How does recovery disc work?

Re: Hoe does recovery disc work?

Neha

Can anyone throw some light on how does recovery disc works coz if we have deleted data from our Computer then howz its possible to recover the same?

It means data do exist on Computer although if we delete it..isn't it??

I'm afraid, I might be wrong. But here's what I've learned -

When you delete a software from your hard disk, only the address is wiped out from the disk. That is, the software files are still on your hard drive. A recovery disk might just restore the address of those file and you get access to your 'deleted' files.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

-The Big K-

Re: Hoe does recovery disc work?

Thats correct, google some good data recovery apps. I was amazed when I just ran one for fun! I uncovered age old files!! some even 4 years old 😀

Its all user friendly too. But remember, if you have used an advance app to explicitly "erase" the ffiles then there is no possible way to retrieve them.

Thanks to Jerry's FAT and NTFS thread, I found this in Google:


This is what that happens when you intentionally delete a file and why it may be possible to bring that file back. When you select a file and press the delete key on a Windows computer the file is sent to the Recycle Bin. You may think of the Windows Recycle Bin as just another fancy storage folder on your hard drive. The 'real' deletion (at least as far as this article is concerned) is what happens when the Recycle Bin is emptied or the deletion bypasses the Windows Recycle Bin altogether.
When a file is deleted the Operating System marks the file name in the MFT(MAster File Table) with a special character that signifies to the computer that the file has been deleted. The computer now looks at the clusters occupied by that file as being empty and therefore available space to store a new file. What the Windows Operating System does NOT do is go out to the clusters on the hard disk where the files data is actually stored and wipe the contents of these clusters. The deleted file data is still there, but the Computer Operating System no longer knows it exists.
This in fact is the underlying principal of data recovery. It is about finding data that still exists on the hard drive but which currently can't be located by the Operating System. If the clusters containing the data have are, corrupted or physically damaged, then recovering the data they once contained is impossible.
Ok, so my data is still there, but for how long? The answer to this question is completely up to you. The only way that your deleted MFT record or your file data itself will permanently be destroyed is if it is overwritten by other data. This means that any computer activity after the deletion has the potential to permanently erase otherwise recoverable files.

whatever neha said is true to a certain extent in linux as well. In linux there is actually a provision for flagging files which are deletable and undeletable via an attribute. Such files cannot be deleted nor over written. However they can be appended to...

by the way, isnt the title supposed to be 'how does recovery software work?' rather than 'how does recovery disc work?' no offence to anyone. Just thought i'll point that out.

Re: Hoe does recovery disc work?

xheavenlyx

I was amazed when I just ran one for fun! I uncovered age old files!! some even 4 years old 😀

It proves one thing. Our friend 'heavenly' rarely uses the hard disk on which he found the file he deleted 4 years ago.

Cos, if he had been using that hard disk regularly, the OS would have over written that part of the hard disk that stored his '4 yr old file' atleast once in the last four years.