It can be quite a shock to discover that you have accidentally deleted one or more files that you should not have deleted at all. Fortunately, accidentally deleting files is no reason to panic right away. In this article we discuss all about to Easily Recover Deleted Files.
Because Windows provides something we can think of as an intermediate station before files are permanently removed from our computer. This intermediate station is called Trash.
Where do deleted files go?
Any file we delete from the computer is moved to the Recycle Bin by default. In every version of Windows to date, the desktop shows an icon in the top left that represents a trash can and is labeled Recycle Bin.
In this Recycle Bin will remain all the files we have ever deleted from our PC, until:
The Recycle Bin is full – Once the Recycle Bin becomes full, files that have been in the Recycle Bin the longest will be deleted first.
We empty the Recycle Bin ourselves
This means that even if it’s been quite some time since you deleted files, there’s a chance they’re still just sitting in the Recycle Bin.
Recover Deleted Files from Recycle Bin
Once again, it can be a bit of a shock to discover that you have accidentally deleted a file. Because files that we create ourselves cannot usually be replaced. And losing a file can easily lead to hours, if not days, of work being lost.
Fortunately, recovering deleted files can be relatively easy in Windows. Because by default, files that we delete are not immediately permanently deleted from the hard drive, but are moved to the Recycle Bin.
That means that as long as you haven’t emptied the Recycle Bin, getting deleted files back is relatively easy.
How to recover deleted files from the Recycle Bin:
- On the Desktop, double-click the icon labeled Recycle Bin.
- This will bring up an Explorer window containing the contents of the Recycle Bin.
- Locate the file you accidentally deleted, right-click on it and choose the Restore option from the pop-up menu that opens.
- The accidentally deleted file will then be restored to its original location on the hard drive.
Recover accidentally deleted email
Also deleted emails are moved to a trash can. And to the recycle bin of the e-mail program itself. The same is the case with online email services such as Gmail, Hotmail and Outlook.com.
Restoring an accidentally deleted e-mail is done in a similar way. For example, in Gmail it goes like this:
- Click the More option in the left column.
- Click the Recycle Bin section.
- Right-click on the email you want to restore.
- Then, in the popup menu that opens, click the Move to Inbox option.
Returns deleted email to its original location in Gmail’s Inbox.
Did you really delete the file or did you just lose it?
If you can’t find deleted files in the Recycle Bin, then first of all try to check if you really deleted the file. Because a file will only be deleted if you have explicitly instructed it to do so via the Del(ete) button on the keyboard or via the Delete command in Explorer.
In any other case, you just lost the file. Many people sometimes lose a file while saving. Because during the save, we did not pay close attention to exactly where the file was saved.
However, as long as you remember the name of the file or the date around which you created the file, you can always find a lost file using File Explorer.
Recover deleted files with Data Recovery Software
You have a slightly bigger problem if you have already emptied the Recycle Bin and have already permanently deleted the file or files that you should not have deleted from the hard drive.
At that moment it is no longer possible to recover deleted files with the help of Windows itself and you have to rely on so-called data recovery software.
Widely renowned for recovering files even if the data carrier has been reformatted, the recovery software is Recuva. Recuva is a handy little free to use file recovery program.
Recuva also allows you to retrieve emails. That is, if you use an e-mail program that is installed on your PC. For example, an e-mail program such as Microsoft Outlook, Windows Mail or Thunderbird.
Incidentally, it is not very advisable to just download recovery software and install it on your computer if you want to recover deleted files.
Because when files and data are removed from the hard drive via Windows, this means that only these files and data are no longer accessible via Windows. So they are still on the hard drive. And that is precisely why files that have been deleted are often recoverable.
Often, but not always. That’s because the place on the hard drive where the file we deleted is still invisible from Windows can be reused to put something else down.
And so it can happen that when you download and install data recovery software on the hard drive, these program files could be put by Windows exactly in the place where previously those files or data that you wanted to get back were.
It is therefore smart to install data recovery software on a different disk drive than the one that contains the deleted files that you want to recover. And that could even be an external hard drive or a USB stick.
Once you have installed and started the Recuva data recovery software, Recuva will show you a Wizard.
This Wizard will help you to recover the deleted files. It is therefore important to read the information given in the windows carefully. The Next button always takes you to the next step in the Wizard.
The wizard presents you with the following windows:
The first time you click the Next button, the Wizard will ask you what type of file you want to recover. Remembering what type of file it was will certainly speed up file recovery and increase the chances of success.
In the next window, the Wizard will ask you where the files were. If you have any idea where the files were, please provide as much detail as possible. The location can of course also be a USB stick, an external hard drive or even a writable CD or DVD.
In the last window of the Wizard, you can choose to enable the Advanced Scan option . Only use this option when previous attempts to recover the deleted data have failed. Click the Start button to initiate the recovery of the deleted data.
After a few moments Recuva will come up with the result of searching for the deleted files. Through this same window it is possible to recover the deleted files. This can be done by clicking in the box displayed in front of the deleted item. This will show a check mark in the box. Which means the file has been selected for retrieval.
Once you’ve selected the files you want to recover and clicked the Recover button, a smaller window called Select Folder will appear.
In this window, preferably choose a different disk drive than the one on which the file was located when it was deleted. Again, you could use a USB stick to save the recovered file.
By clicking the OK button, Recuva will restore the files you want to recover to the location you just specified in the Select Folder window.
Once Recuva has finished recovering the files, the files and data will be accessible and usable as usual and the recovery of the deleted files is complete.
As mentioned, many of the personal files we create are irreplaceable. There are often hours or even days of work involved. That can make accidentally deleting a file a disaster. Fortunately, recovering deleted files on a Windows PC can be a breeze as deleted files are first moved to the Recycle Bin.
