[Leica] Computer Help Needed: Deleted Files

[reid at mejac.palo-alto.ca.us (Brian Reid)]

When a file is deleted on a Windows machine, it is not actually erased. 
Rather, its name is removed from the folder that contained it, and the disk 
space that it occupies is placed on a "free list" of available space.

When any file is created, ever, for any reason, the program creating the 
file asks Windows to give it some disk space, and then it puts its data into 
that disk space and then records the existence of that new file in a folder 
somewhere.

What destroys your images is not deleting them. What destroys them is 
creating new files on top of them. The most important thing for you to do is 
to avoid all activities on your computer that will create files. In 
particular, you should avoid downloading or installing a software package, 
even one that recovers deleted files. This is a bit of a quandary, because 
it means that if you didn't already have deleted-file recovery software on 
your computer, then it's important that you not install any 
right now.

The very best way to recover your images is to physically remove the hard 
drive from your computer, then connect it via USB to another computer on 
which you had previously (before connecting your precious hard drive) 
installed lost-file recovery software.

If you don't have a second computer, then your next-best choice is to buy a 
bootable CD of a data recovery program, and then boot your computer from 
that and have it operate on your hard drive while running from something 
else. I have successfully used a program called "Active@" on a bootable CD, 
but it did require temporary use of another PC to produce the actual 
bootable disk.

If you have Norton Utilities or Norton SystemWorks installed, its built-in 
Undelete feature works pretty well under many circumstances, and if you do 
have it installed, that might be your best bet.