Which is the best software to recover deleted data?

I've accidentally formatted and install a new WinXP(upto the point when it reboot before install winxp) to my external hard disk. I've tried "Easy recovery Wizard", "Unerase" and something like "Pro data doctor" but none of them can recover the data I want.

Any suggestion?

 

Yes. Forget it. Without spending mega money those files are gone forvever.

 

Yes. Forget it. Without spending mega money those files are gone forvever.[/quote]

Ohh well, if that's the case, then I'll give up. Thanks anyway.

 

I picked up undelete for free a year or so ago.

 

I am looking for specific email recovery software...I accidentally deleted quite a few emails that inadvertantly ended up in my Outlook deleted emails folder, and I would like to know if anyone knows of a good, preferably free, email recovery software. I have seen a few online, but I would like a personal recommendation if anyone has one.

 

Try Recover My Files Software:

http://www.recovermyfiles.com/


Wish you good luck

 

Recuva is a freeware app that works well. Not sure how much luck you will have considering you formatted the drive, but you may be to recover the files. Were the files in Microsoft Office Outlook or Office Express? That could make all the difference in being able to recover them.

Also, were the files stored on a web server or your PC? For example, I use Outlook, but it pulls email from a server, so I can still go to another PC and access the same data. If it is STORED on your PC, then you won't be able to get your messages from another PC.

 

pmh243, did you ever get your files back?

pamsipod, did you have success with your problem?

Any kind of undelete is usually only effective for a short bit after the delete since the space gets reused. If you used a full format instead of a quick format none of the unerase apps will work. The data is still there unless you did more than a delete but they data will not be linked back to a file.

When you delete you alter the file name to a deleted file name. When you do a full format you blank out the file allocation table.

Undeleting information from a database such as a mail database requires an app written expressly for that database.

 

I am trying to figure that out...so far, no luck though.

Pam

 

pamsipod, it is unlikely that there is an app that does what you want. The email database it ment to be secure so it would be an extra effort to do the work and then no one would what to pay for the app.

 

Which application were you using for email? That makes all of the difference for the file and location of the file you are searching to recover.

 

SProdigy, I am far from an expert. Are there email apps that store each message as a file? That would not be very secure. I did do an evaluation of email apps for a large gov agency of about 5,000 gov workes and probably 15,000 contractors in the early 90s. The review was fairly through. I had access to the developement staffs for questions. With 20,000 node sale in the balance everyone was quite helpful. In the early 90s all the email apps I reviewed used databases for both server and local mail. Of course I didn't look at anything that was light weight. Outlook was the lightest application (if that is what it was called).

If a database is used, a file recovery process is useless.

 

I was just asking what program pmh243 was using for email. If Outlook, they could try to look for a PST file in their Documents and Settings. If Outlook Express, they could search for a DBX file. Unless either were encrypted, they would be fairly easy to copy from machine A to machine B with little effort.

 

I am using outlook. My husband thought they might be pst files too. The files were actually contacts. I signed up with yahoo, and tried to export email addresses, and when they were exported, only the email address migrated, and the rest, ...names, phone numbers, addresses etc. did not transfer. I looked in the recycle bin, and thought I might have found them, so I selected all 600ish files and did a restore. Does anyone know for sure where the files are supposed to end up when you do a restore? Anyway, I couldn't find them after the restore, and I was looking through email on outlook, and I noticed I had 839 deleted emails, I generally keep the deleted folder pretty cleared out, and I did a perm delete. As soon as I did that, it hit me that the reason I might have had so many deleted items might have been that the restore feature restored them to the deleted folder...Anyone know?

 

Is the email account that you are recovering from a yahoo account? I would think that those contacts would be stored on their server, unless you had it set to pull into a PST file.

Importing the PST file, you should get all of the contact info, but if you just signed up for a Yahoo account and you are trying to import into Yahoo from the recovered file, it may be a limitation on Yahoo's part. I don't know Yahoo well, but I do know that I use Outlook with Hotmail, and I can't sync my calendar without the "premium" service, so that's just an example.

 

No, it isn't an email account that I am trying to recover, it is somewhere around 600 contacts that I lost name, address, phone info on when I exported them out of outlook contacts into yahoo contacts. The only thing that transferred was the email address.

 

pamsipod, I don't think you are following me here...

Who was your original email provider that you were recovering from? (ie. the one you used in Outlook before deletion.)

Also, do you know 100% for sure that Yahoo will accept anything other than an email address for their contacts list? If they don't, you may not be able to have a "full" contacts list. You could create a separate
contacts list in Outlook that will contain everything, however, it will not sync up with Yahoo's servers.

 

Hard to say because I had three providers at the time. Everest, Time Warner and At&t (sbcglobal.net).

No, I don't know if they will accept anything other than email addresses in yahoo contacts, I do know that they have many other fields for address, work address phone numbers etc. It is okay if yahoo doesn't accept anything other than email addresses because I need to keep outlook anyway, I need it in order to sync my treo. If I can keep full contact info in both places, yahoo and outlook, that would be fine, but if nothing else, I at least need them in outlook.

 

Okay, that clears things up a bit. I would think that the contacts would've been stored in a PST file, though there is an outside possibility that the info was stored in an OST file, which in that case, is just a mirror of the server account.

Have you tried to create a second profile in Outlook on your "new" machine and see if you could sync from the old email addresses, such as Time Warner?

Other than that, if you couldn't find a PST file with any recovery software, I don't think you are going to get that far.

 

SProdigy, I believe there were two seperate problems. One, accidently, formatted a hard disk the other deleted some emails. The formatted HD person gave up.

You are left with pamsipod who wanted to recover a few emails.