Don't panic and don't give up if it was important - call us for
advice or for call out assistance.
Don't
hope lost files will re-appear by restarting your computer
(a reboot or restart may lead to more permanent data loss)
Do
try the obvious ones first - if it's lost it may just be somewhere you
don't expect so do a search.
Then
do a thorough search; don't rely on the search software that comes with
your operating system - if you can't find it then it probably won't! You
will need to obtain some "file finder" software which you can
download to try. You may search files and folder by name or part of name, containing text, created or modified date, file size and type. Advanced Find Files can scan ZIP files. You may save search result and open files from result. Also Advanced Find Files support drag-and-drop operation. These
are from a reputable source but don't install it on the drive where you lost the file.
For more details on file finding software try this
link.
If
you've actually deleted a file you need and emptied the recycle bin -
there doesn’t seem any way to get that lost file back. That file will
remain on your hard disk (HDD) until the space occupied by that file on
the disk is needed and is overwritten by another file or you've used a
secure deletion program.
Stop! Do not switch off. The process of stopping and starting writes a lot
of data to disk and could overwrite anything not indexed.
Avoid writing to the disk where you lost the file especially if more than 1 file was lost.
If
4 or 5 above don't sound as though they'll work or you've not got the file
back yet then it's serious but still not impossible.
You're here because
your computer now thinks the file is damaged, corrupted or it thinks it
was never there to start with. This can occur due to virus damage,
malware, hard disk (HDD) damage (it's bound to happen sooner or later),
software crash or computer (OS) crash. Typical scenarios - the document
you were working on a few hours ago wouldn't save so you ended the program
or there was a memory error and the program stopped; the computer was too
slow so you switched it off. These are typical symptoms that the computer
is not tuned and no longer up to the job.
The computer keeps an index of
all its files and this index might not be updated correctly in certain
circumstances. If the file recovery software (above) doesn't find your file
then it's likely that these indexes are incorrect and these need to be
carefully rebuilt to ensure no further data loss.
Again there is software
that will help but it is essential that no mistakes are made with these
repairs as much more serious data loss can occur.
We can help - talk to us before embarking on anything with which you are uncomfortable.
Still
no luck? Then your hard drive (HDD) is probably physically damaged or the
partition information reported by the hardware to the OS is incorrect or
lost - call us .