Some people have erased files that are useless currently by deleting them permanently or formatting the drive which contain them. This offers a second chance for them to have these files again. Once people find they’ve erased the wrong files, they should take actions at once to unerase files by following the steps talked in this post.
There are two most common situations for people to erase files.
- They thought those files are not useful anymore.
- They pressed the wrong button when working on the files.
In either situation, people will try their best to unerase files immediately after they find the deleted files are actually very useful to them. After noticing this, I’m starting writing this post.
Can You Unerase Files
According to Wikipedia, the word “erase” basically refers to data erasure: a method of software-based overwriting that completely destroys all electronic data.
But, whether you can undelete files successfully or not is closely related to the ways by which data are erased. Now, please take a closer look at the following two file erasing situations.
Case 1: Overwriting the Real Data Content
I bought new Lenovo laptop. And in my computer there was a drive listed as Lenovo recovery center and it’s for reverting the computer to its original form. Apparently to get that space back I had to download it into another source. So I got my dad’s 461GB hard drive and downloaded it in that. But I didn’t read the message that came after that which said would you like to overwrite this drive and clicked yes. After a while it asked again and I said yes again. Then I checked the hard drive and found it completely empty. Immediately I stopped the program. Now I want to recover those files. They contain every picture we had since my grandparents wedding to my prom and I want to know how to recover it.– said by “inni10” on Tom’s Hardware forum
According to what the user said, I found his drive was overwritten by the downloading process; this user allowed the overwriting action by clicking yes directly without noticing the prompt message, as he said. In this case, can his files be recovered?
Well, here is my analysis: the overwrite process done by downloading is probably only a process to remove old data and save new data here (similar to reformatting), not the real overwriting process of data content. So, I suggest that the users do the following things:
- Stop writing anything else to the drive.
- Resort to his backup of the pictures.
- Find a piece of reliable undelete software to undelete files.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery is a wonderful choice for even inexperience users to recover files that have not been wiped in the real sense.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
But, there is chance that the user’s files are really wiped during the process; in which case, he will end up in failure and won’t have chance to unerase files anymore. (How to recover a wiped partition?)
Case 2: Erasing (Deleting) Files Suddenly
I erased some very important files from HD and emptied out the recycle bin. Now this was a new HD i installed today and erased from an old HD on My PC. Now there isn’t a system restore time set for me to go back and undo the changes. What can i do?!!!! My wife is going to kill me!!!!!!! HELP!!!!– said by “loks” on Overclockers forum
The deletion operation the user has done in this case is actually the removing of data related information in FAT. That is to say, the first two codes in file header are modified during the process.
This change is mapped in FAT to make a “deleted” flag. Meanwhile, the entry of cluster number occupied by the file is cleared in FAT, indicating the release of space. This explains why people can see the disk free space increases after one or more files have been deleted.
After knowing that file erasing have been divided into 2 types and reading the description of each type, you should be able to distinguish them roughly.
3 Kinds of File Erasing
If you ask what data wiping is exactly, the following content will give you a clear answer.
1. Data wiping: it refers to the process of erasing data by using data erasure technology and tools; this will actually delete data completely and make them unrecoverable. 3 commonest data wiping methods are “fill sectors with zero”, “fill sectors with one” and “fill sectors with zero and one”. All in all, the more times data are wiped, the less the possibility of data recovery will be.
2. File deletion: each file is saved on the hard drive in two parts – header section and data section. Information like file name, file attributes and occupied cluster number is saved in header, which is saved in a cluster and mapped in FAT (File Allocation Table), while the real content of the data is saved in data section.
3. Drive formatting: actually, formatting refers to the operation of disk initialization and reformatting will delete all files on the target drive. It can be divided into 2 levels, which are respectively low-level formatting and high-level formatting. If there’s no special instruction, hard disk formatting usually refers to high-level formatting while floppy disk formatting can include both.
High-level disk formatting is also known as logical formatting; it refers to the operation of disk initializing and disk partitioning (while reformatting includes deleting original disk partitions and files in those partitions). And this operation was done by writing specific data into specific disk area according to the file system (like NTFS and FAT32) you have selected.
Top Recommendation:
Want to know more about low-level formatting & high-level formatting? This post tells all and it will teach you the way to recover files from a formatted drive after high-level formatting.
In conclusion, the biggest difference among above 3 kinds of data erasing lies in that: data erased by the first way are lost permanently while those erased by the latter two ways could be recovered as long as they have not been overwritten by new data.
