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I recently tried out the Data Recovery Pro free download. Having opted not to purchase the product, I deleted it from my computer. Is that adequate?

Data Recovery Pro’s Free Download

Data Recovery Pro’s free download is a trial version of the full featured software. It allows users to try the software at no cost to see if the product meets their needs. If so, users can purchase a license and begin recovering lost data. If not, users can safely uninstall the program from their computers.

Deleting Data Recovery Pro

Depending on how you deleted it from your computer, you may or may not need to do a little clean up. Software should not simply be deleted; it should be uninstalled. While programs create folders on your hard drive, deleting the associated folder does not remove the program completely. Programs also make entries in the Windows registry instructing Windows to perform certain actions. If you simply delete the folder, the registry entries remain behind and Windows may attempt to follow these instructions. Only trouble is, Windows can’t because the necessary files it is trying to find have been removed; thus, computer error messages or slow performance.

Using the Uninstall Feature

Many programs come with a built-in uninstall feature which provides a one-click way to completely uninstall the program and its related entries. In this case, Data Recovery Pro does not offer such a feature. However, many programs do so it’s a good idea to check. Typically, the uninstall feature is located within the program’s main folder and will show up in the Start button list when you click and expand the folder.

Using Add and Remove Programs

When programs do not provide an uninstaller, use Add and Remove Programs (or Programs and Features if you are running Windows Vista) to completely remove the program and its related entries. Go to the Start button and find the Control Panel. From there, click on Add and Remove Programs (Programs and Features) and select the program that you want to remove, Data Recovery Pro. Click on the Remove (Uninstall in Vista) button. This is adequate for removing Data Recovery Pro from your system and you won’t need to do anything further.

What if you did delete the folder? If you deleted the program, the easiest way to clean it up is to reinstall the program and then uninstall it using Add and Remove Programs.

Is there an easy way to get my pictures and other info off of a computer that the motherboard had a meltdown? I have a new computer and still have the old hard drive. I was thinking that there may be some way to take the hard drive out of the old computer and connect it to my new computer, perhaps through a USB port. Help?

You were completely on the right track. In fact there are two good ways to get your information off the old hard drive. One is to get an external hard drive enclosure that you can put your hard drive in and transfer the information to another computer. The other way is to put your old hard drive in the new computer and use it as a “slave.”

Hard Drive Enclosure

The easiest thing to do is to purchase an inexpensive hard drive enclosure. You can find them all over computer stores and the web - two places to try are New Egg and Tiger Direct. Don’t be frightened by the 4-bay enclosures that cost a few hundred dollars. All you need is an enclosure with one bay and that should run you considerably less than $50. All you need to do is take the old hard drive out, put it in the enclosure and hook the enclosure up to your new PC using the USB port. The new computer will assign the enclosure a new drive number, and you should be able to access the information and transfer it to the new system with no problem.

Set Up as a Slave

You can also put your old hard drive into a free bay in your new machine and set it up as a slave so that you can recover the data. Follow these directions to set it up as a slave:

1. Unplug the old PC and take the case off. Locate and remove the hard drive by removing the screws and take the small power cable on the side (it will have red, black and yellow wires). Pull the hard drive out.
2. Now you need to set the jumper. Find a set of pins that are located on the back of the hard drive - they are usually between the power and hard drive cable connections.
3. You should see one labeled Slave. For most hard drives, you should put the jumper here to save it as a slave.
4. Now get into the new computer and find an empty bay for this hard drive. You will see a big, wide cable. You want to connect the very end of the slave drive and use the second connection to the end for the drive that is already there.
5. Connect a power connection to the hard drive and put the case back together.

For my money, as long as all you want to do is access the data, a hard drive enclosure is the way to go. It is inexpensive and easy to do and you should be able to access everything off of it as long as it hasn’t been damaged.

I think one of my excel files has been deleted. The short cut is still on my desktop but the file will not open. I get an error message that says the file has been changed or moved. I have looked in every folder I have for this file. I even tried to do a system restore but the system says it cannot restore to that date and to try another date. I have tried every date going back to the beginning of February. I have a back up drive and the short cut icon is there but still no file opens. Please help me find my file.

