Whenever important data is accidentally deleted from your computer or digital camera, you should observe the following in order to maximize the chances for successful data recovery. Should you have further questions, please contact our technical support department. Please note that we can only provide free support for registered customers in accordance with our license agreements. We do, however, provide data recovery services in conjunction with our subsidiary company O&O Services GmbH for a fee. Contact information can be found at the bottom of the page.

Please keep in mind that data recovery is unfortunately not always possible. Deleted data can be overwritten by the operating system either before you notice the data’s missing or are able to perform the necessary recovery procedure. In view of this, it’s always a good idea to backup your important data on a regular basis.

Causes of Data Loss

There are a lot of reasons why data losses occur. Barring a hardware failure, the cause of such data losses has little effect on whether or not the data can be recovered. Below is an incomplete list of the most common causes of data loss:

  • User error
  • Viruses or other malicious programs
  • Software malfunctions

What is Important to Remember When a Data Loss Occurs?

If it should happen, the correct course of action can be decisive in increasing the probability of whether or not specific data can be recovered. It is important to understand that when data is deleted, it has not disappeared. Instead, it has merely been reclassified on the hard disk or memory card as “free” so that it can be overwritten and therefore destroyed. Once a piece of data has been overwritten, it is no longer easily recoverable. Please consider the following:

  • After data loss has occurred, avoid writing any more data if possible.
  • Close all applications and, if possible, avoid saving any data.
  • Shut down your computer.
  • Think about how the data was erased. Try not to panic and hastily attempt to recover the data. This could result in even more data loss.
  • If the data was “normally” deleted, it can be found in the Recycle Bin. Open the Recycle Bin and restore the files in question.
  • If the data was in fact deleted, it’s advisable to use a data recovery program such as O&O DiskRecovery. Save and install this software onto a partition other than the one where you want to recover the data (e.g. “D:” instead of “C:”).
  • If you only have one partition (e.g. only “C:”), you should download and install the software onto another computer and create a diskette with “O&O InstantDiskRecovery.” More detailed instructions about how to do this can be found in the O&O DiskRecovery user handbook.

Questions and Problems

In the event you are unable to recover lost data, please contact us. Again, please note that we can only provide free support for registered customers in accordance with our license agreements. We do, however, provide data recovery services in conjunction with our subsidiary company O&O Services GmbH for a fee. Contact information can be found at the bottom of the page.