quote:
Originally posted by raceprouk
If it's a FAT32 file system, nothing is unrecoverable, unless the areas of the disk are written over many hundreds of times. However, recovering data this way requires some highly expert knowledge: a quigk Google should reveal just how much work it is.
It doesn't matter what file system it is.
Also, when the sectors, where the files were in, are overwritten (it only takes 1 time overwriting, not many times) the files are lost. period.
And the longer you wait to "recover" accidently erased files, the more chances are that the files are overwritten already. Also, the fuller your harddisk is the more chances are that the files are already overwritten. Also, the more times you boot up with that same partition where your files were in, the more chances the files are overwritten... etc.
mrchampipi, if you want to decently recover deleted files, you _must not_ boot up with that partition anymore! You also _must not_ even use that partition anymore (this means do not open programs etc on it) until you have succesfully recovered the deleted files.
All this because each action you do (even extremely small) will further decrease the possebility for succesfull recovery.
To search for Messenger XML logs you could search for various tags from an Messenger XML log. Open a still existing XML log and look for various tags, then search for them on the hard disk you try to recover files from.
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What raceprouk might speak of is something only police and other highly trained and professional forensic institues _may_ be able to do. This is way, waaaaaaaaaaaay, beyond what normal (or even advanced) computer users will ever be able to do.
See "
CookieRevised's reply to Full erase" for more information about this.
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