Data Recovery of Deleted Files | How to recover files after you've emptied the trash

Just because you have accidentally deleted files that you needed to keep doesn't necessarily mean you have permanently lost the data. You can still recovery deleted files using a number of tools and techniques. Let's take a look at a few of them.

Data Recovery for Deleted Files Method 1 - The Recycle Bin

The first and most obvious thing to do is to check your trash. All of your recently deleted files are stored here until you empty the trash to permanently delete them. It's a built in way to save you from accidentally deleting files.

Windows users: Go to your desktop, find the Recycle Bin and open it. If you don't have a Recycle Bin icon on your desktop, click the Start button and go to My Computer and type "Recycle Bin" into the address bar.

Mac Users: You have the Trash. Open the Trash icon on your desktop, or from the Dock.

Linux Users: You have the Wastebin on your desktop.

Here in your Recycle Bin folder you'll be able to see all of your recently deleted files. Simply drag your deleted file out onto the desktop or another folder, or right-click and select "Restore" to place the deleted file back into the folder it was deleted from.

Data Recovery for Deleted Files Method 2 - Undelete Software

If you have already emptied your trash then you won't be able to simply drag it from the Recycle Bin because the Recycle Bin will be empty. Once you have emptied your trash, the file pointers are simply removed from the actual file data on your hard drive. The data is technically still there, but your operating system marks that place on the hard drive as "writable". This means that the more you use your computer, the more likely it is that the operating system will write new data over top of your deleted files, and they will be permanently deleted and unrecoverable. You need to shut down and stop using your computer as soon as possible to ensure your best chances at data recovery of your deleted files.

I highly recommend one of the following:

Taking the hard drive out of your computer, installing Undelete software on another computer and temporarily installing your hard drive on that computer. This way you can try to recover the deleted files from the other computer without risking overwriting your deleted files by using your own operating system on that hard drive.
Using Undelete software that allows for the creation of a bootable CD to scan from. You'll need to install this software on a different computer than your own, create the bootable CD, then boot your computer from this CD and attempt data recovery of your deleted files.
If you have money to spend and don't want to take any chances, you may be best off taking your computer to a data recovery expert. If the deleted files were extremely important then this may be your best choice because data recovery experts have experience recovering data and have a better chance recovering your deleted files than you do.

Data Recovery for Deleted Files Method 3 - Data Backup

Recovering your deleted files from a data backup is only an option if you have a system in place to backup your data. This is also the only sure-fire way to guarantee you will be able to recover those deleted files. If you don't have a data backup system in place then you will need to try the other methods explained above, and it may also be time for you to purchase an external hard drive or secondary hard drive and install automatic data backup software. Then the next time you accidentally delete those important files, you can rest assured that you won't have any problems with data recovery of your deleted files.

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