[SOLVED] Recovering Shift Deleted Files

[CarambarFTW]

Dear Community,

Wanting to free up some space in my OneDrive I accidently shift deleted the documents folder in the OneDrive folder, shift deleting the windows documents folder, hence all of my documents.

I tried Recuva Professional to try and recover the files: it identified them but when I tried to open them, Microsoft Office asked to repair and repair inevitably failed (for .doc and .pptx); pdfs are also identified but also unable to open.

Unfortunately I already checked the System Restore and it wasn't activated; and of course I have no back up of those files, either through a cloud system or an external hard drive.

Let me know if there is any salvation for me,

Kind regards.

 

[USAFRet]

Is this on an SSD or HDD?

and of course I have no back up of those files

Why not?

 

[fzabkar]

You should have stopped using that drive immediately, connected it to a second computer as a secondary drive, and then cloned it.

If you installed Recuva or any other software on the same drive that holds your deleted files, then the new software may have overwritten the free space that was released when you deleted those files.

 

[CarambarFTW]

Is this on an SSD or HDD?

It is an SSD.

Why not?

Used to be backed up on the cloud but then OneDrive got full and I ended up never taking care of it....

 

[CarambarFTW]

You should have stopped using that drive immediately, connected it to a second computer as a secondary drive, and then cloned it.

If you installed Recuva or any other software on the same drive that holds your deleted files, then the new software may have overwritten the free space that was released when you deleted those files.

I did install Recuva on the same drive unfortunately: then it asked to put the recovered files into another drive, which I did. But I guess it makes sense that the installation of the software itself could have rewritten some of the lost files

 

[USAFRet]

It is an SSD.

Used to be backed up on the cloud but then OneDrive got full and I ended up never taking care of it....

Being on an SSD makes any retrieval much much harder, if not impossible.

The TRIM function can very quickly make any fragments null and void.

As far as no backup...that is (should be) a standard part of PC use.
Just like owning a car, and car insurance. You can't buy car insurance 5 minutes after the crash.

Given a plethora of free software and cheap drive space, there is no reason not to.

 

[CarambarFTW]

Being on an SSD makes any retrieval much much harder, if not impossible.

The TRIM function can very quickly make any fragments null and void.

As far as no backup...that is (should be) a standard part of PC use.
Just like owning a car, and car insurance. You can't buy car insurance 5 minutes after the crash.

Given a plethora of free software and cheap drive space, there is no reason not to.

Thanks anyways