Undelete files on my WD3200ME portable HD

I deleted a whole file a couple of days ago on my passport - thinking mthat the info was no longer needed - whoopsie my son just asked what i did with all his xbox back-up - thats hat i deleted - I have googled hw to undelete and it came up with a page called Aidfile Recovery software - it tooks hours to run through the Passport but it has picked up the info i require but for it to recover it’s asking for $69.95 - im a little unsure as to whether i go any further with this - if i was to stop do i run the risk of losing whatever the deleted data it has awaiting for recovery - just not sure what to do from here!

help please

thanks

The first thing to do is do not use the drive. The deleted file will probably still be on the disc, but the space it occupies is now marked as available for use so if the drive is used there is a chance that new files/data may be saved to the disc which could overwrite some or all of your file.

There are many software options available for file undeletion/recovery, some free, some trialware and some paid. But a little more information is needed here - what OS are you using on the machine where you’re trying to recover the file, and indeed what OS were you using on the machine where you deleted it in the first place? Your example sounds like one of the paid ones, but there are others out there which are similar and may be free or at least cheaper.

If you deleted it from a Windows machine, there is a chance that it could be available in the Windows recycle bin. If it was, there may be a folder on the WD drive that is the recycle bin for that drive, and so it may be visible to the machine within the recycle bin on the desktop and if so it can simply be restored in the normal way (the drive will need to be plugged into the machine for the recycle bin area on the drive to be visible to the machine). There may be a similar mechanism for Linux or Mac, but I don’t know those OS’s in enough detail to comment.

hi darren,

I was using my HP Pavalion laptop which runs Windows Vista Hoe Premium 32-bit OS

the only information stored on the WD passport was stored by my son which he had directly plugged into the Xbox to store all his game data on whilst we moved home.   I’m using the same laptop computer that i used a couple of nights ago to delete all the info on the WD passport to try undelete.  I have just had a quick look on my desktop recycle bin and there is nothing on it from a couple of nights ago - however im not 100% sure but I recall something popping upsaying that the file im trying to delete is too large for the recycle bin and do I want to continue - to which I said yes - not knowing this info was needed by my son :frowning:

since I deleted from the wd passport I have used it to back-up my laptop - as this is what it was only ever used for in the first place before my son needed a larger torage space to move therefore I deleted everything else from the drive and gave it to him to use!

eek what have I done?

OK so the recycle bin is out, as you say the lost file is large and so Windows bypassed that and just directly deleted it. That also makes it less likely that the whole file would have survived, but if the program you tried can see it then maybe there is some hope.

I would say you were going in the right direction with the software idea, but the one you picked is a bit more complicated (and much more expensive) than you need - that one is aimed at recovering formatted drives or partition changes rather than just recover deleted files.

What I would suggest you do is to Google “undelete” or “recover deleted files” or a phrase like that, and then try a few of those programs. You may be able to find one that will do it for free, or that will as a trial recover a single file. As long as you minimise your actual writing files to the drive then you minimise the risk of one of those writes destroying part of the XBox file you are trying to recover. As those programs install on your laptop rather thanthe WD drive then they won’t cause any issues.

Good luck!