A recent client accidentally deleted several important files and removed them from the recycle bin. Another client had done a system rollback that effectively removed important files.
Happily, deleting a files does not remove them. Only the references to the files are gone. Usually some files can be recovered if you know what file type you’re looking for and if the file location on the hard drive hasn’t been overwritten by new files. This is why it’s important to not install a program to recover files. Just the act of installing something will overwrite the data you want to recover.
I like Recuva Portable, available for free here:
http://www.piriform.com/recuva/builds
The Portable version can run from a USB or CD and does not need to be installed or be copied onto the main hard drive.
