I was called into a clients office sometime last year to fix a database problem. Now in this situation, I had to disable a pc without shutting it down, so I just got a brown paper bag, wrote DO NOT USE on it and put it over the monitor. I thought it got the point across.

So I was repairing some database components when an employee walked right over, pulled the “do not use” bag off of the monitor, and started running a routine. Well needless to say, I had lost about 3 hours of work (that’s why I bill by the hour).

Because of the nature of the situation, the files that I needed were DELETED and WERE NOT in the Recycle Bin.

Rule #1: Never hit the panic button….NEVER!

Fortunately I had known about a free file recovery program called RECUVA! It’s made by the same folks that make CCLEANER, and it just as easy to use!

What it does is look in the deep recesses of Windows (XP, Vista) and finds the files that have been deleted. Now once you Delete a file and it’s not in the Recycle Bin, that file is typically LOST FOREVER, and Windows can choose to overwrite the data with other files. What RECUVA does is determine if the file you want to recover is able to be recovered.

Now there are other programs that do this, but they are either complicated or you have to pay for them.

This is one of those programs that you never want to have to use, but it’s always nice to know it’s there…so I strongly suggest that you download a copy of this program just for safekeeping!

Have a great day!