Free NTFS file uneraser?

My Outlook Express (outlook distress, more like) has just eaten all my accounts and messages. Does anyone know of a free, fully functional undelete/unerase utility for NTFS so I can attempt a recovery? All I can find by searching is a load of stupid so-called demos which won't recover any files greater than 32k.

Many thanks in advance.

 

http://www.ontrack.com/special/0802erquad.asp

Hi Martin,

Maybe Ontrack has something for you, see that link.
All the programs mentioned there are not free and are expensive, but the last one seems to be a fully functional demo, if I understand that site right.

 

Did you have a look here;
C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{deleted by me}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

As you see, I have deleted that big combination of characters and numbers; it's different on everyone else's machine.

Well, the path I posted is for Win 98 SE; I don't know about other OS's.

 

Hi,

Give a try to this one :
Revival :

d/l : http://jceel.free.fr/revival.zip

 

Some more places to look:

http://lists.gpick.com./searcher.asp?q=repair

http://lists.gpick.com./searcher.asp?q=recover

http://lists.gpick.com./pages/Backup~Recovery_Tools.htm

http://www.execsoft.com/freeware/freeware.asp

Deleted File Analysis Utility Freeware
Deleted an important file? Find out what accidentally deleted files you can get back. This freeware can directly view your hard drive partition and list all deleted files that have not yet been completely overwritten. Runs on Windows NT®, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

http://www.oosoft.de/english/products/ooue/index.html

"O&O UnErase allows you to rescue important files that have been deleted from your hard disk as a result of a virus, malfunctioning software, or simply by accident. O&O UnErase reinstates data security when it appears to be too late. It is easy to use and works on systems operating with Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP. Anytime you accidentally delete important files that haven’t been backed up, you can use O&O UnErase to search your hard disks quickly and recover the data.
"Regardless of how your lost files have been erased, whether through a DOS prompt or from inside Windows Explorer, with or without their being sent to the recycle bin, O&O UnErase will recover the deleted files and restore all parts that are still intact. The program also offers information about how much, if any, of a deleted file has already been overwritten and is therefore definitely not recoverable. O&O UnErase can be used on workstations as well as server systems. You can even restore data on the memory card of your digital camera, ZIP® drive, or any other media using an NTFS, FAT32, or FAT16 format. Compressed files can be recovered as well as encrypted files. For Windows NT/2000/XP."

There seems to be a trial version; I'm not sure however.

 

Oh, you people are so good. No wonder I've always felt so at home here! Thank you!

 

Hi Checkout,

I really hope you can manage to get everything back and fine again.

When everything is fine again, have a look at those two places for backup tools for OE, one free and the other not free (however I'm not quite sure whether you can use them on NTFS):

http://www.tomsterdam.com/insideOE/backup/index.htm

Quote from that site:
There are three basic approaches to backing up your Outlook Express files and settings. The Simple Backup is only for your email folders and mail and news accounts settings, and it is indeed pretty simple. The Complete, or Clone, Backup is for everything in your OE Identity, including email folders, news folders, message rules, blocked senders, even your current view settings. It is very complex to describe, but takes about 2-5 minutes to complete in practice. The Partial Backup is for groups of messages, message rules only, blocked senders, etc. I suggest you read through all three sections and then decide which best suits your needs.


http://www.ajsystems.com/oexhome.html

Express Assist for backing up OE

 

WOW Jan!

The help you have provided here for Martin is absolutely astonishing! Talk about going that extra mile! Here is a karma cookie my friend, extra tasty!

This is the greatest board on the Net because of all the people here!

Best regards from Larry!

 

The .dbx files are Microsoft Outlook Express folders and inboxes.


If you are using Outlook Express 5 you can find the files by doing a Windows 'Find' for *.dbx files. For OE4 try *.mbx

Rescuing Outlook Express Data


By Dave Methvin

http://content.techweb.com/winmag/fixes/2001/05.htm




Updated February 9, 2001
(Saving Outlook Express Stuff and creating a backup for your mail so you never lose it again.)



Subject: Outlook Express!!

Losing mail can ruin your Day:

Mail, Love It -- Hate It Isn't It Great. So why is so little attention paid to good email backup? Most mail programs give you no help with the task. How do they expect you to recover your email after a crash, or move your mail to a new system? This week I'll give you some tips on how to prevent or recover from an email disaster in Outlook Express, the most-used email client on the Internet.


Emergency Data Recovery
Although .DBX files aren't plain text files, they do have the full text of your messages inside them. You can open them in WordPad in a pinch and extract important pieces of text. That's useful if the file becomes corrupted and OE can't read it. For example, OE may crash when you try to read a message in the folder or show that a folder is empty, even though the corresponding .DBX file is very big. In that case, rename the .DBX file to a .TXT extension and open it with WordPad. Then copy out whatever important text you can, and recreate a new folder in OE.


Also....

OLEXP: HotMail Messages Disappear in Outlook Express Folders (Q253474)


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q253474




OL2000: Differences Between Outlook and Outlook Express (Q257824)

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q257824



OL2000: Outlook Does Not Receive MSN E-mail Messages (Q268732)

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q268732


Read your MSN Internet Access e-mail on MSN Explorer
----------------------------------------------------

This program is based on MSN Hotmail, which is a Web-based e-mail service.
When you upgrade to MSN Explorer, your e-mail Inbox will be converted from
POP3 e-mail to Web-based e-mail automatically. This means all of your new
e-mail will come to you in MSN Explorer and not in Outlook Express. If you
need to see your old e-mail, you will be able to see it in Outlook Express.

Important details about your e-mail and newsgroups:

- You will not lose any e-mail.
- Your e-mail address will not change
- Your will receive all your new e-mail in MSN Explorer instead of Outlook Express.
- Your old e-mail will remain in Outlook Express.
- Your address book will be copied to MSN Explorer. It will also remain in Outlook Express.
- You can access your newsgroups through Outlook Express.

Uninstalling MSN Explorer and reinstalling a prior version of MSN Internet
Access will not switch your e-mail account back to your previous program.

One big benefit of the MSN Explorer e-mail system is that it allows you to
access your e-mail form any computer around the world with an Internet
connection! You must be connected to the Internet to get your e-mail.

Because Web-based e-mail does not require Outlook Express, some e-mail
features have changed. For example, your address book is now web-based so
you can access information on your contacts from any computer.


If you have any more question on email you will find the answer at these two links.

Microsoft Knowledge Base Dealing with OE and email

http://home.attbi.com/~jimpickering/
Inside Outlook Espress
http://www.tomsterdam.com/insideOE/faqs/index.htm

 

ThingyThingyThing, that's a great looking article and I'll try rescuing my OE data ASAP - tomorrow, since it's so late today!

As for Revival, I'm trying it now, and it seems about as useful as wet lettuce for the high-rise construction industry. 8(

 

Well if it works for Ya..how about posting some of the" juicy bits you find "