Put the files in the trash, empty the trash, and then doing some other stuff, and then when I couldn't find the files again, I reinstalled windows vista... now I need/want these files

I sent files to the trash, and then I emptied the trash, and then realized that I only need/want these files, so I went to look for them, then screwed up everything while doing so somehow a shortcut on my desktop, then I put in the disc to reboot/reinstall the entire system windows vista... can we recover these items , or they are gone forever?

I don't know what kind to reinstall you did.  If it was a repair/upgrade, you may be in better shape (fact he preserve your data and programs after the re - install - then you have made the right kind of re - install).

If you did a reinstall to repair/upgrade and if you have Vista Business, Vista Ultimate or Vista Enterprise, you can be lucky.  They have so-called saves shadow copies, which are deleted or modified files that can be recovered in case changes/deletions made by mistake.  http://www.Microsoft.com/Windows/Windows-Vista/features/shadow-copy.aspx more information about how to use this feature to: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/howdoi/?p=145.

If you have Vista Basic or Premium of Vista, shadow copies is not available; However, there is an alternative that is free and the shadow copies feature called Shadow Explorer. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/recover-files-with-shadow-copies-on-any-version-of-windows-vista/.  Although it will not help you this time, it could very well save you in case this happens again.

If this does not work, here are a few free recovery programs that might help (if you did a lot for the system, because the files have been deleted, then chances are that less as they might otherwise be - see notes below):

http://www.SnapFiles.com/freeware/system/fwdatarecovery.html (first try Recuva)

http://www.SnapFiles.com/get/DiskDigger.html

http://www.SnapFiles.com/get/easusdfr.html

http://www.SnapFiles.com/get/restoration.html

http://www.SnapFiles.com/downloads/Recuva/dlrecuva.html

http://www.SoftPerfect.com/products/FileRecovery/

http://techpaul.WordPress.com/2008/06/23/how-to-recover-your-lost-files/

The files are not really deleted until they are crushed (although they are no longer available through conventional methods).  If you decide to try these recovery programs, you should stop using your drive hard immediately in order not to replace the data that you are trying to recover.  He slave on another PC and launch the recovery of this PC.  Even now you have definitely lost some of them if you use the same PC.  If you can not do this (slave on another PC), you run the risk of overwriting the data with every action you do on the PC (but you may still be able to recover some or most or even all files - it's a matter of luck).  The fact that you did a re - install is not good for what is successful, - but it's worth a try.

Only you can decide if the data is important enough to take the PC to an expert data recovery to recover files (they will have better programs and hardware to do that none of us do, and I've provided above).  Do NOT go to the Geek Squad or one of these centers of store-, they generally don't know what they are doing - it take for expert data recovery.  It will cost you a little and they generally offer no guarantees.  The decision is yours.

Good luck and I hope this helps!

Lorien - MCSA/MCSE/network + / has + - if this post solves your problem, please click the 'Mark as answer' or 'Useful' button at the top of this message. Marking a post as answer, or relatively useful, you help others find the answer more quickly.

Tags: Windows

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