how to recover lost files

[Andrew Jorgensen]

On 1/23/06, Duncan Lithgow <duncan at lithgow-schmidt.dk> wrote:
> because I can't work out how to unmount my usb external harddrive now
> that the icon on my desk is gone - I've screwed up by not unmounting
> properly - now I've lost some files.

I've said it before somewhere and I'll say it again.  At the very
least we ought to be able to right-click in the "Places" menu to
select "Eject".

Anyway...

> The external HD is fat32 - any ideas on how to recover the files?

Presuming you have access to a Windows machine you could use PC
Inspector File Recovery <http://www.pcinspector.de/>.  It's "freeware"
and it's based on basically the same program every other FAT32 file
recovery program in the world is based on.  It will scan the drive and
any backup FAT tables to find files.

Unfortunately you probably won't find your files.  Most likely you
unplugged the drive before the files were written at all.  Worth a try
though.

Before anyone goes off ranting about my recommending a Windows-based
program to recover the poster's files I challenge any of you to point
us to an open source program that will do the same job.