Rahul Gaur, Author at My Tricks Time

How to Recover a Deleted File: The Ultimate Guide

July 1, 2014 by Rahul Gaur

It�s happened to most of us. You delete a file and realize you need it back. This guide will explain when you can get that file back and how to go about it.

We�ve covered a variety of tools for recovering deleted files in the past, but this guide goes more in-depth. We�ll cover everything you need to know if you want to successfully recover deleted files.

Is it Really Deleted?

If you�re not sure whether you permanently deleted a file, be sure to look around for it first. In Windows, you�ll want to open the Recycle Bin and look for the file. You can search the Recycle Bin using the search box at the top-right corner of the window, which may help if you have a lot of files in your Recycle Bin. You can also right-click in the window, point to Sort By, and select Date Deleted to view files that were recently deleted.

Note that programs like CCleaner empty your Recycle Bin when you run them, so having CCleaner or a similar program automatically run in the background can prevent you from recovering files from the Recycle Bin.

If the file was stored in a cloud storage service like Dropbox, Google Drive, or SkyDrive, be sure to log into your account on the service�s website and check your trash there � you may find the file is still recoverable. This is the cloud storage version of the Recycle Bin.

If you�re not sure whether you deleted the file, perform a search for it using the search box in the Windows Explorer or File Explorer window. Hopefully the file was accidentally moved elsewhere and you can find it again.

Check Your Backups

You should be making regular backups of your most important files so you won�t lose too much critical data if they ever vanish on you. If you do have a backup, now�s the time to check it for a copy of the file you deleted.

Windows has built-in backup tools, so they may be able to help. Windows 7?s Previous Versions tool may have created a backup of your file, even if you haven�t set anything up. To check previous versions, navigate to the folder that contained your file, right-click it, and select Restore previous versions. You can view backups that have been created and click the Open button to browse them � you may find a backup copy of your important file.

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Windows 8?s File History feature isn�t enabled by default, so you�re out of luck if you never enabled it manually. If you have enabled File History, you can visit a folder and click the History button on the ribbon to browse backup copies of files that were once stored in that folder.

Magnetic Hard Drives vs. Solid-state Drives

If you�ve made it this far and haven�t managed to restore your file yet, the only way you�re getting that file back is with file-recovery software. However, there�s some bad news: This may be impossible on some computers.

Traditional magnetic hard drives and solid-state drives work differently. When you delete a file on a magnetic hard drive, its data isn�t immediately erased from the disk. Instead, the pointer that points at the data is removed. The data can then be overwritten. It may be possible to scan the hard drive for leftover data and restore deleted files that haven�t yet been overwritten.

When a file is deleted from a solid-state drive, that file�s is immediately erased with the TRIM command to free up the space and ensure the SSD can be quickly written to in the future. That means that you can�t recover data deleted from solid-state drives � once it�s gone, it�s gone. Very old solid-state drives and old operating systems like Windows Vista don�t support TRIM, but modern solid-state drives and Windows 7 and 8 all support TRIM.

The Safest Way to Recover a Deleted File

If you deleted a file on a magnetic hard drive and you�re still using that computer, the safest thing to do is shut down the computer immediately. If you continue using the computer � even if you�re just installing file-recovery software � it�s possible that a program on your computer could write to the disk and that data could overwrite the deleted file�s data on your hard drive.

With the computer shut down, you should boot from a file-recovery live CD or USB drive or remove the hard drive from the computer entirely and place it in another computer as a secondary drive. The key is to avoid writing to the drive entirely. Use file-recovery software to scan the drive, and hopefully you�ll find the deleted file. If you deleted the file recently and haven�t written to the drive much, you have fairly good odds of recovering it. If you deleted the file two weeks ago and have written to the drive quite a bit, it�s very unlikely that the file will be recoverable.

We�ve covered using the ntfsundelete and photorec tools to do this from a Ubuntu live CD or USB drive.

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The Quicker, Riskier Way to Recover a Deleted File

If you�d like to get a deleted file back but it isn�t extremely important and you don�t want to go to much additional effort, you can do it the easier, riskier way. Just install a file-recovery tool like Recuva, from the makers of the popular CCleaner application. Use that application to scan your hard drive for deleted files and restore the one you want back, if you can find it.

