UndeleteOnClick Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
These FAQs aim to help you understand UndeleteOnClick better, and quickly solve any difficulties that you might encounter.
Q: What are the System Requirements for UndeleteOnClick?
A: UndeleteOnClick requires Windows 7 SP1 (Windows 2008 R2) or newer.
Q: Help! I deleted a file, how do I undelete it?
A: Follow these very important steps:
1. The first and most important thing to do is to stop using the computer you deleted the file from. Do not reboot it or switch it off. Do not save your files. Do not create any new files. Do not use your email program or a web browser.
2. If you have UndeleteOnClick already installed on your computer then run it and undelete the file. If UndeleteOnClick is on a an external drive, USB key, CD/DVD, network share, etc. then insert the external media and run UndeleteOnClick from it.
3. If you do not have UndeleteOnClick installed, on external media, or on a network share, then go to another computer and copy it to external media or a network share that the other computer can access. You can then go back to step 2.
4. If you don't have another computer you can use, and do not have it installed, on external media, or on a network share, then you'll need to download it and run it. If possible download it to a different drive from where the file was deleted.
Q: Do I need to be an Administrator to undelete files?
A: Yes.
Q: Do I need to install UndeleteOnClick?
A: No. You can simply copy the UOC. exe and the undelete. dll files to another folder, disk, etc.
Q: Do I need to be an Administrator to install UndeleteOnClick?
A: No. It may fail to install to the 'Program Files' folder, but you can choose to install it to any folder you have write permission to.
Q: Can you guarantee that I can undelete a file?
A: It is not possible to guarantee that UndeleteOnClick will be successful in recovering your deleted files. If you wish to recover an erased file now we strongly recommend that you do not read, write, change or delete any more files, or defragment your drive.
When Windows "deletes" a file, it is not physically removed. The file is still on disk, and may be recoverable, however, Windows makes the space occupied by the file available for writing. If you create a new file, or save a changed file, it may write over the 'deleted' file's space, thus destroying it permanently.
Be aware that because of the reasons stated above, a file may appear to be recoverable but may turn out to be corrupted or unreadable. This is not a shortfall in the performance of UndeleteOnClick but a result of the way the Windows operating system handles deleted files.
Q: I have undeleted a file but it contains junk. What happened?
A: When a file is deleted the parts of the drive the file was saved on are marked as free, which means when a new file is created or an existing one increased in size, it is possible that those now free parts of the drive can be used to save the new data. This means parts of the deleted file may be overwritten. When a file is undeleted it will undelete all parts of the drive that the file was using when it was deleted. Some of those parts may currently be used by another file, or at one point in time may have been used by a file that has since been deleted. Because of this you may not get all of the original file back. There is no way around this issue as the original data has been overwritten with new data. This is why it is critically important that once a file is deleted you should undelete the file as quickly as possible. Even so, in many cases it is still better to retrieve at least some of the file than none of it.
Q: Can a file be undeleted if even part of it has been overwritten by other files?
A: Yes, a file is still restored even if only part of it can be restored. The file will contain bits from other files, or junk, but it will still undelete what it can.
Q: Can I undelete a file even if I formatted the drive?
A: If it was a Quick Format then it is possible if the drive was formatted in FAT format and was previously in FAT format. Most USB keys, smart cards, etc. are formatted in FAT. To list the files you must tick the option 'Scan empty clusters for deleted files (FAT only)' when choosing the drive to scan. It is much slower, but this is because it is looking at every part of the drive for any trace of deleted files.
Q: Can I undelete a file even if I defragmented the drive?
A: Possibly. When a drive is defragmented parts of the drive that are being used are moved to increase performance (by moving them into positions on the drive for quicker serial access). This means it is highly possible that parts of the drive that have data from deleted files on them are overwritten.
Q: Some file and folder names have an odd first letter (å). Why?
A: When a file or folder is deleted from a drive formatted in FAT then the operating system changes the first letter of the name when the file is deleted (to this special character). If you undelete a file or folder with this special first character then it will be replaced with the one you provide.
Q: What type of files can I undelete?
A: Any, there is no restriction. You can even undelete NTFS compressed and NTFS encrypted files.
Q: What type of storage device can I undelete from?
A: Any that Windows can see in Explorer and is formatted with FAT, exFAT or NTFS. For example, hard drives (internal and external), USB keys, etc.
Q: Can I undelete files that are still in the Recycle Bin?
A: To undelete a file from the Recycle Bin, you can retrieve it from Recycle Bin itself.
Q: I deleted a file and emptied the Recycle Bin, but I cannot find the file to undelete. Where is it?
A: When a file is deleted from the Recycle Bin, Windows changes the filename. It has the same filename extension, but a different filename. You need to search for the file based on the extension, date and time, etc. There is no way to retrieve the original filename (the filename used before that Recycle Bin was emptied).
Q: How do I search for a file?
A: Expand the {All Deleted Files} folder and simply start typing the filename. The selection will automatically move to the file with that name.
Q: What is the {All Deleted Files} folder?
•A: It lists all the files that have been deleted on the drive as a single list. This provides a quick and simple way to quickly find a deleted file. You can search for files by simply typing the filename. Important: If the file condition is Unknown then the file may not be listed in the {All Deleted Files} folder.
Q: What are the DirectoryXXXXX folders?
A: Sometimes it is not known which directory a deleted file comes from (as that data has been deleted/lost). Such files are put into these special folders.
Q: I do not want to list empty files (files with a size of zero bytes). How do I do that?
A: Click the Change Filter button and change the value of 'Files must be larger than or equal to:' to 1.
Q: I have just deleted a file but it is not shown?
A: First check it is not in the Recycle Bin. Next, make sure you are looking at the correct drive. Lastly, try refreshing the list by pressing the F5 key (or right-click on the tree and select the Refresh menu item). Sometimes it can take several refresh attempts for a recently deleted file to appear in the list as Windows does not immediately change a drive's contents (changes may be cached in memory).
Q: What are streams?
A: A file (on NTFS) can have more than one stream, where a stream is basically another representation of the file. Most files only have one stream, but NTFS encrypted files, for example, may have more than one stream where one of the streams contains information about the encryption.
Q: Why are some filenames in blue?
A: They are NTFS compressed files.
Q: Why are some filenames in red?
A: They are zero length (empty) files.
Q: Why are some filenames in green?
A: They are NTFS encrypted files.
Q: How effective is UndeleteOnClick on an NTFS vs. a FAT file system?
A: UndeleteOnClick makes a best effort to undelete a file no matter which file system is used. Because of the way the FAT file system works it can take longer to find deleted files.
Q: UndeleteOnClick was not able to recover the file successfully. Do I have any other options?
A: There are "clean room" recovery businesses that can restore the contents of a drive, but it is not cheap (at least over US$1,000) and they require that you send them the physical drive. A search on Google or another search engine will help locate which are available. We do not make recommendations on which company to use.
Q: What does the column condition indicate in UndeleteOnClick?
A: UndeleteOnClick provides an estimation of the chances of recovering all or part of the deleted file:
• Good: There is a good chance the file can be undeleted completely.
• Fair: Some parts of the deleted file conflict with parts of other deleted files.
• Poor: Some parts of the deleted file conflict with existing files.
• Lost: All parts of the deleted file are being used again by existing files, i. e. it has been completely overwritten.
• Unknown: Damage estimation failed or was not performed at all. The file may not be listed in the {All Deleted Files} folder.
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