Hi, Ive trashed some files, and had copies on the desktop, however when I try and open them, a message comes up saying 'this file cannot be opened, as the original cannot be found'. What's the best way to recover files? Is the software expensive? or is there a way to download it for free? Your advice would be much appreciated.
I guess the ones on the desktop were simply shortcuts rather than files themselves? Were the documents somewhere else on your C drive or on another drive? If they were really important and on your C drive turn your PC off now. Honest. Go and access this thread from somewhere else or just call a PC repair person. If the files were on a second hard drive then turn off the PC, disconnect the hard drive and then come back... If you have more than one PC then I am happy to help you recover them. Basically you need to stop any chance of information being written to the drive that had the files on them. When you delete a file it is not removed, but as new information is written to the drive then the file is overwritten. Hence me telling you to turn the PC off now if the files were on the C drive as all sort s of temp stuff gets written to the drive and on an almost full drive erased files disappear quickly.
Its my mac, I had trashed the files a couple of days ago, and left what i though were copies in a folder on the desktop. However when i went to open them, that message flagged up (guess they are shortcuts). They're stored nowhere else on my hard drive. So I think I need the recovery software. Any suggestions?
Same as before - if you are posting from your mac, turn it off now. Take the hard drive out and use file recovery software on it. I have used Active Undelete on PC many times and can recommend it. No experiece with macs though, looks like you will need a different set of tools. Do you have a PC so that you can take out the mac drive, connect it to the PC and then use something like Mac Data Recovery Software. Data Recovery Mac to recover mac files. Recover Data for Mac Or is the machine you have deleted the files from your one and only? How valuable are the files to you?
yeah it's the only computer I have, I'll maybe try phoning the apple store, or try the software you suggested. Thanks for the help.