This is riskier because it involves writing to the drive. When you install a tool like Recuva on the drive, it�s possible that you could overwrite the deleted file�s data with the Recuva program data. It�s also possible that other programs running in the background could write to disk and overwrite the data. All it takes is for a portion of the file to be overwritten, and the file may become completely corrupt.

Professional Data Recovery

If the data was particularly business-critical, you don�t have any backups, and you failed to recover it, you may want to consider a professional data recovery service. First things first: Power off the computer immediately if it�s not already off. The longer the computer runs, the more data will be written to its hard drive and the less chance you�ll have of recovering it.

Professional data recovery services deal with everything from dying hard drives that need to be disassembled to recover data to deleted and overwritten files. These services can be extremely pricy and will cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars, so they�re not the ideal solution. However, if you have extremely important data that you can�t recover or replace and you�re willing to pay up, this is an option available to you. Of course, these services can�t guarantee anything � they may be unable to recover your data. They�ll also probably charge you for their work even if they ultimately can�t recover your data.

Avoiding Deleted File Scares

The best way to ensure you�ll never have to recover a deleted file is to perform regular backups. Even just enabling the File History or Windows Backup functionality in your version of Windows will give you some peace of mind. If you store your documents in Dropbox or a similar service or have them backed up to an online location, you�ll also have a backup. All these backup options also allow you to restore previous versions of files.

It�s still possible for a file to be deleted, but if you�re performing regular backups, you won�t lose much data. You�ll have much more luck restoring backups than recovering deleted files. Backup services are cheaper than professional data recovery services, too.

Deleted files aren�t necessarily gone forever, but they�re not always easy to recover. As solid-state drives are used in more and more new computers, proper backup procedures are becoming even more important.

Enjoy Guys! and don’t forget to post your comments. � MyTricksTime.com

6 Ways to Customize Android that iOS Users Can Only Dream About

June 30, 2014 by Rahul Gaur

Android is very customizable � many of its features are just defaults and can be swapped out for third-party alternatives without any rooting required. Some of these things are possible on a jailbroken iOS device, while some remain impossible.You can replace nearly anything included with the Android operating system, including some things not mentioned here � for example, you can install a replacement dialer or contacts app if you like, too.

Change Your Keyboard

Android�s default keyboard is one of many options. Without even rooting your device, you can install third-party keyboards and switch between them from the Language and input screen in your device�s settings.

This allows third-party developers to experiment with new and different keyboards that may work better for you. Popular alternative keyboards include Swype, which is included by default with some Android smartphones and tablets and available as a free beta from Swype�s website, and SwiftKey, available for $4 from Google Play. Swype allows you to type words by �swiping� over their letters with your fingers, while SwiftKey uses natural language processing to automatically guess the words you meant to type and the words that you�ll type next.

Swap Home Screen Launchers

The default home screen is just another app that can be swapped out. If you�re looking for something with a completely different look or more options, you can install a third-party launcher from Google Play. There�s a thriving ecosystem of third-party launchers out there. GO Launcher EX is a very popular one � it includes skins, widgets, and many configuration options. If you�re using Gingerbread or Froyo, older versions of Android, but like the Android 4.0+ Ice Cream Sandwich look, you can try Holo Launcher to get a similar, updated look.

To select your default launcher, tap the Home button on your device after installing a launcher. You�ll be prompted to select a launcher.

Choose a Lock Screen

You can change your lock screen, too. Alternative lock screens offer different themes and additional functionality. For example, WidgetLocker allows you to add widgets to your lock screen and move them around to design your own ideal lock screen. Custom lock screens aren�t quite as popular as custom launchers � there aren�t nearly as many custom lock screens, and most of them seem to be paid apps.

Set Your Default Browser

Android allows you to install third-party browsers and set them as your default browser, allowing you to ignore the built-in browser (Internet or Chrome) entirely. When you tap a link after installing a new browser app on Android, you�ll be prompted to select your default browser.

