Recuva is a drop-dead simple Windows file recovery program [aside 1] that just saved me two hours of work. I was trying to reorganize some directories and ended up deleting two freshly written PHP files [2]. I’ve used about a half-dozen file recovery apps over the years due to my affliction [3], but Recuva was the most intuitive by far. Within 30 seconds I opened the program for the first time and closed it with my recovered files saved.

I tried to write a little review on download.com, but their Javascript was too broken for Opera.

[1] DOS’s “undelete.exe“, as crummy as it was, was the only reason ever to miss Win9x.

[2] Subversion lesson: Don’t commit directory renames/moves at the same time as modifications to descendant files/folders. Commit the rename, breathe, commit the rest.

[3] The shortcut geek in me developed the terrible habit of using [secret key]+[Delete] to delete a file, bypassing the Recycle Bin (if you don’t already know this key combination, don’t look it up; forget it existed; I wish I could).

9/6 update: Recuva just recovered 62G of Kathleen’s stuff from a failing external drive. OSX couldn’t mount it and a supposedly more heavy-duty Windows recovery app I tried couldn’t open the drive either.