www.execsoft.com
Pricing:
Work station one license $44.95 (US)
Server one license $259.95 (US)
Reviewed by Don Hughes
Undelete 3.0 offer’s PC users a more reliable way of
recovering files, should anyone accidentally or intentionally delete an
important file. Yes, I am as guilty as anyone who in a haste to delete
files has accidentally deleted important data, when cleaning up old data
from a hard drive. Microsoft does provide a recycle bin, as part of the
Windows operating system, however, why use Undelete when Microsoft Windows
has a built in recycle bin?
Many deleted files bypass the recycle bin. Therefore,
cannot be restored with Windows built in tools. In addition some programs
can be set to bypass the recycle bin when deleting a file. A New York
Times article reported, "Accidental deletions accounted for $15 billion in
losses to corporations annually." There is little doubt if one deletes a
database, accounting information; medical information; essay papers and
important business documents the costs are incalculable for the end user.
An article in the New York Times on June 29, 1999
stated, "Eliminating Data Files Is Costly for Business. Broadcasters
Network International, market research Company, says biggest threat to
corporate data security is, by far, computer users accidentally deleting
files. Says survey of 300 system managers found accidental deletions cause
30 times the data loss that viruses do." Accidental deletions, according
to information on Executive Software's web site, cost corporations an
estimated $15 billion dollars annually.
As a computer consultant & field service technician, I tend not to deal
with large corporations, but with small business, home office, and
personal computer users. Unfortunately, I have seen far too many customers
having to rebuild accounting data, inventory, documents, research data,
customer lists, and personal files, which have been accidentally deleted.
Smaller businesses do not have the extra staff to tackle rebuilding data.
Instead, time has to be diverted from other projects, or the employees
work overtime, nights and weekends restoring lost information.
It has been my experience that no matter how often I lecture users to back
up their important data, relatively few users take the extra time to make
backups. Even users who make copies and backup on a regular basis can
accidentally hit delete and toss a file into the Recycle Bin or into an
unrecoverable cyberspace. Undelete 3.0 is a tool that can give some piece
of mind to those of us who operate a mouse at warp speed and hit the
delete buttons by accident.
The main problem with a file deletion as in the case of
a hard drive failure without a backup is that the data can take months to
restore, and in some cases, it is impossible to recreate the exact data.
With the rapid expansion of digital imaging such as scanners, and digital
cameras a simple miss-click of a mouse can delete irreplaceable
photographs. Digital photography is fast becoming the photographic system
of choice with many companies, small business and consumers.
The drawback when using digital photography is should
any user accidentally delete a photograph or an entire directory, there
are no photographs, slides or negatives from which to make reprints.
Another reason to make Undelete 3.0 an integral part of your computer
system today is most businesses have to do more with fewer employees, and
office workers are tired and fatigued. The more tired, an end user or
overworked employee is the greater chance of having data deletion
accidents.
Have a computer long enough and one soon finds out just
how easy how easy it is to delete a file or a directory from the hard
drive. Undelete 3.0, from Executive Software provides additional insurance
to protect files and directories. Even with the added comfort of Undelete
3.0, the user must maintain good backup habits to protect from
catastrophic data loss.
Undelete 3.0 can help any user recover after important
documents, database or financial records which have been knowingly or
inadvertently deleted. Included on the Undelete 3.0 CD is Executive
software "Emergency Undelete" utility. Once a file or files have been
deleted and if the end user has not installed another program or programs
to the hard drive; there is a good chance the file or files can be
restored using the Emergency Undelete utility. Emergency Undelete runs
from the CD after the program installs a minimum number of files onto the
hard drive.
I had the opportunity to field test Emergency Undelete
on a client’s computer that suffered a Windows 98 crashes. The client
called me to inquire if it was possible to recover her income tax records
for the past three years from their corrupted PC hard drive. To make
matters worse the client had attempted a restore of Windows, and I was now
unsure if any deleted data could be recovered, as it might have been over
written. We removed the customer’s drive from their computer and
reconnected it as a slave drive in one of our systems. The recovery
process was simply a matter of running EmergUnd.EXE, entering the drive
letter, and the program set to work looking for deleted files.
It did not take the program long to search and return a
list of previous deleted files, and programs. Reading the long list
recoverable files, I was very impressed by the size and scope of programs
and files Emergency Undelete located on the corrupted drive. However, we
could find only one year of tax data for the client, and not all three
years, which was troubling as not a trace of data for the other missing
years was located. I called the client to inform her of what we did
recover, and she was extremely happy to even one year of missing data
recovered. Later the client called after remembering saving the missing
two years of tax data directly onto a floppy disk and not to the hard
drive—the client later found tax data disks.
Undelete 3.0 have several new added features, which
enable the program to capture and display which user and the users account
that deleted the file—See graphic below.
The program has new enhanced search
compatibilities for files, by date, date deleted, and owner, location, and
drive or drive partition. In addition to the many enhancements to Undelete
3.0 Executive software have added SecureDelete to permanently erase any
file, by overwriting the file location using patterns developed by the
National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Defense (DOD)
standards. SecureDelete can help prevent any company’s data being
recovered from recycled hard drives.
Undelete 3.0 is very user friendly, and does not
require the end user to have a degree in computer science. Simplicity
aside Undelete 3.0 is a very powerful utility for any PC, from the home
user, small business, or large corporation that require added protection
against mysterious data disappearances. Computers, hard drives, Windows
operating system, and programs can be replaced, updated or reinstalled. On
the other hand, genealogy family trees, digital pictures, letters, essays,
important tax or financial information, databases, and research data can
take months to recreate or may never be a hundred-percent reconstructed.
Undelete 3.0 is added insurance for any PC user, be
they have a single workstation to the Server with multiple workstations.
Recovering one important accidentally deleted file will more than pay for
the programs cost. If you have PC’s in your home or office, you need
Undelete 3.0.
Undelete 3.0
