recovering accidentally deleted files - W2000

[steadmanSF]

I am trying to help an staff member who has accidentally deleted several folders off of her c:\ drive. Long story but basically they are gone with no backup version available. The folders contained word processing documents.

Suggestions on recovering these files? The employee is at a remote site with only phone IT support. We are considering purchasing and installing software such as GoBack or else having her take it in to a PC repair service.

Re. GoBack is it safe to install a new program onto the drive that we need to recover data from? Seems to me that it could overwrite the same data we are trying to recover!

Thanks for any help.

[macko72]

Try this !!!

[glc]

Installing GoBack would be like closing the barn door after the horses escape.

It is not safe to do ANYTHING on that computer because of the chances of overwriting the area on the disk that the deleted files occupied. The safest thing to do is immediately shut the computer down, remove the hard drive and slave it into another computer that has PC Inspector or some other data recovery software already installed, and run a recovery. If there is no onsite IT support, bring the computer to a shop and have them do it, expect a $500 bill for software data recovery.

This assumes that the files are not in the recycle bin.

[steadmanSF]

Thanks, I thought it sounded risky to start installing software. She is taking it in to a PC service - at BestBuy actually...

[rightcoast]

OK, I just hope they are smart enough to run whatever they need from a floppy, flash drive or slave it into another PC, etc. There are a few programs that can do recovery.. Here is one that fits on a floppy, saving any chance the file gets overwritten.
http://www.geocities.jp/br_kato/