Searching for Deleted Files and Folders. Data Recovery Search.
Search for files or folders after you have scanned the hard drive partitions.
To locate specific files and folders:
- In Windows, check the Recycle Bin to see if the deleted file or folder is there. If it is, use the standard Windows Restore command to recover your data from there. If you cannot find the file or folder you are looking for in the Recycle Bin, continue to step 2 and onward.
- Open Active@ File Recovery.
- If you know exactly where the deleted files or folders are located, you can use the drive scan procedure. After the drive has been scanned, manually navigate to the folder path the same way as you would in Windows Explorer. If you cannot find the file or folder, open the tree node named ! Lost & Found ! If the parent folder of the deleted file or folder has been deleted as well, it is very likely the deleted item will be placed in this virtual folder. If you are still unable to locate your data, proceed to the next step.
- To just display existing files in the scan results, right-click the device node and choose Show Existing Only from the context menu. To just display deleted files in the scan results, right-click the device node and choose Show Deleted Only from the context menu.
If you are not certain where the deleted file or folder was located before it was deleted, try the Search mode. Select a drive or folder and click Search on the toolbar, or right-click the drive or folder and choose Search in the context menu. Do the following in the Advanced Search dialog box:
- To find a file by name, enter the file name in the Find what field. Advanced Search will search for files that match the name. You may enter part of the file name and use an asterisk (*) to represent the rest of the name.
- To find a file in a specified location, choose a location in the Find where drop-down list.
- To search by file type, choose a file type from the File type drop-down list.
- To exclude deleted files and folders from the search results, clear the Include deleted files and folders check box.
- To exclude existing files and folders from the search results, clear the Include non-deleted files and folder check box.
- To use a case sensitive search, clear the Case insensitive search check box.
- To search for a file based on a date, select the Created, Modified or Accessed [Deleted] check boxes and enter a From and To date range.
- To search for a file based on the size of the file, select the Size check box and enter a From and To size range.
- Click Find.
- After the search is complete, examine the Search Results virtual folder.
- If no files were found, use the SuperScan method to thoroughly scan the drive's surface.
If you have completed all the steps listed above and your files and folders still cannot be found, it is likely that the drive space formerly occupied by your files has been completely overwritten with other data. If this is the case, there are no recovery tools that can help you. This can happen when multiple writing operations occurred on the drive, such as, during the installation of software. Furthermore, the Windows operating system will sometimes create temporary files for different processes. If the process involves a lot of data and many temporary files are written, your deleted files may have been destroyed.
Important
When using a search pattern in Advanced Search, the same principles apply as in searching within Microsoft Windows. When the asterisk symbol (*) is placed anywhere in the string pattern, this means that none or any number of symbols will produce a match.
Examples:
- *- All files on the drive or in the folder
- *.TXT - All files with "TXT" extension
- My*.* - All files starting with "My"
- MyFile.txt - Search for the file named "MyFile.txt"
Note
You can distinguish between deleted file/folders and existing files/folders by these icons:
Files
White icons show existing files.
Grey icons show deleted files with a good chance of recovery.
Black icons show deleted files with a poor chance of recovery because they may have been overwritten or partially overwritten on the disk.
Folders
Yellow icons show existing folders.
White icons show deleted folders with a good chance of recovery.
Black icons show deleted folders with a poor chance of recovery.
Look in the ! Lost & Found ! virtual folder. If the parent folder of the deleted file or folder has been deleted as well, it is likely the deleted item will be placed in this virtual folder. If you do not see your files and folders in their original location - look at the files and folders in the ! Lost & Found ! virtual folder.