When they are not running correctly, computer applications might cause data loss or corruption (parts of them become unusable). Occasionally, even users might have deleted files and folders by mistake.
Sometimes, when the files have not been overwritten, it is possible to try and recover the data.
When using specialized applications, users can retrieve files from hard disk drives, CDs, DVDs or RAID.
File unerasers are desktop applications which use various methods to try and restore the deleted data, even if not all of it will be recoverable.