HELP computer wizzes I've just deleted all dh's files, can I get them back...

[ANGELMOTHER]

In a fit of anger (long story and inexcusable I know) I deleted dh's account off our XP laptop.
This sounds so childish I know...
I used system restore and manged to get all his settings and favourites back but all documents gone..........eek are they gone forever or is there any way of retrieving them ??

How did you delete them - did you just delete his account, or did you go through and specifially delete the document files (which I suppose deleting all the subfolders in his username would do).

I deleted his account and when it offered the option of saving his documents in a folder on my desktop I declined.........surely they can't be gone forever ???

Shit AngelMother! Can you ring your support people.I'm sure they can help. Good luck!

I suspect that they will be there somewhere. It is getting them though When you delete something from the computer it isn't actually deleted but the link the computer follows to finding it is broken. Eventually that area will be overwritten with new data, but if it is not that long ago it is unlikely.

To retrieve them I suspect you may need to take your laptop in to see a computer specialist. Might be better at one of the smaller, independent shops rather than somewhere like PC World.

Sorry I can't help more Good luck!

Northener - did your presentation go okay? Did you get that graph in?

did you check the recycling bin too?

Oh dear.

You have deleted the files, but as we are always hearing from police experts, they are not completely deleted.

Whether you can recover them or not is another thing. CnR is right - eventually they will be overwritten, so you should use the computer as little as you possibly can between now and when you get this sorted.

If you don't want to take the computer to an expert, you need an un-delete utility. Unfortunately I don't know any good free ones, best paid-for one we have is recover4all (costs $150). So maybe an expert's best after all!

Hi Cnr. No I tried everything thing, and I couldn't get the damn thing in. I ended up having to recreate the thing myself. I'm sure there must have been a way to do it but I was running out of time. Thanks for your help though!

If you can remember a specific file name search all of your hard drive for that file.

Check the re-cycle bin.

Look around the desk for any back-up disks...

There my knowledge runs out I'm afraid.

You an use a programme such as Norton Utilities to recover deleted files. I did a while ago, forgot to back up and lost lots of stuff. You can't get back everything, but it does give you the choice of recovering most files. I downloaded it from Norton and paid on line.

Oh crikey - any joy angelmother?

Thanks for your help girls. Dh/h managed to get them back himself somehow, I think he did it by "Run" then choosing most recently viewed documents and searching for them.
Anyhow he got them back, it was a bit rash on my part but we'd had a major explosion earlier and I wanted to lash out at him, couldn't think of any other way to hurt him...............pathetic eh !
Thanks for all your help