Finding Lost Excel Files

It is possible that your Excel file has gone missing or has become corrupt. In addition, the file may be just fine, but the shortcut could be bad. Let’s explore the options and see if we can’t find the file in question. Also, System Restore won’t help as it only restores system files, not data files.

Recycle Bin

First, let’s check the Recycle Bin on the off chance that the file was accidentally deleted. The Recycle Bin has a “sort” feature where you can view your contents by type. Click on the label marked “type” and then scroll down to view all of the recycled Excel files. Is your missing file listed? If so, right-click it and choose Restore. If entire folders are listed in the Recycle Bin, look in each folder as well in case the Excel file was deleted because its folder was deleted.

Using Windows Search

If you have Windows Vista, you can use the Search bar to quickly find files. What’s neat about this Search bar is that you can enter the beginning of the file name and it will list all files that are potential matches. For example, if your Excel file is named SalesReport2009.xls, enter “sales” in the Search bar. This is useful if you can’t remember the exact name.

Using Windows Explorer

Windows Explorer also has a Search box. Go to the Start button and right-click it. Choose Explore. Now, find your hard drive in the list and select it. Enter the name of the file in the Search bar and wait for the results to be listed. Is your file listed? You can also enter *.xls in the Search bar to list all files on your hard drive ending with the Excel file extension .xls (note that Excel 2007 uses the file extension .xlsx).

Broken Shortcuts

Since you’ve already looked in your folders for the file, your shortcut is probably fine. However, shortcuts can become corrupt, so it’s not always safe to assume that if a shortcut doesn’t work that the file is gone. If you do find your Excel file but the shortcut doesn’t work, delete the shortcut and create a new one.

Another option is to right-click the shortcut and choose Properties followed by Details. This will show us the exact location of the file along with other information. Write down the path and open Excel. Now, choose File > Open and browse to the exact path. Make sure that All Files (*.*) is selected in the drop down box next to File Name.

Restoring Excel Files from Backups

Since you mention that you have a backup drive, use Windows Explorer to search for a backup of the missing Excel file.  

Using Data Recovery Software

If you still cannot find your Excel file, download the ParetoLogic Data Recovery scan tool and scan your system for this lost Excel file. The free scanner tool will let you know if the missing file is recoverable or not so that you don’t have to pay only to find out the file is not there. This data recovery software is amazing and you may be pleasantly surprised to find your deleted Excel file. If so, you can decide whether purchasing the full product makes sense for you.

I am trying to recover emails, my email client being Mozilla Thunderbird.

Recover Email in Mozilla Thunderbird

Reset Thunderbird View Settings

Depending on the cause of your missing emails, there are a few different scenarios that might work to retrieve them. If you are missing emails from your Thunderbird inbox that you haven’t moved or deleted, you should try these troubleshooting tips:

• Open the View tab, then Messages and make sure it is set to All,
• Open the View tab, then Threads and make sure it is set to All
• Check that the Advanced Folder Views is set to All Folders

If you are trying to retrieve emails that you have deleted, or may have accidentally deleted, Mozilla Thunderbird offers comprehensive instructions to undelete them here.

Restore Deleted Thunderbird Email Accounts

If you have deleted your entire Thunderbird email account by clicking Remove Account, it is still possible to retrieve email. The data should still be stored on your computer in a Mail folder.

1. First, you will have to start Thunderbird and create a new email account, but use the same username and settings as the account that was deleted.
2. The software will automatically recognize that there is an earlier account with the same name and designate a -1 - to the account name to distinguish it.
3. Now, in Thunderbird, open Tools, Account Settings, Server Settings, then Local Directory - find the old account directory - the name without the - 1 - and select it
4. Restart Thunderbird
5. Open the inbox and it should display any received messages

Contact a Remote Technician

If these basic steps don’t work to recover your email, there are a number of more advanced techniques that assume a fairly large knowledge base and altering files and folders. If you require more personalized advice, I suggest that you contact a remote technician for one-on-one support. A technician can walk you through troubleshooting steps to resolve your issue.

