is the history really gone?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

When I clear the history and delete the internet files is the history
completely lost or is there a way to recover it? I have an employee who was
just terminated and for legal reasons I need to check into websites he has
visited. He has deleted the history and temp files. Is there a registry or
any other way to check into the history?
 
Hi jman :-)

Has there been anything else written to the machine since the employee last
used it? If not, then it *may* be possible to retrieve the history file
from the hard disk. Take a look at the information below, courtesy of
Malke - MS-MVP Windows User/Shell
****************************************************************************
Yes. You can sometimes restore data that has been deleted by using
special data recovery software. The degree of success depends on doing
nothing more on the affected computer until the files are retrieved.
There are some free and/or inexpensive data retrieval programs, and
some fairly expensive professional programs. Here are some links:

http://www.collina.us/files/REST2514.htm
http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html
PCInspector File Recovery -
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/welcome.htm
Executive Software â?oUndeleteâ? -
http://www.execsoft.com/undelete/undelete.asp
Recover and Restore Deleted Files (Line 36) -
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
File Saver Pro - Recover Deleted Files -
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_u.htm#xp_util
www.recovermyfiles.com
Ontrack's EasyRecovery -
http://www.ontrack.com/Homepage.aspx?id=3&pagename=Software

Beyond that, there are professional data recovery services which are
effective but quite expensive.

DriveSavers - http://www.drivesavers.com
Seagate Data Recovery Services -
http://www.seagate.com/support/service/drs/services.html
*******************************************************

also... Was that machine on an auto backup system? Like to a network or
other type of auto backup process that would have saved this information?
Check out the information here and see if it will help:
Can Internet Explorer's History be undeleted?
http://ask-leo.com/can_internet_explorers_history_be_undeleted.html

While it may not be of help at this point, but, here is some information you
might want to review for preventing such events for the furture.

IamBigBrother
http://www.iambigbrother.com/
Prevent IE History Being Removed
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/iehistory.reg
Undo
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/iehistoryundo.reg

Hope this helps.

Jan :)
MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
Smiles are meant to be shared,
that's why they're so contagious.

Replies are posted only to the newsgroup for the benefit or other readers.
How to make a good newsgroup post:
http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
 
Hi jman :-)

Another thought, most of the information is held in the index.dat If that
has not been deleted as well, you might be able to view it with an index.dat
viewer, such as
WinSpy Index.dat Viewer
http://www.softwarepatch.com/software/indexdat.html
Index.dat Viewer
http://www.acesoft.net/index.dat viewer/index.dat_viewer.htm
and there are others you can Google for.

Hope this helps.

Jan :)
MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
Smiles are meant to be shared,
that's why they're so contagious.

Replies are posted only to the newsgroup for the benefit or other readers.
How to make a good newsgroup post:
http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
 
Hi,

Speaking about data recovery tools, I suppose Active@ Undelete to be
really awesome. As I've used it before indeed none of the restored
files were corrupted and literally all of the deleted info was brougnt
back. That is a really mighty tool.

http://www.active-undelete.com/
 
Hi :-)

Hi,

Speaking about data recovery tools, I suppose Active@ Undelete to be
really awesome. As I've used it before indeed none of the restored
files were corrupted and literally all of the deleted info was brougnt
back. That is a really mighty tool.

http://www.active-undelete.com/
Click to expand...

Thank you for the additional information. Did you retrieve the files before
the machine was used again...or after? Often, if files continue to be
written to or saved to the disk deleted files are usually unretrieveable.

Jan :)
MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
Smiles are meant to be shared,
that's why they're so contagious.
 
If it is just the internet history you need to access you could try the
following if you are running XP.
Open Windows Explorer - go to (My Computer - C (?) Drive - Documents and
Settings (here you need to find the users file name). Open the file (eg
"Stuart") - Local Settings - Temporary Internet Files - IE5/6 or whatever
It will give a list of folders and in each folder "should" be copies of the
web sites / pictures that have been visited. Clearing the temp files should
not have emptied all of these as many seem to duplicate.

You could also try looking in - C - Windows - temporary Internet files -
content IE 5/6 . Another alternative is C - Recycler which should show what
documents/web sites have been visited.

I have found in the past that even clearing temp files there is normally a
residual left behind. Hope this helps.
 
In the Recycler folder (NOT recycle bin) there is a list of all deleted
files, listed by person, what date they were modified, what type they are and
when they were deleted. You will need to click on "restore" in order to view
them in their entirety.
 
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