What happens to files on permanent delete settings

[majikthijs]

I accidentally ran a mirror synchronisation from an old pc onto my new one when I realised that the sync settings were the wrong way around with the result that my files were deleted (the new destination folder being empty). I quickly realised my mistake and stopped the sync, but the files were gone. I've found the log and the directories were indeed recorded as being deleted, but I can't find them on the old drive. I suspect that I had the permanent delete option set, because I can't find the files in the recycle bin either. I've run an undelete programme on the drive and I can't find the files in the MST (the old drive was a FAT32). What does ffs do to the files it deletes and can you give me some tips as to recovering them?

[Zenju]

When permanent deletion was selected (you can check this in the log file, when it says "deleted" rather than "moved to recycler" or "moved to versioning folder"), FreeFileSync calls Windows API function "DeleteFile". This call removes the file entry, but does not overwrite it's data. So unless the corresponding disk space is overwritten with a different file, it should be possible to restore deleted files. Therefore it's important to immediately stop working with a hard drive or memory stick when files are to be restored. As far as undeletion tools go, they vary greatly in quality. Especially free ones, in my experience, often couldn't find any files, while commercial software was able to find and restore files. So it's worth testing a few different ones.