asked on

file recovery

One of end users has managed to delete a fairly large chunk of data during a "cut" and "paste".
Unfortunately, this data wasn't backed up either.

Are there any tools to recover these files that are safe & free?

I've done a search on every drive of the server and cannot find any of the files.

Thanks in advance

NVIT

I've used this brand's drive cloning software with success but haven't tried their files recovery tool:

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard

https://www.easeus.com/storage-media-recovery/recover-files-from-network-drive.html

You should have some kind of 'backup', especially for a server.

NVIT

You could setup a robocopy task that copies new and changed files to a protected folder. And cycle it to overwrite automatically. Also, if possible, do a full backup every week - at least of the data, which is valuable.

It's all built in. Just need to spend some time setting it up

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Daniel Pineault

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

Hello There

I use EaseUS Data Recovery and it works great but it's paid product.

nobus

i recommend get Data Back - ir shows what it can recover - you pay for storage
http://www.runtime.org/

Dan

not sure if you turned this on or now, but Windows Server has previous versions, from the client right click the folder and properties, previous versions folder.

CompProbSolv

Other than the previous versions feature, if you don't have a backup you'll be relying on recovering files from deleted areas on the server drives. The longer the server keeps running, the more likely that data will get overwritten and become unrecoverable.

I'd do the following:
Shut the server off
Boot a version of Windows or Linux on the server from a USB stick or DVD while you have an external drive connected that is at least as big as your server drive(s)
Use a program (there are free and paid ones) to make an exact byte-for-byte copy of the server drive(s) to your external drive. This will preserve the state of the deleted areas
You can then reboot the server (remove the external drive first)
Use whatever too you like (I'm a fan of GetDataBack) to see what can be recovered from the external drive. If you do recover anything, do NOT save it to the external drive!