Better yet, Google doesn�t place the same restrictions on developers Apple and Microsoft do � these third-party browsers are proper browsers that use their own rendering engines. Firefox for Android uses the same rendering engine that Firefox on your desktop does, and Opera Mobile has its own rendering engine, too. On iOS, these browsers must be �shells� around the built-in browser. In fact, although Chrome for iPhone is forced to be a shell around the built-in Safari browser, Chrome for iPhone isn�t even as fast as Safari because Chrome isn�t allowed to access Safari�s optimized JavaScript library and can�t include its own.

Although you can switch browsers on a jailbroken iOS device, iOS browsers like Chrome and Firefox will remain shells over Safari with inferior performance.

Switch Email Clients

Unlike on iOS, you can also install different email clients and set them as the default email app that appears when you tap an email address link anywhere in the OS. Third-party email applications aren�t that popular (Android�s included Gmail app is very good for Gmail users), but Microsoft and Yahoo produce their own apps for Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail � each of which can be your default mail app, if you like. There are also other email apps, like K-9 Mail.

If you don�t like Gmail, you�ll never have to see it. You can�t say that for the default email app on iOS.

Install a New Operating System (Custom ROM)

Android is open source, so the community can build on its source code and create modified versions with additional features � these are known as custom ROMs. The most popular custom ROM is CyanogenMod, a custom ROM that can replace the included Android OS on a wide variety of devices. CyanogenMod is made possible by Android�s open-source nature � it isn�t just a series of hacks on top of a closed-source operating system build; the CyanogenMod developers start with Android�s source code and build on it to create their own community-developed version.

Enjoy Guys! and don’t forget to post your comments. � MyTricksTime.com

Facebook For Every Phone: Mobile Application For All The Phones In The World!

June 26, 2016June 29, 2014 by Rahul Gaur

Facebook, hugely popular social networking website, has an interactive mobile website for getting its users hooked up to addictive platform. However the website has its own set of limitations and every other feature/function of Facebook cannot be cramped into mobile web version. For this reason, it has come up with a dedicated mobile applications for, well, virtually every mobile phone in this world!

Facebook for Every Phone is a pint sized java based application available for all the phones capable of running java (J2ME) applications, which I think almost every low-end (Smartphones too! Seriously?

) mobile phone will be able to do. Although smartphone users can opt for better Facebook clients viz. Gravity, Borg, etc but Facebook app, developed by geeks at Facebook, provides a good experience as well.

With a small installation size of just under 150 KB, Facebook for Every Phone publishes updates directly to your Facebook account without making use of any 3rd party service and such updates will show �Facebook For Every Phone� next to them. Facebook for Every Phone allows you to:

Browse through news feed,

View Inbox,
Accept/Reject Requests (friendship, event, etc),
View Notifications, Upcoming Events, Photos, Friends, Profile,
Find Friends and send them friend request,
Make a generic search on Facebook from application itself.

Some of the functions mentioned above viz. Accepting friend requests, find friends are some of the features that are unique to this application. Hence a certain advantage for using Facebook for Every Phone mobile Application over and above other 3rd party apps. In terms of customization, this app lags. Not many options are provided besides changing the font size, language, show news time/comment time although not many are needed as it is pre-configured with optimal settings.

Facebook for Every Phone app is available for free and can be downloaded by visiting: http://d.facebook.com/install from your mobile�s default web browser.

How to Save Big Money on PC Games

June 29, 2014 by Rahul Gaur

Thanks to the frequent sales, PC games just cost less than console games. If you�re patient and know the tricks, you can save quite a bit of money. Almost every game seems to regularly go on sale.Since Steam started holding their regular holiday sales, the sales are coming thicker and faster than ever. From bundles and other stores undercutting Steam to the constant sales on Steam itself, an environment of constant sales is the new normal.

Steam Sales

Steam is all about the sales, which will be a big advantage for Steam machines over traditional consoles. If you can be patient, you�ll save a huge amount of money on PC games. Almost every game on Steam regularly goes on sale, often 75% or more off.

Steam is constantly holding smaller sales � a daily deal, weekly deals, mid-weekly deals, and weekend deals. Sometimes you�ll even see a game you can play for free during a weekend deal. These sales are advertised on Steam�s front page so you can quickly glance at them.

