Do deleted floppy disk files go to the Recycle Bin?

August 4th, 2010 Paul Wallbank Posted in Disaster recovery, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows XP No Comments »

Do files deleted from floppy disk get tansfered to recycle bin ?

Unfortunately they don’t. Files deleted from removable drives in Windows aren’t saved to the Recycle Bin. Micorsoft discuss this on their website at Files or Folders Deleted from Floppy Disk Not in the Recycle Bin

If you haven’t used the floppy disk since deleting the file, there is a good chance you can recover the lost files by using the software described in our Recovering Deleted Files post.


Backing up email folders

June 21st, 2010 Paul Wallbank Posted in Disaster recovery, email, Outlook, Outlook Express, security, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP No Comments »

Hi, I need to reinstall my Win XP OS to get rid of all the junk I’ve accumulated;  I’ve burnt a DVD with my documents on it, but will my emails be there as well ?  if not, how do I preserve them ?

Your emails probably won’t be in My Documents unless you’ve specifically told your system to save them there.

Finding your emails on a Windows system is particularly irritating as the different programs dump them into different folders. In Outlook Express and Windows Mail the address books are also saved in a completely different location.

The best thing is to back up your entire profile, this sits in the Documents and Settings folder on your C: drive and the profile will be either your log in name or something close to it.

By backing up this entire folder, you’ll save your My Documents folder, desktop, web browser bookmarks, address books and email. Just take care that your email folder isn’t so big it won’t fit on a single DVD.


Hidden objects on a USB drive

April 21st, 2009 Paul Wallbank Posted in Disaster recovery No Comments »

My JetFlash TS4GJFV30 USB Device, of $GB capacity, and currently having 2GB of data is neither displaying the folders and files inside. It shows them as hidden objects. What could be the problem and how do I solve it. Please help. Thanks a ton.

First you should try to show hidden object on the drive. To do this, follow our instructions in the Finding Hidden Files and Folders page.

You should copy the files off your USB stick so you have a safe copy somewhere else.

If you are still having trouble accessing the files, you may need to run the Restoration freeware program to recover your files.

Good luck.


Lost Christmas photos

January 2nd, 2009 Paul Wallbank Posted in Disaster recovery No Comments »

I just moved a folder (my xmas photos!) onto my USB drive and then accidently deleted them off my USB is there anyway the USB can be restored or have I lost them forever?

If you haven’t done anything to the USB drive since the accident then there is a good chance you’ll be able to recover them.

We covered restoring files in a previous post. The important thing is not to panic and to save everything onto a different drive so you don’t overwrite anything important on the original drive.

Best wishes and we hope you get those Christmas pictures back.


Auto identification cards and your flight ticket online

August 15th, 2008 Paul Wallbank Posted in Disaster recovery, Uncategorized, Virus No Comments »

Help! I’m being overwhelmed by emails offering free Auto Identification Cards and confirming air tickets with airlines I’ve never heard of.

Do not open the attachments on these emails!

This is a nasty little piece of malware known as the Ztob Trojan, it pulls all the tricks in the book including disabling firewalls, anti viruses, spamming your inbox and, finally, stealing your credit card details.

Using emails claiming to be spurious airline ticket bookings to spread the thing shows how devious the malware writers are. While it reminds us of the Anna Kournakova virus of 2001, the motives are totally different. It shows how things have changed in the last seven years and today viruses are written by organised crime to rob you.

We need to be careful with these things this Trojan is rapidly being rewritten by the malware designers and many antivirus programs are having trouble keeping up with the changes. We do have some discussion about this in our PC Rescue newsletter.

Do not open anything with a .Zip attachment unless you have confirmed with the sender this is a legitimate file.

Sadly there’s not a great deal we can do about these emails as the spammers are ahead of the curve on this one. All we can suggest is keeping your security software up to date and practice safe computing.


Recovering lost data

May 2nd, 2008 Paul Wallbank Posted in Disaster recovery No Comments »

I took my laptop and external hard drive to my local computer shop. I wanted them to transfer iTunes and My Photos onto the external hard drive to free up some space on my laptop’s hard drive. I also wanted the computer people to do a minor clean up so my laptop would run better.
The computer people erased both my laptop and my external hard drive. They did not back up my system as “there was no point as we were only working on the external hard drive”. They managed to find about half of my files but I had to rename them all and put them back into some type of order.
I am a school teacher and they erased years of my personal and professional life. They deleted student marks, uni work, past and current school programs etc. I am so angry and upset! They didn’t end up charging me but I’m still so frustrated with the company at fault.
Is there anything I can do:
1) To retrieve my lost information?
2) Is the company legally at fault?
Thank you for your time,
Frustrated & Angry

We’re not in a position to give legal advice so we really don’t know the answer for the second question. You need to talk to a lawyer or contact your local consumer advice service for some guidance 0n this.

To answer the first question, we like the Restoration utility.

Keep in mind with lost data is that every time you use the drive, the less likely it is that you’ll find the lost data.

So stop using the computer NOW!

