Help with Investigation

Started by P.C., Mar 07 06 05:35

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P.C.

A friend of mine who had their home broken into a couple months ago has just discovered that some important files were 'removed' from his computer.  

Someone mentioned to me some time ago, that there is a program that will retrieve 'lost' documents, but I can't remember what it's called.

Is there anyone who can help me with this ???
Sir Isaac Newton invented the swinging door....for the convenience of his cat.

Tech

P.C. wrote:
A friend of mine who had their home broken into a couple months ago has just discovered that some important files were 'removed' from his computer.  
You mean they were deleted from the hard drive, or....? If they were deleted and it's been any length of time since, they may have been overwritten by now.

P.C.

How would one know the difference if it were deleted or removed from the hard drive ?  I know there's a difference, I just don't know how to TELL the difference.
Sir Isaac Newton invented the swinging door....for the convenience of his cat.

Tech

P.C. wrote:
How would one know the difference if it were deleted or removed from the hard drive ?  I know there's a difference, I just don't know how to TELL the difference.

There really isn't much difference. Moving is the same as copying except the files are deleted afterwards. When the files are marked as deleted the disk space becomes available for reuse and eventually the space gets overwritten making the file unrecoverable. Until it's overwritten it can (theoretically) still be recovered.


P.C.

And the only way to determine that would be to install this program that could retreive them ?

That's basically what I'm looking for, is the name of the program.  I'm guessing that this is the only way to know for sure if they have been overwritten ?
Sir Isaac Newton invented the swinging door....for the convenience of his cat.

Tech

P.C. wrote:
That's basically what I'm looking for, is the name of the program.  I'm guessing that this is the only way to know for sure if they have been overwritten ?

If it's been more than a day or two, chances are they've been overwritten. More than a week, almost guaranteed.

P.C.

"If it's been more than a day or two, chances are they've been overwritten. More than a week, almost guaranteed."[/DIV]

[img style="BORDER-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px" src="http://ghettobaby.net/Emoticons/SundayEmotes/lala.gif"]

 Just kidding tech......thanks for your help.    Bummer !
Sir Isaac Newton invented the swinging door....for the convenience of his cat.

kingy

ok, im trying to understand this...

someone broke into your friends house to delete some computer files??? was the break in related or he just happened to know that the files were somehow deleted after the break in? anyhoo..

this is worth a try...

[A href="http://www.softwarepatch.com/software/filerecovery.html"]http://www.softwarepatch.com/software/filerecovery.html[/A] or

[A href="http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/collection/0,collid,1295,00.asp"]http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/collection/0,collid,1295,00.asp[/A]

but there are companies out there that specialize in recovering lost files. it might be worth the money depending on how important the files are.
...

P.C.

ok, im trying to understand this...[/DIV] [/DIV]someone broke into your friends house to delete some computer files??? was the break in related or he just happened to know that the files were somehow deleted after the break in? anyhoo..[/DIV] [/DIV]I know it sounds bizarre.  The 'intruders' were specifically looking for this info.  It's a big ol' Peyton Place story. (long long long story).

Anyways, kingy, that's exactly what I was looking for.  Thanks muchly.

 
Sir Isaac Newton invented the swinging door....for the convenience of his cat.

Sportsdude

Corporate Espionage???!

Thought that stuff doesn't exist anymore.
"We can't stop here. This is bat country."

49er

Sportsdude wrote:
Corporate Espionage???![/DIV] [/DIV]Thought that stuff doesn't exist anymore.[/DIV]
 [/DIV]sounds more like Desperate Housewives  

P.C.

It's one of those stories, sportsdude, that you'd have to tell lies, to make it more believable.  Can't really go into it, but we need to try anything that will help him recover these 'lost' documents.
Sir Isaac Newton invented the swinging door....for the convenience of his cat.

P.C.

49er....don't watch that show, but that doesn't sound so good....lol
Sir Isaac Newton invented the swinging door....for the convenience of his cat.

49er

P.C. wrote:
49er....don't watch that show, but that doesn't sound so good....lol[/DIV]
you refered to Peyton Place....I just update......no offense meant.

kingy

P.C. wrote:
It's one of those stories, sportsdude, that you'd have to tell lies, to make it more believable.  Can't really go into it, but we need to try anything that will help him recover these 'lost' documents.


if you tell us, will you have to kill us?
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