My friend deleted some files and then emptied the recycle bin. I told her that the files were gone for good. She asked me if i was positive....and I said yeah...then she asked me to double check coz these files are important (don't know why she delted them in the first place!)...so my question is...is there a way to get back files once deleted from the recycle bin??

system restore, if available.

She's running WIn98

Deleteing the files only deletes the reference to them. The files are still on the hard drive until they are overwritten.
There are free programs that will find these deleted files.....

Disk Investigator version 1.2 www.theabsolute.net/sware/dskinv.html
Win95, Win98, WinME, WinNT, Win2000, WinXP

Disk Investigator helps you to discover all that is hidden on your computer hard disk. The program can display the true drive contents by bypassing the operating system and directly reading the raw drive sectors. You can view and search raw directories, files, clusters, and system sectors and also verify the effectiveness of file and disk wiping programs. The directory mode allows you to browse the file system in a file structure, the raw mode displays a sector-by-sector view (for advanced users).

and....

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm
95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP
In order to display the HTML help files on WINDOWS 95, you need to download and install the "HTML HELP SUPPORT" from the MICROSOFT Web-site. This is already included in WINDOWS 98/ME/NT/2000/XP
Under Windows XP you will have to have Administrator rights, so that all logical drives will be displayed to you.

PC INSPECTOR™ File Recovery 3.x is freeware. By freeware is meant programs that can be obtained, used and distributed free of charge.
PC INSPECTOR™ File Recovery 3.x is a data recovery software tool that is made available free of charge. Please note that you may only use the software if you agree to the following license conditions. CONVAR does not provide any support for PC INSPECTOR™ File Recovery 3.x.
PC INSPECTOR™ File Recovery is a data recovery program that supports the FAT 12/16/32 and NTFS file systems. The current version 3.x replaces the previous version 2.x, which is now over 6 years old.
Here are some of the new features in PC INSPECTOR™ File Recovery 3.x
Finds partitions automatically, even if the boot sector or FAT has been erased or damaged (does not work with the NTFS file system)
Recovers files with the original time and date stamp
Supports the saving of recovered files on network drives
Recovers files, even when a header entry is no longer available. Competition products cannot recover such files. The "Special Recovery Function" supports the following disk formats:
ARJ AVI BMP CDR DOC DXF DBF XLS EXE GIF HLP HTML HTM JPG LZH MID MOV MP3 PDF PNG RTF TAR TIF WAV ZIP
HOW TO USE
After starting the program, you should first select the desired language. A menu will then appear in which you can select from three different reconstruction methods.
On the next page you can chose one of three reconstruction possibilities. The program includes an extensive html help
Please note that PC INSPECTOR™ File Recovery 3.x cannot reconstruct files from data carriers that are mechanically or electronically damaged. You should only use data recovery software if you are very confident in the use of your PC.
If your hard disk or other data carrier has a mechanical or electronic defect or you do not feel confident in the use of data recovery software, we suggest that you contact a data recovery company such as "CONVAR - The Recovery Team".
http://www.convar.com/

Michael
Thank you...I will post back with the results

ooo computer forensics fun stuff. do it all the time. GoingCrazyGal the only way to get delete everything thing is two ways the first is to do 8 to 10 low level formats. just a few won't do because you still can recover data. don't beleive anyone who tells you that a low level will remove everything. second try to find a program that will rewrite over the sectors. so here would be an example. for Department of Defense standards is usually 7 to 8 passes of a lowlevel format. then use the program that would write misc data to the hdd and then one more pass of the low level format. there should be no trace of your data after this. this is all i do as a job so if you have any questions email me at pinkyandthebrian@earthlink.net:)

Michael...hugs and kisses...PC Inspector worked yay....and all's well in the state of Denmark :))

blacklotus...thanks for the info...I didn't know that.

GoingCrazyGal, glad it worked for you.
Does this mean a free holiday for me in Denmark ?????
{:-)