Losing files from your computer is not impossible, no matter how careful you are with your system. That’s because the causes of data loss are multiple and hard to keep under control even by experienced computer users. That’s why the ones who are savvy enough to develop complex software tools have thought of ways to help computer users overcome this issue without starting over and trying to complete their work until the deadline known becomes reality. Not to mention that you can’t turn back time and recuperate your music selection or the photos that you have taken in various trips. That’s why I think we all agree that the software market deserves a thanks for making available software tools that can recover lost files. The success rates of these tools are the highest possible only if you discover the loss as soon as possible and you avoid saving new files and installing new software. That’s because if you do add new information to your computer’s hard drive, you will increase the risk of having your important files overwritten by new data.
So, if you are interested in reliable file recovery software, you should look for the kind that’s portable and doesn’t need to be installed on the targeted computer. That’s how you decrease even more the chances of losing important data for good. In some cases, you might have to look for recovery software that can do its job even if you don’t have admin rights on the targeted computer. Such software is extremely important especially for those who lose files from their work computer and they don’t have admin permissions on that computer. If you need a file recovery tool that meets both requirements, meaning it’s portable and doesn’t require admin rights, you will find that the offer is still wide. You just need to know where to look. So, if you are in need of a little help, here are some examples of possibilities that you should consider.
If you happen to delete a file by accident or if you lose it because of a stupid error that manages to affect your computer you shouldn’t get frustrated. Not even if you lose an entire folder. That’s because the technology that hides in tools like Undelete PLUS is able to recover all the data lost, especially if the loss is discovered almost immediately. The tool I’ve mentioned, Undelete Plus, is available for free and comes from FDRLab Data Recovery Center. Its developers have made it capable of scanning the volumes available on your computer and finding one by one all the files that you considered lost for good. However, you should keep in mind that the capabilities made available will prove useful only if new data hasn’t already overwritten the data you are trying to recuperate. So, even if you buy a paid file recovery tool, you shouldn’t start thinking that it’s going to be able to bring back from the dead all the files that are important to you. Once overwritten, a file deleted by accident can’t be recovered, not even by the most high performance tool of this kind available on the market.
Portable File Recovery Without Needing Admin Rights (Source: 3.bp.blogspot.com)
After you download Undelete PLUS, you will notice that the interface is simple and logically organized, so it’s not complicated to handle. For simplicity reasons is divided into panels, so I will try to summarize what each panel is able to offer. The right panel is dedicated for the Drives tree that you can browse in search for information of interest. If you aren’t satisfied with this view, you can at any time switch to the file type view or choose to see the information organized in folders. To the left of the screen you will notice an area that’s dedicated to the list of files that Undelete PLUS was able to detect. Every file’s name is accompanied by a few details about its status. If near a listing you notice the words “Very Good”, it means you have excellent chances to recover the file of your interest. If the tag attached says “Overwritten”, then unfortunately you will have to forget about getting back that particular file. Hopefully, this tag will be associated only with the files detected that you have even forgotten about. You will also discover information that’s meant to help you identify files: the type and size of the file, its format, where it’s located and the date when it’s was created and modified. In addition, because the software is trained to preserve folder structure, you will be able to recover unaltered information.
Portable File Recovery Without Needing Admin Rights (Source: imag.malavida.com)
The scanning process used by this file recovery tool in order to recover lost or deleted by accident files is quite fast. However, that doesn’t mean it overlooks files that are important to you. It only means that it’s designed to be both efficient and fast, the best combination possible. However, even if the software skips a file or two, you shouldn’t get annoyed, because after all it’s a free tool and no one says is perfect.
If you want to speed up even more the scanning process, you should use the possibility to add filters to your searches. That means instead of scanning the entire volume, the software will look only for the certain type of file that you need to get back. To add such filters you will have to use the Filter box that gives you the possibility to specify the entire name of the file you want to recover, only a few characters of its name, a size range or a modification date interval. After the filter is set, Undelete PLUS will take into consideration only the files that respect filtering conditions. So, you should make sure you have all your facts right.
If Undelete PLUS hasn’t convinced you or you just want to check out an alternate option, you should consider Recuva that’s also a reliable portable file recovery tool that doesn’t require admin rights. This software is also available for free download and can recover files deleted by accident under almost any Windows version that might be running on the targeted computer. What you will also like about this option is that it comes with a friendly and easy to use interface. You can almost navigate blindly because everything is organized logically while explanations are designed to be accessible for both experienced and novice users.
If you take a quick look on the market, you will notice that two versions of Recuva are available. One of the versions needs to be installed on the targeted computer while the other one is completely portable. That means you can use it on the targeted computer as long as you have it installed on a USB stick or an external drive. So, because we want to make sure that recoverable data won’t be overwritten by the software’s installation, I think we all agree that the portable version is safer to use. The good news is that both versions of Recuva are as efficient and are easy to handle because they involve going through the same exact steps.
Portable File Recovery Without Needing Admin Rights (Source: i.i.com.com)
In order to recover a file deleted by mistake with the help of portable Recuva, you will simply have to follow the instructions of a wizard that will either help you set filters meant to have the application look only for certain types of file or help you launch a search meant to reveal all the files on your system that can still be the subject of file recovery. The main choices you will have to make involve choosing what drive or media card you want to scan and deciding if it’s wise to use a “deep” or a “regular” scan. Once the scan is completed, you will notice the results in the main window. This window allows you to choose the view that works best for you, so feel free to switch between list, tree and thumbnail view. Near each file you will also notice a light of a certain color. If the light is green you will be able to recover your file, if the light is yellow it means you have 50-50 chances and if the light is red it means you have lost that particular file for good.
An unexpected feature that’s part of Recuva’s feature is a delete option that allows you to make sure that a certain is deleted for good. If you store sensitive information on your computer and you want to get rid of it for good, you should definitely use Recuva’s delete feature. That’s because you will make sure the file can’t be recovered by anyone, not even by a person who is smart enough to find a way to install a file recovery software tool on your computer.
I think that Recuva is one of the best choices you can make, especially if you don’t want to pay money for file recovery services. My suggestion is to rely on this portable file recovery software for your first attempt and only then switch to paid software.
Written by Brasoveanu Lucian, date Feb 02, 2012 in File Recovery
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