Recovering Deleted Files

From what i've heard, when you delete a file, it's not always "deleted" completely. and i deleted a folder some time back and because i'm stupid, i now need it.

it's a file full of photos, and i don't remember the name of the file.

is there any way to recover the photos?

how easy it will be depends on

i) how much money you have
ii) how long ago you deleted the file/folder
iii) how often you defrag your drive.

i've used a couple of free programs to recover files that i accidentally deleted (folder too big for trash can and all that) and it got back maybe 80% of the folder by searching for the file names.

i'll see if i can find it again.
in the meantime, someone who better professional knowledge might chime in.

back later.

A lot depends on how long ago you deleted it. Try this program:

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

Have you already checked the Recycle Bin?

Depends how long ago you deleted them. If it's longer than a week or two, I would give up now.

Otherwise, try GetDataBackforNTFS.
http://www.runtime.org/

It will recover files based on extension (*.JPG) but probably won't have the correct file names, or directory structure, so you'll probably have to recover all trashed JPGs from your drive then sort through them.

it was more than a week ago and it's been defragged since they were deleted.

so they're gone for good?

They're not gone for good until you use 2 or 3 data recovery programs. After that, it's $$$ for a specialist - and then not guaranteed. Don't forget when trying to recover data you can't save onto the same drive you're trying to recover. I wouldn't use your computer for anything until you try data recovery - every write to the disk decreases your chances of getting the data back.