents05]

yes basically itll take it back to what state it was couple weeks back or however far back you want, this will include anything you downloaded installed etc in that couple of weeks youve done will be gone so i would back up those certain files. System restore can be found Accessories->system tools. It should give you some dates to go back to but make sure you have files backed up before you do this. Its usually meant for corrupted files and things so it can be restored to what it was at an earlier date

[pctech86]

system restore does not restore user files. the only files it restores are a set of core OS files and essential files. no documents or anything are restored. straight from microsoft http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../faqsrwxp.mspx