hi,
well....this problem involves more than onc section....
i use yahoo messenger and i have enabled the message archiving (to save the chats)... i didn't realize that it was set to auto delete chats older than 10 days. So some important chats got deleted this way. and when they get deleted, they are no where.... not even in the recycle bin..... what should i do now to recover those chats, as they contain some valuable information for me.
i m not sure this is the proper section for this post.... but i guess it is related to data recovery so thats why i posted it here.
Anyway.....thx in advance for any help.....

Akif

You will need some kind of disk editor that will allow you to search the drive for the files/contecnt you are looking for. The more yoiu use the PC, the less likely it is you will be able to restore any of these files.

First of all, let us study how and where and yahoo messenger saves files..

Yahoo stores all saved messages in .Dat files in Messages folder.
C:\Yahoo!\Messenger\Profiles\your_Yahoo_id\Archive \Messages\your_Friend's_id

And the files are time-stamped (only date).
Assuming your yahoo id as akif@yahoo.com and your friend's as rahul@yahoo.com, and you guyz had a chat on 16th August 2004, then it will be saved in 20040816-akif.dat file.
C:\Yahoo!\Messenger\Profiles\akif\Archive\Messages \RAHUL\20040816-akif.dat

Now, as you have already deleted all messages, all the saved converstaions in Messages folder are no more there. So, as classicsoftware suggested, download a file restoration program like Restoration (http://www.freewareweb.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?ID=1672) and search for deleted files, if you are lucky enough you may be able to retrieve your data.

Post back the results.

You may check this (http://www.ntfs.com/file-recovery-concepts.htm) site, if you are interested in learning how restoration software works.

Well.....thx a lot both of you......
Rahul, i downloaded the software u recommended .... it successfully restored some chat files, but only those which i deleted manually (i.e., which i really didn't need) . But the files that were deleted automatically (that i needed) can't be restored. :(
Can there be any other more powerful software (plz name if any) that i can use to try my luck again ?

If you cant detect them after scanning with GetDataBack (http://www.runtime.org/) then I doubt if anything else will dig them out automatically.

TinyHexer (http://www.mirkes.de/en/freeware/tinyhex.php) is not a DIY recovery program as such but it will let you search through the whole drive and view/search every sector on it for information relating to any remaining large or small file fragments.

You need a Hex editor. Try this one (http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/freeware/xvi32/xvi32.htm). I have never used it myself, but they are all similar. You have been using the computer so chances of getting the files back by now are pretty low to nil.

..but they are all similar..

Hex editors come in a number of different flavours and the only similarity between them is that they let you examine the hexadecimal code inside files, ram, storage devices and media.

xvi32 and programs like it can only examine/edit existing files so it is no good for data recovery. For data recovery or for just looking at any part of a hard drive (or other similar media) you need programs such as tinyhexer or diskprobe or the hexeditor that runtime.org provide in parallel with GDB. The best of these by a long way IMHO is one called WinHex (http://www.x-ways.net/winhex/index-m.html) but it is also the most elaborate to learn to use and doesnt allow you to write to the drives unless you move from the trial to the full version. Tiny hexer is a great, powerful, simple and free hex editor, which I highly recommend for novices in this field.

Well.......thx a lot to all of u.
as i read about data recovery, and u ppl also pointed it out..... i guess it is almost impossible for me to get back those files, coz as i remember, i also did defragmentation of that drive after the deletion.
Anyway, i ll try what u suggested as a last effort.
thx a lot once again.