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Undelete files on WHS - What is the best program? RRS feed

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    Hello,

    Whenever you delete a file from a file share, it bypasses the trashcan on both the local machine and the server.  Is there any way to to have files added to either recycle bin?  Better yet, it would be nice if there was a console app that could recover deleted files from a server.

    Not all family members know what they can and can't delete.  Even when I give them access to their own file folder, they sometimes delete stuff they didn't want too.  When this happens the file is gone, it is not in any trash can.  I would like to know if there is a way to put those file in the recycle bin.

    Thanks,

    Roger
    - Roger
    Tuesday, February 2, 2010 2:24 PM

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    This is the way that file shares have worked since time immemorial: deleted files don't get moved to the client, because that's not where they started and (once the Recycle Bin was introduced on Windows Server operating systems) they don't go to the Recycle Bin on the server because that's a shell folder, not shared, unshareable (there's actually a folder on every drive to support the functionality; all would have to be shared), and inaccessible to a remote share user.

    There are third party programs that would provide this functionality on a plain vanilla Windows Server 2003 installation, but in the case of Windows Home Server the additional components are likely to make those tools unusable. (I haven't tried them, but in general tools that manipulate the file system need to be written for use on Windows Home Server if they're to work on Windows Home Server.)

    This thread describes a workaround which will allow you to use Previous Versions functionality on your server. It's not particularly user friendly, but it's probably the best we can do for you.
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Tuesday, February 2, 2010 3:41 PM
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    This is the way that file shares have worked since time immemorial: deleted files don't get moved to the client, because that's not where they started and (once the Recycle Bin was introduced on Windows Server operating systems) they don't go to the Recycle Bin on the server because that's a shell folder, not shared, unshareable (there's actually a folder on every drive to support the functionality; all would have to be shared), and inaccessible to a remote share user.

    There are third party programs that would provide this functionality on a plain vanilla Windows Server 2003 installation, but in the case of Windows Home Server the additional components are likely to make those tools unusable. (I haven't tried them, but in general tools that manipulate the file system need to be written for use on Windows Home Server if they're to work on Windows Home Server.)

    This thread describes a workaround which will allow you to use Previous Versions functionality on your server. It's not particularly user friendly, but it's probably the best we can do for you.
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Tuesday, February 2, 2010 3:41 PM
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    There is an add-in called time traveller which uses proven SVN Methods to protect directories http://www.timetravelerwhs.com/  I would use it sparingly as you could eat up huge swathes of disk space with previous versions.
    --
    Tuesday, February 2, 2010 4:11 PM
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    Al:

    That's a very interesting-looking add-in. Do you know if it saves only differential changes to each protected file in order to reduce the database size or does it just save a complete copy of each version of each file?
    Tuesday, February 2, 2010 6:00 PM
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    @Ken - Yes, I have been using Windows Servers for years and I understand that this is the default behavior. In a corporate environment you can get files back by asking IT to pull files from Tape.  In a home enviornment, 99.999% of the installs do not have tape backups of their homeserver.  I would have thought that as the developer of a product for the home, that the developers may have considered that home people using the Photos share that somone may have deleted something on accident that there would be a way to get it back.

    I was hoping that WHS developers might have considered this case since everyone has suffered from this problem in the corporate environment.

    @AL West - I actually run an SVN server on my Windows Home Server (VisualSVN for Windows) and I use it for development, but those shares aren't visible to everyone.  The product sounds interesting, I might give it a try.

    - Roger
    - Roger
    Tuesday, February 2, 2010 9:43 PM
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    @Ken - Yes, I have been using Windows Servers for years and I understand that this is the default behavior. In a corporate environment you can get files back by asking IT to pull files from Tape.  In a home enviornment, 99.999% of the installs do not have tape backups of their homeserver.  I would have thought that as the developer of a product for the home, that the developers may have considered that home people using the Photos share that somone may have deleted something on accident that there would be a way to get it back.

    I was hoping that WHS developers might have considered this case since everyone has suffered from this problem in the corporate environment.

    That's what the server backup function of WHS is for (except it backs up to an external hard drive instead of a tape drive because, as you said, tape drives in a home environment are virtually non-existent), plus it allows you to take your data off-site as well.

    @AL West - I actually run an SVN server on my Windows Home Server (VisualSVN for Windows) and I use it for development, but those shares aren't visible to everyone.  The product sounds interesting, I might give it a try.

    - Roger
    - Roger

    Tuesday, February 2, 2010 10:00 PM
    Moderator