Over the past several years, I’ve downloaded a great many mp3s. Periodically, to conserve HD space, I will commit them to CD and delete them from my computer. However, my CD book has just ben stolen. I seem to recall hearing somewhere that some PCs have a “goback” function that allows you to revert to a previous date (I’m not sure if minecan do this, it’s a Gateway). So, if I can go back, would I just have to start going back to random times and burning what files I could, or is there a way to pull up all of the files my PC has ever contained (don’t police do this when they confiscate your computer)? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Windows XP has a “system restore” function that allows you to revert to a configuration on any date on which a “restore point” was created. This has nothing to do, alas, with files you’ve created - it’s just a way of, for example, going back to using something like an older video driver if a new one you’ve installed has proven to be a disaster, or of undoing the damage done by an unwise software installation. I’ve never heard of any other sort of “goback” function, but perhaps someone else has.
IMO, just about your only hope of recovering your music files would be if they were still sitting in the recycle bin. Beyond that, you’re pretty much screwed, I’m afraid. There are ways of recovering deleted files, but they are very limited (if that drive sector has been written over by newer stuff, for example, recovering the older stuff is going to be damn near impossible), and not likely to offer you much hope.
The way a hard drive works is this. When there are free spaces to write to, that’s where it writes the information. Now, when you empty your recycle bin, it tells the computer that those spaces are free to write to again. It doesn’t write over them or actually erase them, just says they are free. Now, when you go to save another file, it may or may not write back over that space again. Bottom line is this, you may be able to recover some of the files that got deleted, but not even the cops are going to be able to recover every file that was ever on your computer. I’d start with this program here. PC Inspector