I recently wrote an article for TechNet Magazine about SharePoint disaster recovery. The main theme of the article (link) is that without proper planning, and potentially some 3rd party software, you could be in for a nightmare if called upon to restore an individual document.
Today I stumbled across a new download from the guys over at MindSharp that provides the coveted “SharePoint Recycle Bin” functionality for exactly zero dollars (or euros, lira, etc. depending on your location). The only catch is that you need to subscribe to their Premium Content section to gain access to the download. And just in case you’re wondering – registration for the Premium Content section is free as well. Once you’ve set up an account you gain access to deployment guides, archived webcasts, and more – in addition to the aforementioned recovery tool. It doesn’t get any better than this!
I just finished downloading and deploying the MindSharp tool, officially named the Deleted Items Document Library. Installation took all of 60–seconds for a new document library. Installation into existing document libraries is a little more complicated… but it can also be done in minutes – not hours. Excellent step-by-step documentation is included in the .zip download, so you don’t even need to be a SharePoint guru to figure this stuff out.
Anyone running SharePoint Portal Server 2003 or Windows SharePoint Services should run, not walk, to the MindShare site to register for this excellent download. Many thanks to Todd Bleeker for his time spent writing and packaging this tool for all to use.