Retrieve files you thought were long gone
Handy though it is, Windows' trusty desktop Recycle Bin isn't foolproof: Files that you delete through the command prompt, a DOS program, or any 16-bit software don't go in the Recycle Bin. And of course, after you empty the Recycle Bin, the files that it contained are gone for good. Or are they?
Undelete utilities pick up where the Recycle Bin leaves off. An undelete utility can restore files that you've removed at the command prompt, deleted through a DOS or 16-bit application, or purged from the Recycle Bin. Some undelete utilities can even restore files from reformatted disks. Undelete utilities can work their magic because of the way that Windows deletes files. Even when you empty the Recycle Bin, Windows doesn't physically remove files from disk. Rather, the OS marks those file clusters as available. Until you overwrite a cluster with new data, the file is still on the disk and is often recoverable.
Ready, Set, Undelete
For this comparative, I looked at three standalone undelete utilities—Software Shelf International's File Rescue 2.5, QueTek Consulting's File Scavenger 1.4, and LC Technology International's RecoverNT 3.5—that run on the Windows desktop. (Executive Software declined my invitation to include Undelete 2.0 in this review because the vendor positions the utility as an enterprise network product. I didn't include the undelete tools from Symantec's Norton Utilities or Ontrack's SystemSuite 2000 because those utilities aren't available as standalone products.) The three utilities that I evaluated run under both server and client versions of Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0. This review highlights workstations, so I tested the utilities exclusively on Win2K Professional and NT Workstation 4.0.
To put the utilities through their paces, I set up two test PCs: one running Win2K Pro and the other running NT Workstation 4.0 with Service Pack 5 (SP5). Both PCs contained two physical drives: C and D. Because restoring files to their original locations on the D drive could have overwritten the clusters of other deleted files, I created a separate E:\ partition on which to store recovered files. To create test files, I installed Microsoft Office 2000 on each machine. To test file deletion and recovery for documents deleted from a DOS program, I also installed WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS on both systems.
To cleanly evaluate each of the utilities, I used Symantec's Norton Ghost to create an image of my Win2K and NT environments (i.e., my C drive), which I reapplied after testing each utility. First, I tested each product under FAT16 and NTFS on the NT machine, then I tested each product under FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS on the Win2K machine. For my test subjects, I created 30 files, including Microsoft Word documents, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, bitmap files, text files, and compressed files. I christened some files with 8.3 filenames and some with long filenames, and I created several directories in which to store the files. For each test, I reformatted the D drive, then copied my test directories and files to that drive.
To test file recovery from 32-bit applications, I used three methods to delete individual files from within a directory and to delete entire directories. To better simulate real-world conditions, I first moved 10 files to the Recycle Bin, emptied the Recycle Bin, then ran a utility to recover the files. Next, I turned off the Recycle Bin so that Windows would immediately remove deleted files, then I deleted a second set of 10 files and reran the utility. Lastly, I deleted the final set of 10 files at the command prompt and reran the utility. I followed this procedure for each product. To test file recovery from DOS and 16-bit applications, I removed files through WordPerfect's DOS file menu and through the File Manager applet in NT, neither of which the Recycle Bin supports.
Results
All three programs were easy to install and use. Each utility gave me the option to install the tool on my computer or to run it directly from a CD-ROM or 3.5" disk. (For the full test procedures, I ran all the programs from media to avoid overwriting deleted-file clusters on the hard disk. I repeated a few random tests running the programs from the hard disk and noticed no performance differences between installing the programs and running them from media.)
Each utility fared well under both Win2K and NT. However, File Rescue and RecoverNT had trouble restoring deleted files on a FAT32 volume, and File Scavenger didn't support FAT at all. Software Shelf and LC Technology said the FAT32 problems occur because Microsoft changed the file system for FAT32 in the final Win2K release, and both companies said they were working on patches to resolve the problems; QueTek told me the company plans to support FAT in the next version of File Scavenger.
