Deleted files can often be recovered some time after a deletion. Most file systems only mark them as deleted in the index. These are labelled as “orphan files”. Therefore, they can be undeleted until the disk blocks they occupy, are eventually taken up by other files written to the hard disk. Most file systems only remove the link to data, not the actual data itself. Most actions on a hard drive are stored in some way – for instance internet history can be found in the index.dat file in C:\Documents and Settings\Default User\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5 folder.

Imation will soon be making the industry’s first terabyte-plus raw capacity tape, in the LTO-5 format, with delivery in early 2010. However are tape formats drinking in the “last chance saloon”?
The Linear Tape Open (LTO) consortium has three technology-providing members: HP, IBM and Quantum and these licensed manufacturers continue to supply tape media and build drives. External drive data recovery when performed on these tapes i also extremely tough.