Recovering lost files

How to recover missing, lost, or deleted files
Issue
How to recover missing, lost, or deleted files.
Cause
Lost files can occur because of any of the below possibilities.
1. File was mistakenly deleted.
2. File was corrupt and deleted by scandisk.
3. Another program deleted the file.
4. File is password protected.
Solution

Before reviewing the below recommendations and suggestions,
verify that the files have been deleted; in some cases the files may
have been moved. You can search the hard drive for the files you
believe to be missing by running find or search on the computer.
Recover file from backup
If the file has been backed up to floppy disk or other
medium it is recommended that the file be restored from
that backup if the file cannot be found.
Restore from Recycling Bin or Trash
If you are running Apple MacOS, Microsoft Windows and
the file has been recently deleted it is possible that the file
may still be in the Trash or Recycle Bin. If present within
this area it can be recovered.
Download freeware program or purchase a program
When a file is deleted (even when removed from the
Recycle Bin) the files are marked as deleted, however it is
not removed from the hard drive. Assuming no other file
has overwritten the deleted file on the hard drive a recovery
program can be used to recover deleted files. Below is a list
of freeware file recovery programs that can be used freely
to recover lost data.
1. Recuva
2. Restoration
3. Undelete Plus
4. FreeUndelete
5. Photorec
6. PC Inspector File Recover *Not compatible with Vista/7
Tip: When running a program such as Restoration in
Windows Vista or 7 and prompted to run as administrator,
right-click on the executable and choose the option to run
as administrator.
In addition to the above freeware programs there are also
several companies who have created programs designed to
recover your lost data. For example, PowerQuest makes the
utility Drive Image that in some cases can be used to
recover data from a hard drive.
Utilize a service from a company that specializes in recovering
lost data
Utilize the service of a local data recovery company or an
out of state data recovery company. One word of caution is
that these services can sometimes be very expensive. It is
only recommended they be used if the data is extremely
important or data cannot be read from hard drive. Below is
a listing of a few major data recovery companies.
1. Action Front Data Recovery
2. CBL Data Recovery Technologies Inc.
3. Doctor Byte
4. DriveSavers Data Recovery
5. Kroll Ontrack
6. Lazarus Data Recovery
7. Virtual Data Recovery
8. Stellar Data Recovery
9. DataCent Professional Data Recovery
There are also several companies that specialize in the
service of recovering files or documents that are password
protected. Below is a listing of some of the companies that
provide this service.
1. Passwordcrackers
2. Passwordservices.com
3. Password Recovery software