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Question

Cannot recover deleted pst file

by Feb 20, 2013 1:28AM PST

I deleted accidentally mi pst file. Installed several recovery programs (Recuva, Recover My Files, Stellar Phoenix Win Data Recovery, Active @ Undeleted, Pandora Recovery) and none of them show the deleted file in the original folder.

I even made a new test, deleted an old copy of my pst located in the same folder and run all programas without making any changes in the hard drive and cannot view the pst file in the deleted file list.

Both files were deleted with shift+del and the size was 500Mb aprox. Runing Win XP.

How can this be possible? Is there any way I can recover the deleted file?

Discussion is locked

5 Posts
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Answer
OUCH!!! Here's what went wrong.
by Forum moderator Feb 20, 2013 1:33AM PST

My bet is you installed these programs on the same drive as the .PST was. This can't be good as installing would and could overwrite the PST or other things/files.

Again, the proper way is to just shutdown, and I mean the bad way. REMOVE POWER so that no more damage or writing happens then pull the drive over to another machine that has the recovery software ready to use.

Let's hope you has a backup copy.
Bob

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Still have some questions
by Flox15 Feb 20, 2013 9:33AM PST

Thanks for your reply.

I agree that installations may have overwritten the drive for the original pst. But what about the last .pst I deleted on purpose, after installing all the programs? Why the file do not appear when running recovery software if nothing else was done after deletion?

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I'm guessing you are asking "Why?"
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Feb 21, 2013 5:47AM PST

Why?

Because continued use can overwrite areas that the recovery software looks for remains of the file. ANY CONTINUED USE IS DANGEROUS. And installing an application to recover files increases the chances the entries and content is overwritten.

It doesn't appear because it was overwritten.

Now you know that when this happens you have to stop using that drive or else. Backups are not optional.
Bob

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Answer
Recover deleted pst file
by Mar 11, 2013 8:23AM PDT

You can try once with PST recovery software. It will recover deleted PST file. It is much effective to recover all attributes of Outlook. Let me know which version of Outlook you are running currently.? So that I can provide you the link of this tool.

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Re: recovery
by Kees_B Forum moderator Mar 11, 2013 8:36AM PDT

Won't harm, as long as it's free to try. But since recovery is uncertain, one should never pay if the demo mode doesn't work.

Kees

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