Originally posted here by SwordFish_13
hi riya_here



i would like to add a few things to what wackoz said. the files you store are not stored in one place they are broken and scattred all over your hard disk( in DOS and Windows), when you delete it it goes into recycle bin(simple delete not "Shift+Del"). when you delete it from Recycle Bin you actually tell the OS that it can now write on the areas the previous file existed. So after a long time there might be a few portions that are still there. the earlier you recover the better are your chances of recovering it.


--Good Luck--
The degree to which this applies, however, is directly proportional to the level of fragmentaion that exists on the hard drive - a well maintained drive will not have file fragments scattered all over the place. This becomes even more true on an NTFS partition, which is FAR more efficient than FAT.

Resultantly, your chances of success in data recovery may be greatly enhanced by defragging the hard drive first, before running the data recovery program, as this will re-attach the file fragments together, as much as is possible, at any rate.