When it comes to recovering deleted files, remember the motto, "The sooner, the better." Saving additional files to your hard disk overwrites deleted-file clusters and reduces your chances of a successful recovery. None of the utilities can perform magic, but all the products could often fully or partially recover ASCII text files and could sometimes recover text (but not formatting) in deleted word processing documents—even without all file clusters intact.
Each utility had quirks and limitations, but all three successfully recovered files under most test conditions. RecoverNT—with its ability to restore deleted files even after a disk reformat—was the most powerful utility. As a recovery tool, this product is top-notch, but for simply undeleting files, it's a bit of overkill. File Scavenger is another powerful package that can recover files from a reformatted partition, but I found the complete lack of support for FAT to be a drawback. File Rescue, despite its initial bugs and FAT32 problems, proved to be an effective utility with support for multiple file systems and removable media. Any of these products will prove their worth the next time you need to restore a crucial file.
File Rescue 2.5
File Rescue can recover files from hard disks, 3.5" disks, Zip drives, Jaz drives, and other removable media. The product performed well throughout most of my testing, although I found a couple of bugs with the version that I tested. You can order the utility on CD-ROM or download the program from Software Shelf's Web site. I ran the program from CD-ROM.
To test File Rescue, I first formatted my D drive as a FAT partition, copied my test files to the D drive, then deleted the files. The software presented a basic user interface (UI) that gave me several file-recovery options. First, I selected the drive on which to search for deleted files. You can choose to scan one drive or all drives. The program can scan a drive for specific files, files that match a certain pattern, or all deleted files. You can use wildcards in the search field to scan for multiple files. I chose to search for all deleted files on the D drive.
The scan lasted only a few seconds. Then, a recovery window, which Figure 1 shows, opened. This window displayed the name, directory, size, last-modified date, and recovery condition for each deleted file that the software discovered on the D drive. The recovery condition rates the odds (i.e., Excellent, Good, Poor, or Hopeless) of restoring a file; File Rescue gave most of my files a Good rating. I could sort this file list by any of the displayed criteria.
To undelete files, I selected them from the file list and clicked Undelete. The program then prompted me to enter a target directory in which to save the restored files. By default, the software designated my temp directory as the recovery location; instead, I selected the E:\ partition. File Rescue successfully undeleted all the selected files. (I opened each file in its native application to verify that it was fully readable.)
I noticed that although the program had found and recovered all the files that I'd deleted individually (i.e., files I'd deleted from within directories that I'd left intact), it hadn't found any deleted-directory files (i.e., files from within directories that I deleted). When I contacted Software Shelf, the company acknowledged a bug that prevents the recovery of files from deleted directories. The company emailed me a new version of the program's undelete executable file, which fixed the problem. I reran the tests with the new file and could recover files from deleted directories. Software Shelf told me that the new executable would soon be available for download and incorporated into the CD-ROM version.
After testing the software on a FAT partition, I reformatted my D drive as NTFS and repeated the test process. File Rescue restored all 30 deleted files, including compressed files.
Next, I booted up my Win2K machine and repeated the testing process under FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS. Under FAT16 and NTFS, File Rescue came through like a pro, restoring all 30 files. However, the software stumbled under FAT32: The utility failed to locate a few of the files, and many of the files it did restore were corrupt. (When I tried to open the files in their native applications, either the application couldn't recognize the files or the files displayed garbage characters.) The vendor directed me to the developer, who acknowledged the glitch and said an incompatibility with Win2K's FAT32 version causes it and that he was working on a fix to provide better compatibility with FAT32.
Other than the deleted-directory bug and the problems with FAT32, File Rescue performed well in my tests. The utility recovered all the files that I deleted from a 3.5" disk, as well as the files that I deleted using NT File Manager and WordPerfect's File menu.
You can download a free version of File Rescue, which lets you recover as many as five files simultaneously, from Software Shelf's Web site. The full-featured commercial version costs $68 per client license to download or $75 on CD-ROM. File Rescue requires 32MB of RAM and also supports Windows 9x.
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