How do i find my Internet History if I accidently wiped it out? is it
on my hard drive?

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Request for Question Clarification by j_philipp-ga on 13 Jun 2002 15:56 PDT

Hello Nosan,

could you tell us which browser and operating system you use?
Thanks.

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Clarification of Question by nosan-ga on 14 Jun 2002 06:34 PDT

internet Explorer Ver 6.
windows 2000 Ver 5

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Request for Question Clarification by mvguy-ga on 14 Jun 2002 08:13 PDT

Hi!  Do you know how you accidentally wiped it out?  For what purpose
do you need the history?  If you're just trying to find the URL of
some site you've visited in the past, there may be ways to find out
that URL without restoring the history.

Hello Nosan,

The default location for Internet Explorer to place the history file
on Windows 2000 or Windows XP is :

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\History

Where <username> is the username used to login to Windows 2000.  If
this happens to be a network computer your system administrator may
have moved this.  In this case the history folder is located in:

%USERPROFILE%\Local Setting\History

Where %USERPROFILE% is where your system administrator is storing the
user profiles.  Contact your system administrator if you do not know
the this location.

If you cleared the history, the files have almost certainly been
overwritten.  If you had attempted to change the directory for user
profiles then the files do most likely exist in the previous location.
 Look at the first directory I gave you and if that does not exist use
the windows find to search for "History" (no quotes).

Search terms used:
"windows 2000" "internet explorer" history folder
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22windows+2000%22+%22internet+explorer%22+history+folder&btnG=Google+Search

markoft

Unless the file was deleated on your hard disk, do a search for
"history" using the windows search function and look for a folder
called history.. if there are multiple folders, then have a look
inside each one, look for webpages inside the folder.. but i believe
that if you have deleted your history thru internet explorer then all
is pretty much lost.. sorry!

Possible locations for history/cached data:

C:\WINDOWS\HISTORY
C:\WINDOWS\TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES
C:\WINDOWS\TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES\CONTENT.IE5
C:\WINDOWS\OFFLINE WEB PAGES
C:\WINDOWS\DOWNLOADED PROGRAM FILES

If you've cleared your cache fully, it's usually rather difficult to
restore it with disk utilities because files are so small and small
lost clusters are very significant.  There are disk rebuilding and
data restoration experts available, check with a trusted repair shop
for a recommendation.

There are many companies that offer data recovery services.

For example,
http://www.dtidata.com/
http://www.data-recovery-people.com/

Usually, all you have to do is send in your hard disk, and they have
hardware/software that will "undelete" your files. Unless you have
wiped the file from your disk (i.e. wrote 1's and 0's over the data
repeatedly), the data usually can be recovered.

You should also try various software programs that allow you to
recover deleted files. For example, FileRestore by Winternals
(http://www.winternals.com/products/repairandrecovery/filerestore.asp)
is a very good program for bringing back accidentally deleted files.
Remember, the longer you wait after the delete, and the more you use
your hard disk, the more difficult it will be to recover your history.