The most noteworthy Steam sales are the huge seasonal sales when almost everything on Steam is discounted. If you�re patient, you can stock up on games during these sales and play them throughout the rest of the year � or at least until the next sale. Valve doesn�t have an official schedule of these sales, so their dates vary from year to year. However, we have some idea of when these sales are. The largest seasonal sale is the winter holiday sale, which runs for about two weeks in late December to early January. There�s also a fairly large summer sale and other, smaller sales for events such as Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Halloween.

Here�s the biggest trick you need to know for Steam holiday sales: Don�t buy a game unless it�s a daily deal, flash sale, or community choice deal. For example, for the entire duration of a holiday sale, a game might be 50% off, discounted from $60 to $30. However, when the game is featured as a daily, flash, or community choice deal, there�s a good chance it will be 75% off at $15. The lesson is clear: Don�t buy a game during a big sale unless it�s a featured, temporary deal. Wait until the last day of the sale to buy any games that don�t show up at a larger discount.

If you�re willing to be patient before playing a game, you can add it to your Steam wishlist and you�ll get an email from Steam when it goes on sale. You can also view your wishlist from within Steam and quickly see each game�s discount and price. This is very useful when you�re deciding what to buy during a big sale. You can quickly skim through the sales on the games you�re already interested in.

Game Bundles

Game bundles are a constant presence in PC gaming. Humble Bundle started this craze, offering regular pay-what-you-want bundles of well-received indie games.

There are other bundle sites that are occasionally worthwhile if you�re looking for something in particular, but Humble Bundle is still the most consistent site with the bundles containing the highest-quality games. In addition to their regular indie bundles, they also offer weekly bundles of other games.

Other Stores

Steam was the storefront that really pushed sales hard, but it�s not all just about Steam anymore. There are other stores that often match or beat Steam�s deals. If you like having all your games in one place within Steam, there�s good news � many of these stores actually sell Steam keys, so you can purchase the game cheaper elsewhere and add it to your Steam account. This only works for games that are specifically marked as requiring Steam.

For example, Amazon�s digital games storefront regularly beats Steam�s sale prices on many games, even while offering Steam keys for many of them. Other sites, like Green Man Gaming, also offer juicy discounts. Humble Bundle now also offers the Humble Store, another site where you can find regular sales on games you can add to your Steam account.

Steam doesn�t always have the best price � so many gamers are now so into Steam that they can afford not to always have the best discounts. Other sites that want to compete have to offer good deals. For example, during the last Steam holiday sale, the Game of the Year (GOTY) edition of Borderlands 2 was discounted to $30 on Steam, but the exact same Borderlands 2 GOTY edition was available for $15 on other sites during the Winter sale.

Keeping Track of the Sales

Aside from using your Steam wishlist to stay on top of Steam sales for games, the constant flood of sales can be hard to keep track of. If you�re interested in seeing a comprehensive list of the latest PC game deals, you can check the latest sales with a quick glance at the gamedeals subreddit. This subreddit isn�t just about PC games, but most of the deals here are for PC games � it just goes to show how much more common discounts are on PC games.

There are also other sites you can use to stay on top of deals. IsThereAnyDeal.com gathers together all the latest deals and prices from multiple sites. You can look up a specific game and see the price many different stores are currently selling it for. Even better, you can see price histories here and view the lowest price a game has ever been at. If you�d like to save money and you�re not impatient, you can wait until the game hits that lowest price again. The price history will even show you roughly how often the game goes on sale.

Sales are awesome, but remember that the point of buying games is to play them! Many people have amassed a huge backlog of games they may never play. There�s no need to buy so many games that you can�t play them all � those games will probably go on sale again soon, anyway.

Enjoy Guys! and don’t forget to post your comments. � MyTricksTime.com

How to Sync Your Browser Data in Any Browser and Access it Anywhere

January 13, 2018June 29, 2014 by Rahul Gaur

With browser sync enabled, you can open some tabs on your computer and access them on-the-go from your smartphone. If you have multiple computers, you can easily keep your bookmarks and settings in sync between them.Browsers were once self-contained pieces of software that ran on a single computer, but most popular browsers now offer integrated synchronization services and mobile apps. Internet Explorer is a bit behind, but it can be made smarter with third-party extensions.

Image Credit: Johan Larsson on Flickr

Chrome

Google Chrome allows you to sync your browser data with your Google account. To set this up, click Chrome�s menu button and select Sign in to Chrome.

