GetData Software will be in HALL 3 at CeBIT Australia, Stand K32
Frustrated searching your recycling bin for lost information? Don't lose your temper over lost data! Find peace of mind with the most sophisticated data recovery solutions on the market.
Many PC users assume the ability to retrieve deleted data extends no further than pulling files out of Windows’ Recycle Bin. But even files that have disappeared from that safe haven may still be there to be recovered.
GetData has dedicated itself to retrieving the irretrievable, and is set to launch version 4.0 of its Recover My Files product at Cebit 2006.
It is a little known fact that even when data is emptied from Windows’ Recycle Bin, it is not actually deleted. That only happens when another file is written over the space that the deleted file previously occupied.
Even re-formatting a hard drive does not destroy the data on a drive.
According to John Hunter, a founder and director at data recovery software developer GetData, the process of deleting a file in Windows is more akin to deleting a reference to an entry within the index of a book, as opposed to ripping out the page where the entry had resided.
Hunter says that many file recovery products are capable of finding where the index had previously pointed.
His company’s software, called Recover My Files, goes one step further, actually looking at the contents of the computer’s hard disk to identify files for which no index entry exists.
“Lots of software on the planet can go through the index and look for the deleted file marker, and then report back – that’s easy,” Hunter says.” What is difficult is when the index page is now gone, which happens quite often, the operating system no longer has any records at all.”
Hunter says the software can recover files which are no longer recognised by the operating system in any way, shape, or form.
For example, Hunter says a Microsoft Word document has a particular file content structure that can be identified by GetData’s software, which finds the start and end of that data file to determine the file’s location.
The software can determine the file type and even preview it for the user – including playback of deleted audio and video files. Although the deleted file often loses its name, the data is intact.
”It’s the ability to get back those more difficult files and be able to preview them that makes GetData different from the rest,” Huner says. ”The competition has a lot of trouble doing that, and is finding it too hard.”
GetData was created in 2001 by former police software forensics experts Hunter and Graham Henley, with the technical expertise of Hunter’s brother, Brett.
The first version of Recover My Files was released via the internet in early 2002, and the latest, version 4, will be released at CeBIT Australia 2006.
The company has also expanded its product lines, adding numerous application-specific versions of the product, along with another product, Explorer View, which enables users to open almost any file type even if they do not own the native software that would normally allow them to do so.
Hunter says the software still has good scope for further improvements in data recovery techniques. However, he warns that even with the best recovery software, once a file is overwritten, it is gone for good.
“The more times you turn your computer on and off and use it, the data that can be recovered starts to dwindle - so you have to move quickly,” Hunter says.
www.getdata.com