Accidents happen. Files get deleted by mistake. Valuable information is lost. Forever? Maybe not.

Diskeeper Corporation has announced the release of a new version of its program, Undelete, designed to intercept deleted files. Here's what the company has to say about its product:

Think of all the valuable data on your computer: Financial records, work and school reports, digital photos you'll never be able to take again... what if those files were deleted and you couldn't get them back?

Accidental file loss happens more often than you think. Here's the worst part: The Windows Recycle Bin doesn't capture all deleted files.

Have you ever accidentally saved over an important Microsoft Office file? We've all had occasion to open an important Word document or Excel spreadsheet intending to use it as a starting point for a new file and forgotten to rename it, sometimes wiping out many hours or days of work the instant we saved the "new" file.

Earlier versions of MS Office files that are saved over, files that are too big for the recycle bin, and files deleted by certain applications are just some of the types of files that the recycle bin misses. If you run a home network your risk factor is increased greatly, because files deleted from a remote system bypass the recycle bin completely!

Undelete 5 to the Rescue.

Undelete replaces the Windows recycle bin with a catch-all Recovery Bin that intercepts all deleted files, no matter how they were deleted. Lost file? No problem! Use the Recovery Bin's Windows Explorer-like interface to navigate to the file, or take advantage of Undelete's powerful search capabilities. Right-click the file, select Recover, and the file is back. The NEW MS Office Version Protection functionality can even restore your earlier, saved over versions of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) files.

Undelete 5 includes Emergency Undelete, which can recover files deleted before Undelete was installed, provided they haven't been overwritten on your hard drive, and SecureDelete, an electronic shredder to completely erase confidential files.

In addition, with the new version 5.0 of Undelete, you can now preview files in the Recovery Bin to find the exact one you want to restore.

The program sells for $29.95 for the home version or $59.95 for the professional version. A trial version is available for download on the company Web site.

Editor's note: This article is provided for information only and does not constitute a recommendation or review of the product.