You can control which browser data is synced by opening the Settings screen and clicking Advanced sync settings under Sign in. By default, Chrome syncs your apps, autofill data, bookmarks, extensions, omnibox history (address bar history), passwords, settings, themes, and open tabs. Chrome encrypts only your passwords by default, but you can optionally encrypt all synced data. You can also set a separate encryption passphrase, if you like.

You can access this data by signing into Chrome on multiple computers, whether they�re running Windows, OS X, Linux, or even Chrome OS. You can also access the synced data on Android with the Chrome Android app or iOS with the Chrome app in Apple�s app store. With these apps, you can view open tabs, access your bookmarks, and share your history between devices.

Firefox

Firefox uses Firefox Sync to sync your browser data. This was previously a separate browser extension, but it�s now integrated into Firefox. You can set up Firefox Sync by opening Firefox�s options window, selecting the Sync icon, and using the options there.

Firefox Sync syncs your bookmarks, passwords, options, 60 days of history, open tabs, and add-ons between your computers. Firefox encrypts all of this data. You will need to make a backup copy of your Firefox Sync recovery key, as you won�t be able to recover your browser data if you lose it.

Firefox Sync works with Firefox on all operating systems, including Windows, OS X, and Linux. You can also use Firefox Sync on Android phones and tablets with Firefox for Android.

Unlike Chrome, Firefox doesn�t offer an iOS app, so you can�t access your Firefox browser data on an iPhone or iPad. (Chrome for iOS is just a shell over Apple�s Safari. Mozilla previously offered such an app, named Firefox Home, but pulled it from Apple�s app store and no longer develops it.)

Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer doesn�t have many built-in browser synchronization features. Some browser sync features were available in Windows Live Mesh, but Windows Live Mesh has been discontinued.

If you use Windows 8, Windows 8 has the ability to sync your Internet Explorer 10 settings, favorites, and history between your Windows 8 computers with your Microsoft account. Microsoft doesn�t provide a way to access this data on smartphones � not even on their own Windows Phone devices. You can only sync IE data between Windows 8 computers.

Opera

Opera offers Opera Link, which uses an Opera account to sync your browser data. It can be enabled by selecting the Synchronize Opera option in Opera�s menu.

Opera Link syncs your bookmarks, passwords, speed dial pages, notes, history of typed web addresses, search engines, and content blocker rules between your devices. You can also access some types of data, including your bookmarks, on the web at link.opera.com.

Opera Link works with Opera�s browsers on all operating systems � Windows, OS X, and Linux � as well as the Opera Mobile and Opera Mini apps available for Android, iOS, and other mobile platforms. However, only bookmarks, speed dial pages, and search engines are synced to Opera�s mobile apps.

Safari

Safari uses iCloud to sync open tabs, bookmarks, and other browser data between Macs, iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches. Apple offers instructions for enabling iCloud on Macs and iOS devices.

You can also sync your bookmarks with Safari on Windows, although Safari on Windows is outdated and has been discontinued.

Cross-Browser Sync

Several third-party tools allow you to sync data between any browser and access them in any other browser or via a dedicated mobile app. These can be particularly useful if you�re using Internet Explorer or if you want to synchronize Firefox data with an iPhone or iPad.

LastPass: LastPass is a password manager with extensions for every popular browser and apps for all significant mobile platforms. We love LastPass here at How-To Geek. Even if you don�t need to synchronize passwords between two different types of browsers, LastPass offers a much more powerful password vault and it�s more secure.

Xmarks: Xmarks was the application that brought browser bookmark synchronization to the masses. Coincidentally, it�s now owned by LastPass. Xmarks allows you to sync your bookmarks and open tabs between any browsers. Xmarks also provides mobile apps for Android and iOS. You could sync Firefox bookmarks and open tabs with an iPhone or sync data between two different browsers.

While LastPass and Xmarks are both free to use on PC, each service�s mobile apps require a premium account. (Each service�s premium account costs $12 per year.)

Syncing your browser data stores it in an account online, effectively giving you an online backup. Even if you only have one device, browser sync ensures you won�t lose your bookmarks and other important data if your computer dies.

Enjoy Guys! and don’t forget to post your comments. � MyTricksTime.com