As a result, my advice is thinking twice before you actually set about wiping your drive. Otherwise, you may put yourself into a dilemma. You will suffer a lot from it if you suddenly found some important files are saved on the wiped drive and you have not made a backup for them in advance.
How to Unerase Files – Two Tutorials Are Provided
Can You Unerase Files on Windows
Windows users may be wondering whether they can unerase files themselves after data wiping. The answer is clear: if they want to recover files after a drive is wiped in the real sense, they will fail; but if they need to recover deleted files after they performed file deletion or drive formatting unintentionally, it’s possible. Please follow the tutorials given below to undelete and recover files from Windows.
It’s reasonable that doubts like this will pop up in people’s mind; after all, everyone tends to make mistakes during operating disks & partitions and the natural response after such mistake is trying to complete file undelete.
Tutorial 1: How to Undelete a File from Mistaken Deletion
As I said earlier, if you have deleted a file from computer hard drive (or removable hard drive) and then realized it’s a mistake, you can open the Recycle Bin directly and choose to restore this file, as long as the file is not deleted by “Shift + Delete” or the Recycle Bin is not emptied.
However, if the file is deleted permanently by pressing “Shift + Delete”, you should rely on MiniTool Power Data Recovery.
Recovery steps:
Step one: you should get a copy of MiniTool Power Data Recovery and install it to your computer running Windows OS (Mac users should choose MiniTool Mac Data Recovery). Afterwards, you should launch this software to enter its main interface.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Step two: you should specify a location which contains the deleted file, choosing from This PC, Removable Disk Drive, Hard Disk Drive and CD/DVD Drive.
Step three: select the target drive from the right panel and then click on the Scan button to detect deleted files.
Step four: browse the scan results during or after the scan so as to check the items you need.
Step five: click on the Save button to set a safe storage path for files waiting to be recovered. Then, click on the OK button to confirm.
Tutorial 2: How to Unerase Files from Drive after Formatting
After you accidentally formatted a non-system drive, you should finish the following recovery steps:
Step one is the same as that mentioned in the previous tutorial.
Step two: you should select your drive that has been formatted.
Step three: please click on the Scan button to start to search for files inside the formatted drive.
Step four: browse the found files carefully to pick the files you want to recover. You may make use of the Find and Filter function to locate needed files quickly.
Step five: click on the Save button and choose a safe storage location. Also, you need to click on OK to confirm.
Please also remember that the trial edition only allows you to do the scan and preview.
How to Erase Data Completely
There are two situations included.
Situation 1: Wipe Disk
If you have replaced your old small hard drive with a new larger drive, of course, you want to dispose the old hard drive without privacy leakage. At this time, you could use MiniTool Partition Wizard to Wipe Disk clearly.
Steps to wipe a disk:
Step one: select the disk needing to be wiped.
Step two: choose Wipe Disk from left action panel.
Step three: check a wiping method (the last one is suggested) and press OK (at this time, users will be able to see pending operations in software).
Step four: click on Apply and choose Yes from pop-up window to conduct the pending operation(s).
Situation 2: Wipe Partition
If you have transferred sensitive data from one hard drive partition to a removable disk, you may as well choose to Wipe Partition to avoid malicious recovery of sensitive data.
Steps to wipe a partition:
Step one: select the partition from which you want to clear data permanently.
Step two: choose Wipe Partition option from left action panel.
Step three: check a wiping method and press OK.
Step four: click on Apply to see a prompt window and click on Yes to start wiping the partition.
Bottom Line
Admittedly, data has penetrated into every aspect of our lives. Digital data are inseparable from our work and daily life. With data becoming more and more important for us, a large number of users choose to backup data that are crucial for them. But unavoidably, data loss accidents still happen now and then all over the world. And the fact is no one or no company can provide an absolutely safe solution to protecting our data.
The real problem is: no matter how careful you are, sudden data loss could give you a head-on blow. Yet, you don’t need to feel despairing and be overthrown. What you really need to do under such circumstances is – finding ways immediately to recover data from hard drive, USB flash drive, SD card or any other data storage devices, like I taught you in this passage.
Unerase Files FAQ
The easiest way is to rely on Restore previous version feature.
- Locate the folder used to store the deleted folder.
- Right click on this folder.
- Choose Restore previous versions from pop-up menu.
- Choose a proper version from the available versions list.
- Click on the Restore button and wait.