The best way to recover data is to take the drive out of the computer and put it into another machine, then run the utilities and save recovered files to your external drive. You can also do it by booting from a boot disk and running some recovery utilities.

Generally it’s best to consult a professional. Recovering deleted data is a delicate operation which is best done by experienced technicians.

There are good businesses that specialize in data recovery but, quite rightly, their services are expensive and they don’t guarantee success. It may be possible to get the offending shop to pay at least part of the recovery costs.

Sadly, it may be that data is totally lost. That’s why we recommend backing up as much as possible.


Checking a disk for errors

April 6th, 2008 Paul Wallbank Posted in Disaster recovery, Hardware, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows Vista, Windows XP 8 Comments »

Hard drives are complex and precision engineered pieces of equipment and saving files on them is a complex business. Sometimes the computer can forget forget exactly where it has saved files.

When this happens, computers slow down as the system has to search for files when it needs them.

To overcome this problem in Windows computers, you can run the Check Disk command. Click Start, Run and type Chkdsk c: /r in the box. On Windows Vista machines click Find and do likewise.

The c: refers to the main disk drive. If you have more drives you can insert d:, e: or whatever. Note this won’t work with CD and DVD drives but it will with external and flash drives.

A black box will appear and if you’ve chosen the C: drive or any other drive that’s in use, it tell you the drive is locked and do you want to run chkdsk the next time you start the computer. Type Y (for yes) and press the enter key.

If the drive is in use as a network or data drive, you may be asked if you want to dismount the drive. Press N (for no) and then Y for the next question.

When you restart the computer a blue screen will appear telling you a disk check has been scheduled and press any key to cancel. Leave the computer alone and let it run.

Be warned this process might take several hours. Once the process starts, you cannot cancel the operation and the computer must not be restarted.

If Chkdsk detects bad blocks on the hard drive, then you should contact your computer expert immediately as your hard drive is probably beginning to fail.


Recovering data from a dead hard drive

March 26th, 2008 Paul Wallbank Posted in Disaster recovery, Hardware No Comments »

About 8 months ago our computer crashed , we recently sent it to a reputable data recovery company and they said it had a severe head crash and could not recover any data.. Should I try another company or am I wasting my time. I heard in America the technology is more advanced and a higher success rate. I am so stressed as I’ve lost nearly all the pictures and videos  of my 2 boys from newborn till then as I thought my husband backed everything up..I desperately need some advice..can you recommended any other company?

Unfortunately we can’t recommend any specific company but there are companies that will recover data from even the most catastrophic failure.

This is a very specialised business so the services don’t come cheap for the equipment and skilled staff to operate it. Expect to pay several thousand dollars if it is a head crash as they will have to dismantle the drive and build it up again.

The best thing we can suggest is to contact your local computer shops and ask who they use for such work. Don’t trust the shops themselves as none will have the equipment to do this sort of recovery.

Best of luck in recovering those baby photos.


Cannot format disk in Mac OS 9 using Silverlining Pro

March 20th, 2008 Paul Wallbank Posted in Apple, Disaster recovery, Hardware No Comments »

I am using a Mac iBook OS 9.2.2. [I have just got a MacBook Pro (2.5GHz,250g HD) and am about to change to Telstra wireless broadband (Heaven or PC Rescue help me!). I will then be in to OS 10.5.2 (Leopard).]

I have (recently) a 1TB external (LaCie) HD, which I am using to back up my entire iBook, from time to time. I am using the SilverKeeper and Silverlining Pro software that was bundled with LaCie.

My plan is to divide the 1TB into thirds and back up all my photos on one third,use another third for regular iBook backups and the other third for Mac Book backups.

Despite reading the Readme’s/Manual/Help etc. I can’t figure out how to partition the external HD. I have tried with the installed Silverlining Pro and also with the CD.

I have been able to initialise the external HD as HFS+ OK.

I am instructed to use ‘Custom’, enter the number and size and name the partitions, but I can’t get to ‘Custom’ to do it. 

It’s an excellent idea to split up your drive in this way as it makes recovery a lot easier should something bad happen.

In the Silverline pro, make sure you have highlighted the drive and not the Bus or Partition in the first screen. Until you do this, the Custom command won’t be available.

LaCie have detailed instructions on how to do this in OS9 on their website.

It may be worthwhile trying the Mac Drive setup utility to see if this will resolve the problem. In the Drive Setup box you should get the Custom option after you click Initialize.

Generally the Silverlining Pro and LaCie disk should be very reliable and straightforward to use. If the problem continues you should contact your supplier to check the drive is okay.


Recovering lost USB memory stick data

March 11th, 2008 Paul Wallbank Posted in Disaster recovery 2 Comments »

My daughter recently saved a year 12 project on to a memory stick and unfortunately she is now unable to access the saved data as the memory stick seems to be faulty. Do you know of anyone who may be able to assist with the recovery of the data if at all possible.

There’s a number of data recovery services available but all of them are going to take your drive for some weeks. You can contact your local computer tech for more details.

If the drive has format or partition problems, then you can recover data using programs like the free Restoration program or more user friendly commercial programs like Recover My Files.