User Tip #143: Undelete files from Windows NT NTFS

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Windows NT has the Recycle Bin. When you delete a file using Explorer or other GUI tool, the file is moved to a hidden directory and you can "recover - read move" the file back using the Recycle Bin. If your disk partition is full and you try to free up space using Explorer, you will find that it doesn't work. The files are moved not deleted. Its only when you empty files from the Recycle Bin that the files are actually deleted. This capability depends on Explorer functionality.

If you delete a file or files in the command shell, the files are deleted, not moved to the hidden directory used by the Recycle Bin application. Not a big deal unless you are a commandline junkie like me.

Consider File-Saver which can recover deleted files. Fairly cheap at the price.
Server network shares are different. When you delete files off a network shares, the files are deleted, not moved. The Recycle Bin is only involved when Explorer is used from the server console. Files deleted remotely do not use the Explorer interface.

You wonder, what if I use the Explorer or Network Neighborhood gui on my PC. What is actually happening is that your PC is communicating with the server at the command level.

All is not lost. Executive Software has released a free utility, Emergency Undelete which will undelete files from NTFS partitions. Download it, install it, and when you need to recover a file. How good a chance depends on how many files have been copied to the PC. The space released after a file is deleted is available for reuse. Hesitate and you are lost.

This is stop gap. Executive Software has a commercial utility to Undelete NT which give much more coverage and will work well on workstation or server. Assuming admin privileges, it works remotely. Undelete replaces the recycle bin on your server with a Recovery Bin that catches all deletions, including those done by remotely connected users. You can configure the Recovery Bin to include or exclude only the files, file types, folders or directory trees you're interested in protecting and you can set the size of the bin which can thereafter auto-purge the oldest files when it gets full. Once installed and tweaked, you can forget about it until you need it. And when its needed, System Admins or help desk staff with admin privileges can connect to the Recovery Bin on a server from their desk, view the files in the Recovery Bin and restore deleted files with a couple of mouse clicks. It takes only seconds instead of hours, plus the all the work done since the last backup is not lost.



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