What ever you do, do not delete anything more, as the more that's deleted the less the chance of recovery. I would suggest downloading this free utility Recuva , follow instructions and hopefully it will resurrect your file. If that one doesn't work, there are is another one we've had success with PC Inspector . Keep us posted.
Recuva did not find it and I am having a hard time finding a local drive for the PCInspector File Recovery program so I cant even scan with it. I am wondering now though.. it was deleted from a video camera plugged into the computer and then he emptied the recycle bin from there, would that make it harder to find as it was not a file on the computer?
Even with the camera smashed, surely you can pull the memory card and put it through a reader on your printer or external chip reader? Or if using a laptop, there is usually a reader on the front or side.
It sounds like you've lost it for good then. If the video was installed to the PC and then deleted from lets say My Pictures, there was a chance of recovering it ... if Recuva has not located the file (the file name you're looking for would probably be a number unless it was renamed) then it's probably been overwritten by other deleted files since then. If you have a downloaded video from the camera on your PC, right click the file > Properties > and get the file type (.gif etc) and try a search of your PC in the hopes it is still lurking there. Type in the search *.gif (use the extension the video file is in, not gif, but use the *. which will give you all the files of that type).
Yes I did try to just look for the video files in Recuva. The thing is.. Recuva brought up like over 1800 files that have been deleted I could see almost everything from like over a year ago even. How convenient that the file I need is the one I cant locate but all the other useless junk is still there.
Ok one other question.. now that I know it is possible to restore all these deleted files, how do I clear all that. This was a leased computer and I am giving it back on Wednesday. I have taken all my files off the computer and cleared all passwords etc.. but how do I get rid of all the deleted files? Its unnerving to know that whoever gets this computer could recover all my files.
There is a free program called Eraser that allows you to wipe only the unused portions of a drive. The remnants of old files is actually on unused space- the computer has lost track of it. Back to the camera. It has been smashed and is not in working order, but has the hard drive actually been smashed? It may be possible to remove the drive and put it in an external drive case and connect it to the computer by USB. Charlie