When a file is deleted from a Windows XP computer, its details are transferred to a special folder called the recycle bin. Most people know you can resurrect files from there, but once it's emptied what then?

At that point, you need a specialist recovery program, like Diskeeper’s Undelete. We've already looked at the Home Edition, so what has this professional version got to offer?

Now in version 5, Undelete recovers files that have been deleted from your recycle bin and, conversely, does a ‘real’ deletion; if you need to completely wipe all traces from your system.

Once installed, Undelete 5 creates its own Recovery Bin, which takes the place of the recycle bin but is used in exactly the same way.

The difference is that whenever a file is deleted, no matter how, it’s available in the Recovery Bin, which can be viewed using the Recovery bin browser. You can then reinstate the file.

When dealing with Microsoft Office files, you can preview and select the version of the document you want to recover. Each time you save a version of an Office document on a system without Undelete, the old version is deleted and not put through the recycle bin.

With Undelete 5 running, though, each version is stored in the Recovery Bin. This professional version also allows shared files deleted via a network to be captured by Undelete.

Undelete 5 comes with SecureDelete, an industrial strength deletion option, or perhaps government departmental strength is more appropriate, as it writes random data over the entire length of a file. Not even secret intelligence agencies could recover those…probably.

Although Undelete 5 is useful when you accidentally delete files, consider how often this actually happens. £35 is a lot to pay for what could be a very rare job, plus there are free programs available.

Diskeeper is offering a trial version, which you can download from our website.

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PC Tools File Recover 5
Verdict: A good recovery choice for the less technically inclined.
Rating: 3
Price: £20