First thing let’s start with the basic. If you are running Apple MacOS, Microsoft Windows 95, NT, 98, 2000, ME, XP, Vista, or later operating system and the file has been recently deleted it is possible that the file may still be in the Trash or Recycle Bin. If present within this area it can be recovered.

“This video tutorial shows you ways of restoring files four different ways. I do not claim this video to be the ultimate way to restore files. These are just suggestions. “

Courtesy of Gigafide via YouTube

You can also opt for utilize the service of a local data recovery company or an out of state data recovery company. One word of caution is that these services can sometimes be very expensive. It is only recommended they be used if the data is extremely important. Here’s a list…

Other Methods/Alternatives

Windows Restore Point: If you can’t find a file on your computer or you accidently modified or deleted a file, you can restore it from a backup (if you’re using Windows backup) or you can try to restore it from a previous version. Previous versions are copies of files and folders that Windows automatically saves as part of a restore point. Previous versions are sometimes referred to as shadow copies. 

Personally I won’t use this method, chances you recover something are very low.

Restoration Restoration is a free program that can scan your hard drive, floppy diskette or USB thumb drive and find files that have been deleted (Windows doesn’t actually destroy files that you delete: it just marks the space they occupy as being available). It can then recover any recently deleted files it finds with a single mouse click.

You can filter the results if you know the name of the file you are looking for, which is much easier than wading through the list of the hundreds of deleted files it usually finds (including temporary files, cached Web files, etc).

I tried this data restore software, it actually works and help you recover deleted files, but you need to run the program on a different HDD or USB Memory Stick, not in the same unit drive where the deleted files are located.

Download Here

Disk Drill Mac Data Recovery Software recovers data from HFS/HFS+, FAT, NTFS & other file systems right on your Mac. It helps you undelete Mac OS files using its two powerful Mac recovery methods: Quick or Deep scanning. Disk Drill data recovery for Mac OS X locates and recovers deleted files from any mountable media like your main drive, external hard disk, memory cards, iPods Classic, etc. Disk Drill can recover photos, music, documents, applications, specific Mac OS X and other file formats.

Download Here (17mb)

Recover My Files – Recover My Files data recovery software will recover deleted files emptied from the Windows Recycle Bin, or lost due to the format or corruption of a hard drive, virus or Trojan infection…

Records Management – Records Management is the practice of maintaining the records of an organization from the time they are created up to their eventual disposal. This may include classifying, storing, securing, and destruction (or in some cases, archival preservation) of records.

Data Restore Software – Here’s a list of Data Restore Software to recover lost files and data on different devices.