Welcome to the quick-start guide for iUndelete


iUndelete makes file undeletion from FAT, FAT32 and NTFS easy. It helps you recover deleted documents, photos, archives or any other file type from hard disks, removable drives, cameras etc.. It is recommended you read this guide prior to performing a file recovery.

Unlike many other deleted file recovery utilities, iUndelete tries to make deleted file recovery as simple as possible. Although file systems are complex, the procedure for locating deleted files is fairly straight forward because the file system itself is intact. iUndelete's interface reflects this 'straight-forwardness' to avoid the need for 'wizards' as seen in so many other, overly complicated deleted file recovery utilities.

iUndelete features:

  • Works in Microsoft® Windows® NT, 2000, XP, 2003 Server, Vista.
  • Supported file systems: FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS (NT 4), NTFS5 (2000, XP, Vista).
  • Recovers compressed files (NTFS, NTFS5).
  • Recovers encrypted files (recommended procedure: recover TO NTFS5 drive).
  • Ignores file access rights (NTFS)
  • Recognizes localized names.
  • Long filename support (FAT12,FAT16,FAT32)
  • Undelete folders with subfolders

iUndelete can restore:

  • Files and Folders deleted from the Recycle bin.
  • Files that bypassed the Recycle bin (files deleted by programs or other actions that ignore the Recycle bin).
  • Common folders such as My Documents, My Pictures and other.
  • Photos deleted from digital cameras.
  • Files and folders deleted when using the command line.
  • Files deleted after virus or worm attack.

From various storage media including:

  • Hard Drives
  • Digital cameras
  • Floppy disks
  • Zip Disks
  • Jaz Disks
  • Sony Memory Sticks
  • Compact Flash cards
  • Smart Media Cards
  • Secure Digital Cards
  • Any USB disks

Follow these easy steps to get your deleted files back:

  • First of all, download and install iUndelete. If you need to recover files from a system drive use the "portable" EXE (no setup required) and run that from a removable device.

  • STEP 1: Start iUndelete and select the 'Scan' TAB. Now select the drive containing the deleted files and click 'Scan'. Wait for the scan to finish; usually this will take from a few seconds up to a minute.



  • STEP 2: After the scan has finished, select the 'Recover' TAB.



    Using the left pane which displays the folder structure, browse to the folder containing the deleted file(s). A common place for data such as documents, images and email archive files is 'Documents and Settings\#USER#\My Documents\'. 

    Files within the selected folder will be displayed in the right pane. Select one or more files (hold down the SHIFT and/or CTRL key), and click the 'Recover selected' button to recover the files.
    Pay special attention to the 'Status' column:

    The percentage displayed for each file represents the total amount of space previously (before deletion) allocated to the file that has not been overwritten yet. In general, if the status is 100% then the file is fully recoverable. Anything between 100%  and 0% means the file has been partially overwritten.

    Note that after a file has been deleted, the space previously allocated to the file is marked as 'available'. The Windows file system driver can decide to use this available space entirely or partially at any time. For this reason:
    • Recover files as quickly as you can after deletion was discovered
    • Do NOT save/install undelete software to the drive containing the deleted files
    • Do NOT save the files you want to recover to the drive you are recovering the deleted files from

    Using the directory browser, select the location where the recovered files should be saved. Do NOT save the files to the drive you are recovering files from!

    Using filters:

    If the drive contains a lot of deleted files you may want to use filters to display only those files or file-types you are interested in. All folders in the left pane that do NOT contain files that meet your filter criteria will be hidden. This makes finding your files a lot easier.



    In the example below we're only interested in '.DOC' files. As soon as this filter is applied all folders NOT containing '.DOC' files are removed from the left (directory tree) pane:



    Click the 'advanced' button in the filter window to set up even more advanced filter options (date filters, size filters, file attribute filters).

I can not find my files, or my recovered files are corrupt!

If you are unable to locate your deleted files in iUndelete, or if you find you are unable to open files after recovery then the files are probably beyond recovery! This is not a limitation of iUndelete, but the result of how file systems and operating systems work.
  • If iUndelete does not display your deleted files at all, then the file system structures that previously 'described' the file have been overwritten (re-used).
  • If the files recovered using iUndelete appear to be corrupt even though 'status' displays 100% then:
    - the space previously allocated to the deleted file has been overwritten after iUndelete examined the file system
    - the space previously allocated to the deleted file has been re-used (read: overwritten) by another file that was then again deleted
  • If you can not locate a deleted folder that contained the data that you want to recover, it is possible that the directory information for the deleted folder was lost. The files within that folder however may still be recoverable! iUndelete generates directory names for lost folders that look like '$folder_nnnn'. These can be found directly under the root or within subdirectories. Use filters to locate your files.

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