Dated Recovery

I'm trying to recover folders and files that mysteriously disappeared from my PC. File Recove (~$30) quickly found them; it did not restore them back as I used an unregistered version. So, I paid ~$30, got a Registration Code, entered it, but nothing changed. I notified "TechSupport", waited for a day for their reply(!), when it finally arrived, I wanted to open the program and get a few Print Screen Snapshots they asked for. The program disappeared from the Start>Programs and no traces of it were present in my PC, not Even in the Registry (only a blank entry Recovered Files was there!
So, PC Tools, at my request, refunded the money.
I found many free recover/reconstruct programs; they accomplished the first step - found many "deleted " files... But so far I could not find the files I am looking for among them (there are thousands of files, some of them modified in 2001[my PC was made in 2003!]; no filters were offered and I cannot look for them manually - too many!). Two reasons: when they ask me to enter the name of missing files/folders, they present the current Win. Explorer to choose them from, and, naturally, the missing ones are not there. And, secondly, they offer no option to choose the files by date, e.g. "lost in Oct.'09" or "lost after Sep. 30, 2009".
I wonder, do such programs exist, free or otherwise?

Did you try recuva? www.recuva.com .. it's what I usually use and you can filter as well, either by their own file "types" or enter your own eg if your looking for musicfile.mp3 you could enter just music or file or mp3 to narrow it down. Use the deep scan if the first, regular scan doesn't find what you're looking for.

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For future reference please let us know if your problem was solved.

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I used Recuva twice, the second time - to get acquainted with its features deeper, and again I was overwhelmed with the number of files it found - for almost ten years back, including those I deliberately sent to the Recycle Bin.
I am looking for a particular folder (which was a subfolder in the D:/ drive, along with My Music, My Pictures, etc. It vanished one day, no evidence of it was present anywhere. I don't remember the exact date; it definitely occurred in Oct. Filtering by file extension would not help, as there were more than a dozen extensions.
I found a backup copy of the subfolder made in March of '09. Better than nothing, but I'd like to recover lost files, as many have very important personal info.
I'd like to find out what (or who) caused the disappearance, but this is a topic for another forum. A few other things disappeared, including at least two programs, one of them - File Recover, again almost without a trace, so it could not be explained by an accident. Could a cracker attack a turned down PC? I doubt it.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

A bad shutdown can cause all kinds of things to disappear.

I have had hdds completely scrambled by voltage spikes with nothing recoverable.

Backup, whether to a couple USB hdds and CD/DVD s or a combination of all of them.

Uven might want to keep a set off site, just incase you know.

I learned my lesson. Now all important things will be backed up, on two memory sticks.

Once or Twice lately I just unplugged the PC as there was a "partial hang up", i. e. when I could not get rid of a popup window like "insert a disk or Retry", no matter which button I clicked, or I could not end a non responding program, even with Ctrl+Alt+Del; I don't remember any visible voltage spikes, at least anything of the kind that required spontaneous or conscious shut down.
And lastly, a few months ago ALL my addresses received a typical commercial ad emails (different ads, twice) signed by me (my Reply emails include automatic signature) which I, of course, never sent. I guess someone stole my address book or the entire account (it was Yahoo! mail, not OE).
I think, I cannot prevent this; I will back up.

Hurray!
I just discovered near perfect solution: clicking on Last Modified column in Recuva sorts files by increasing or by decreasing date. To me it means that I relatively quick can find the missing Oct. 2009 files!

See attached: I saw it more often than a correct info - Created date followed by Modified date followed by Accessed date. Should I read in reverse: Modified as Created and vise versa?