Finding Deleted Files

Alright, my sister accidently deleted some pictures and for some reason her recycle bin was set to "remove the files immediately" instead of actually going into the bin. My question is there is a folder (hidden or not) that I can go to to view the deleted files. I'm trying to avoid using software to find the deleted files because she lives about 25 mins away and want to avoid driving down there. Please help!!!!

nope, you'll need to use software. May i suggest using something like netmeeting, or remote desktop to connect to her computer and do it over the net? I do it all the time for my sisters, grandparents, etc. Just watch out for firewalls if you decide to use netmeeting, make sure all yours are down and just have them call you.

I'm actually already remote connected right now. The only software I have at the moment is "easy recovery pro" and I would have to install it on her computer but it's a 30mb file that can't be emailed for some reason.

Uh...NetMeeting can't recover deleted files, although you can peek into someone's computer remotely with it.

Deleted file recovery in NTFS is very possible, especially immediately after the fact, and there are lots of utilities out there that can do it. This is because, unless you say "securely delete these files", the operating system simply deallocates the space rather than zeroing it out. (*nix based OSes are another story, especially ext[1-3], which keep track of things in such a way that make recovery of a file extremely unlikely.) Unfortunately, I can't recommend you a specific one that I've had direct, personal experience with. (My job doesn't deal with that currently, although I'm sure we'll come across a need for it someday, so I will watch on with interest.)

Capitan Newbie said:

Uh...NetMeeting can't recover deleted files,

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twoeyes was suggesting to remote to his sisters computer and use a recovery program because she lives far away.

As for recovering files, yes its possible with something like Easy Recovery Pro, but if you cannot email it looks like you may have to take the trip.

You could just remote in, download a freeware utility while remoted in, and run it like that.

I just had this problem today. I used this.

http://officerecovery.com/freeundelete/index.htm

The only thing is, if she doesn't have 2 drives the info she is recovering could be overwriting the unrecoverd data.

I always recommend "Data Recovery Wizard" which had succeeded for me. You can see the more info about this program via http://www.easeus.com. And I wanted to share but also wanted to make sure that I didn't stray from the forum rules.

innervision said:

I'm actually already remote connected right now. The only software I have at the moment is "easy recovery pro" and I would have to install it on her computer but it's a 30mb file that can't be emailed for some reason.

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transfer it via aim or msn messenger. Many email systems have a limit to the file size that can be emailed for obvious reasons

Would it be best to install whatever program is used onto a seperate drive? Or else it just might install over the memory locations of whatever was deleted?

Trombe said:

Would it be best to install whatever program is used onto a seperate drive? Or else it just might install over the memory locations of whatever was deleted?

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It's very possible that *any* modifications to the system's state could cause the recently freed allocation units to be overwritten, so AVOID any of the following:
1) Shutting down
2) Launching applications
3) etc.

Windows is very write-happy with respect to its filesystems.