[X4U] file recovery software

[Randy B.Singer]

Stroller said:

>> yeah, i heard some people on this list mentioning this. this friend of 
>> mine still wants to give it a try thoughÖ
>
>Don't let her turn it on again, then!
>
>If you find yourself having `rm -rf really important stuff`or emptied 
>the trash of really valuable files, power the computer off IMMEDIATELY. 
>Don't use shutdown, just pull the power lead out the back or (with a 
>laptop) hold down the power button for 3 seconds until it hard-powers 
>itself off.
>
>Send the disk straight to a data recovery expert. It'll cost you 
>upwards of a hundred quid to recover the data, but there are 
>specialists who won't charge you unless they do recover useful data 
>files. Vogon have a branches in the US now, I believe, or if you're in 
>the UK contact me for the details of a little bloke who seems to have 
>quite a good reputation. It's worth noting also that data recovery 
>specialists seem to have discovered sliding pricing scales, so if 
>you're a private individual who doesn't mind if the data isn't 
>recovered for a week then it'll cost you much less than if you're a 
>corporate customer.
>
>Cue replies of "ignore Stroller's advice - just recover from a backup"

No, I agree completely.  That is exactly the best procedure to follow if 
the lost data is very important/valuable. (And I, for one, don't see the 
need to chide someone for not having a backup *after* they have already 
lost their data. Losing your data is bad enough without folks giving you 
a hard time for not being careful.) 

However, if the lost data isn't very valuable, and you just want to give 
recovery a try without having to pay a huge amount of money to a recovery 
service, you may want to try:

Prosoft's DataRescue ($99)
<http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue_info.php?PHPSESSID=78ad9999
56ef83a2f6e57cb0266397f5> 

DataRescue is much more effective in instances where a drive just dies, 
but it may have some limited effectiveness in your situation.

If you need a referral to a data recovery service that won't charge 
outrageous fees, let me know.




Randy B. Singer
Co-Author of: The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th and 6th editions)

If a man is standing in the middle of the forest speaking and there is 
no woman around to hear him ... is he still wrong?  - George Carlin