Have you ever known the anguish and desperation in losing something very valuable that you'd do everything imaginable (and unimaginable at that) just to have it back? Unfortunately, I have. And that was how "at-wits-end" it felt like when due to an unexpected behavior of an email backup software I have been using for quite a while now, all my personal stuff from the My Documents folder (keepsake emails, tons of painstakingly crafted VB apps and photos both from my trusty old SE P800 and, IMO the best bang-for-the-buck mobile phone, SE W800i), got deleted without passing thru the Recycle Bin! All these from just a backup utility supposedly at the forefront of email disaster. Truly a nightmare any self-confessed techie would want to wake out off. 
Good thing there was Undelete Plus. I've had this pretty small utility (only 526 kb - perfect for your USB first aid kit) for several months already and what a perfect timing it was to prove its worth. You may download the latest version (v2.7) here.
Where have all they gone?
I launched the executable (yup, no need to install and it runs perfectly on Microsoft Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003) and out popped an interface any non-techie newbie could figure out.
On the left pane are all your computer's drives, including flash-based devices if connected. Check the drive/s you want searched then click Start Scan on the toolbar just above to well... start scanning.
This small yet efficient tool supports all Windows file systems for hard and floppy drives including FAT12/16/32,NTFS/NTFS5 and image recovery from CompactFlash, SmartMedia, MultiMedia and Secure Digital cards.
The pane to the right would now show all recently deleted files - candidates all for salvation (that of being salvaged?)! The list contains all your basic information like filename, path and size and even tells you if it has a good chance of being recovered with its file integrity intact via the Status column. In my case, it took a little over 2 minutes of thoroughly scanning for 3GB worth of files.
The Return of the Comeback...
Simply check the file/s you wish to undelete or if you wish to breeze through all files, right-click anywhere on the results pane and choose Select All Files. Just above the Status/Preview pane are options for where you want your precioussss files restored and if you want to maintain the original folder structure. Hit Start Undelete (beside Start Scan) for that much awaited sigh of relief. Whew!
More or less (ok, more...), it took the same amount of time to recover the selected files. And true to its Status prior to recovery, I was able to open all files without any error or corruption. Everything was back where it was supposed to be prior to the disaster. It was like... magic! And it only took a few mouse clicks! I must say, data recovery couldn't get any sweeter and simpler than this.
For geeks only!
For more advanced users, you can also do the ff:
- filter results by File type (left pane)
- filter results based on filename, dates and size
- see original folder structure tree (left pane)
- sort results using columns
- change language on-the-fly
Important Information: The following three things are important for a successful restoration:
- The more recent your last defrag was the better your chance of recovering the deleted file so defrag often (at least once a week). DO NOT defrag the disk after you decide to try and retrieve an erased file.
- Every time that you computer writes to disk the chances increase that your deleted file will be overwritten. The sooner you make a restoration attempt the more likely you will be successful.
- The smaller the size of the file - the better our chance of success is to restore it.