Install a Data Recovery Program

If you are missing emails as a result of a computer virus or data loss, there are also a number of data recovery products on the market that will scan your computer and recover all kinds of lost data. Here is a link to a program called Data Recovery Pro by Paretologic. These programs are very helpful and user-friendly, and will do the work for you to recover your missing emails. Make sure to select the Pro version as the standard version does not recover emails.

Depending on how the files were lost, the steps will vary. In some cases, you can recover files using built-in features; in other cases, you’ll need data recovery software.

Recovering Deleted Files

If you’ve deleted the file, you may be able to recover the file using the Recycle Bin’s restore feature. Go into the Recycle Bin and see if the file is listed. If so, right-click the file and choose Restore. This will undelete the file and place it back in its original location.

The drawback to using the Recycle Bin is that it doesn’t always work. For example, if the Recycle Bin has been emptied, then the file is no longer there. Another problem is that extremely large files bypass the Recycle Bin completely, so this isn’t an option for many deleted files.

Recovering System Files

Windows comes with a built-in utility for recovering lost or damaged system files called the System File Checker. You will need your original Windows installation CD to use this utility. It scans your system for damaged or missing system files, replacing them with original files from the CD. To run System File Checker, go to Start> Run and enter: sfc /scannow

Recovery Lost Data Files

If you’ve lost data files and they are not in the Recycle Bin, you can use data recovery software to recover them. Data recovery software can only recover files that haven’t yet been overwritten by new data. When you delete a file, the file’s references are removed yet the file itself remains on your hard drive. Windows considers the deleted file as deleted and the space that it occupies as “free space” where new data can be stored. You have a window of opportunity to recover deleted files between the time of deletion and when new data is written over it.

The first step is to find a data recovery program. We recommend Data Recovery from ParetoLogic Software because it’s easy to use and effective. A free demo version allows you to see if the file you want to recover is still available for recovery. If so, then you can purchase the full version and quickly recover the file.

In this case, you would launch the software and click the Scan or Start button. The data recovery software will then scan your computer for recoverable files. It lists files by type. For example, all recoverable document files will be grouped together, all photos together, all music files together, and so forth. Once you find the file, simply click it and choose Recover. Depending on how you set up the software, the file will be recovered to a specific folder where you can then work with the file or move it to its original location.

If you know the file’s name or other characteristics, you can instruct the software to search for that file in particular, making for a faster recovery and less wading through results. However, it’s kind of fun (and amazing) to see how many files are recoverable on your computer.  

Can this program recover deleted emails from Facebook webmail?

Not specifically, in fact, Facebook’s official line is that once a message has been deleted, it is gone forever. If everything lines up correctly however, there is a possibility of getting a message or a message thread back as long as you got an email from Facebook announcing the message. I just tried it to make sure I wasn’t giving you false information, and it worked!

Show Deleted Messages

The first thing is to check and see if you got an email in your regular email account saying that you got a message from someone. If you did, and you still have that message in your inbox, then all you have to do is click on the link that is at the bottom of message in your email inbox. That link will take you to Facebook and the message center, even though you deleted that message or message thread. Under the message title, you will see a notice that you deleted that message or thread. Right next to that, you will see a link that says: Show Deleted Messages. Click on that, and the message or message thread magically appears just as if you never deleted it.

Recover Deleted Emails

You may encounter a problem if you deleted the email from your inbox that gave you the Facebook message notification. If you did delete the message, did you empty your delete folder? If not, then look there - do a search under “Facebook” if you have a lot of messages and aren’t sure when the original message was sent. If you did delete the message and then empty the delete folder, then you are going to have to go through a few more steps to recover that deleted email that contains the link to the Facebook message.

Data Recovery Software

In this instance, where you have deleted an email and then emptied the recycle bin or deleted email folder, a program such as Data Recovery Pro can help you. The program will let you preview recoverable files and has a good customer support base in case you have a problem. Once you have recovered the Facebook email with the link to the message, you should be able to follow the above steps and see your message thread.

If this was simply a message that you sent, and didn’t get a reply on that thread in your email inbox, then you very well may be out of luck. I have not found any other way to recover deleted threads or messages.