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General Category => Discover Seattle! => Topic started by: P.C. on Mar 07 06 05:35

Title: Help with Investigation
Post by: P.C. on Mar 07 06 05:35
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 ???
Title: Re: Help with Investigation
Post by: Tech on Mar 07 06 05:52
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.
Title: Re: Help with Investigation
Post by: P.C. on Mar 07 06 06:04
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.
Title: Re: Help with Investigation
Post by: Tech on Mar 07 06 06:23
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.

Title: Re: Help with Investigation
Post by: P.C. on Mar 07 06 06:26
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 ?
Title: Re: Help with Investigation
Post by: Tech on Mar 07 06 07:08
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.
Title: Re: Help with Investigation
Post by: P.C. on Mar 07 06 07:59
"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="vny!://ghettobaby.net/Emoticons/SundayEmotes/lala.gif"]

 Just kidding tech......thanks for your help.    Bummer !
Title: Re: Help with Investigation
Post by: kingy on Mar 07 06 09:20
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="vny!://www.softwarepatch.com/software/filerecovery.html"]vny!://www.softwarepatch.com/software/filerecovery.html[/A] or

[A href="vny!://www.pcworld.com/downloads/collection/0,collid,1295,00.asp"]vny!://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.
Title: Re: Help with Investigation
Post by: P.C. on Mar 07 06 09:28
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.

 
Title: Re: Help with Investigation
Post by: Sportsdude on Mar 07 06 09:48
Corporate Espionage???!

Thought that stuff doesn't exist anymore.
Title: Re: Help with Investigation
Post by: 49er on Mar 07 06 10:07
Sportsdude wrote:
Corporate Espionage???![/DIV] [/DIV]Thought that stuff doesn't exist anymore.[/DIV]
 [/DIV]sounds more like Desperate Housewives  (//vny!://discoverseattle.net/forums/richedit/smileys/Teasing/12.gif)
Title: Re: Help with Investigation
Post by: P.C. on Mar 07 06 10:08
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.
Title: Re: Help with Investigation
Post by: P.C. on Mar 07 06 10:09
49er....don't watch that show, but that doesn't sound so good....lol
Title: Re: Help with Investigation
Post by: 49er on Mar 07 06 10:15
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.
Title: Re: Help with Investigation
Post by: kingy on Mar 08 06 06:36
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?
Title: Re: Help with Investigation
Post by: P.C. on Mar 08 06 09:31
kingy wrote:    if you tell us, will you have to kill us?[/DIV] [/DIV]Noooooo, silly goose, but a light maming could be in order.