Rescue your files

In Windows XP, use the percentage sliders to increase the space either globally or per partition (no partition can donate more than 3.99GB).

In Vista, use each partition’s ‘Maximum size (MB)’ box to enter a new value (there are no limits).

In the shadows
Owners of Windows Vista have another way of getting back old or deleted versions of files and folders.

Shadow Copy is available on the Ultimate and Business editions, and maintains periodic snapshots of all files and folders on your hard disk. It does this daily or whenever a System Restore point is created: note that if you disable System Restore, this feature won’t work.

You also need to make sure that System Restore is enabled for all your local drives – choose Control Panel, System Maintenance, System then System Protection, then check the relevant disks. See here for a step-by-step guide.

Only the differences between versions are stored, making it very efficient in terms of disk space. The beauty of it is that you can revert to previous versions of a file, or recover lost files by browsing the previous versions of its containing folder.

To access Shadow Copy, right-click on a file or folder and choose the Restore Previous Versions entry in the context menu. Choose the version of the file or folder you want to restore, then click either the Restore or Copy buttons. Of course, if you have files and folders that haven’t changed for a long time, there may be no entries recorded, so it’s no substitute for a proper backup.

For other Vista edition users, the good news is that Shadow Copy service is enabled on Vista Home Basic and Premium as well, but it’s not directly user-accessible. However, the free tool Shadow Explorer fixes this and enables you to make use of the feature.

Unfortunately, the only files that go to the recycle bin are those deleted from hard disks. Nothing goes there from sources such as memory cards and USB memory sticks. The bin won’t help you if you’ve lost files through virus infection or file-system corruption, either. Nor will it help you if you’ve recently emptied it.

Thankfully, it’s not game over – far from it. There are numerous programs available to assist in raising data from the dead, and many of them are free. Take Recuva, for example. Except for CDs and floppies, this will try to restore deleted files from almost anything – even MP3 players.

Like all undelete tools, Recuva works on the principle that deleted files often don’t get erased – even if the host disk or device has been formatted. The file system merely marks the files’ locations as free for use – the data will only be truly wiped when those locations get overwritten.

As soon as you realise you’re in trouble, immediately stop using the disk or device the files are stored on. Avoid installing any recovery tools there, too, as you might overwrite the very data you’re hoping to restore. If the files are on your main hard disk, you may need to connect it temporarily to another PC. A USB drive caddy costing around £10 is a handy device for this purpose.

The easiest way to use Recuva is by working through the wizard. With this, you can specify what to scan for (such as picture, documents, or anything) as well as where to look (such as on a USB memory stick, in a given folder, or everywhere). If the scan fails to unearth what you’re after, try again but with a Deep Scan (which could take ages). If you need more options – perhaps the ability to scan for files with specific extensions (.mp3, for example) – skip the wizard and use the program’s full interface.