How to recover a folder deleted in Windows 7

Solution 1:

There is a slight chance it can be recovered, especially if you have a large hard drive and when you re-installed Windows and you performed a quick-format instead of a full format.

A quick format only wipes out the MFT which is like a list of files and folders and that tell the OS the physical location on the disk of where to find those files (Along with creation dates etc). The actual DATA doesn't get erased or overwritten, it just gets orphaned and is no longer marked as data, therefore the OS is free to use those bits to write new files there.

Unfortunately, re-installing your OS means you're potentially overwriting those bits with new files, and the more you use your computer, the more chance there is that you're still overwriting them. Again, a very large hard drive could save you if the files you want to recover are at the end of the drive.

I've recovered data from formats before and there are several free products that can scan your drive for you and recover files, but it takes a LONG time as your ENTIRE drive must be scanned.

Here's some free software you can try:

Recuva : http://www.piriform.com/recuva

TestDisk : http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

Undelete Plus

Restoration : http://www.aumha.org/downloads/restoration.exe

I highly recommend you stop using your computer now and plug your drive into another computer where you can install and run the recovery software.