When you’re working on your PC or laptop, it’s easy to delete files and folders permanently by accident, for example by pressing Shift + Delete, which deletes them without sending them to the Recycle Bin, or by emptying the Recycle Bin.
Deleted files can stay recoverable until they are overwritten: stop using the device. If software does not solve it, see Bot’s lab data recovery, which starts with a free diagnosis.
Files can also be permanently deleted by viruses or malware, by running commands incorrectly, or by deleting anything while the “Don’t move files to the Recycle Bin” option is turned on.
Fortunately, it is often possible to recover permanently deleted files using a few specific methods.
In this article, we cover these methods for recovering permanently deleted files. Read on!
Why is it possible to recover permanently deleted files?
Even when they have been permanently deleted, files can often still be restored.
But there is one condition: stop using the computer immediately. Otherwise, the data may be overwritten and you will never be able to recover it.
If you stop using it straight away, your chances of recovering the deleted files are much better.
This is possible because the files aren’t actually erased from your computer straight away. The operating system simply marks the space they occupied as free and available for new data.
The files become inaccessible to the system, but their data stays on a hard drive until new data is written over it. On SSDs it’s different: the TRIM command usually erases the deleted data shortly afterwards, so recovery is much less likely.
There are several ways to recover permanently deleted files, as we’ll see below.
How to recover files deleted from the Windows Recycle Bin
To recover files that have been permanently deleted from the Windows Recycle Bin, you can turn to Windows’ own backup features: restore them from a backup you made earlier or from previous versions.
Below is a step-by-step guide.
Windows backups and previous versions
Windows Vista introduced a backup feature called “Backup and Restore”, which lets users create backups and restore files from them.
In Windows 8.1, “Backup and Restore” was dropped in favor of “File History”, but Windows 10 brought it back as “Backup and Restore (Windows 7)”, so you can still recover data from backups created with this tool.
Restoring files from a backup
To recover permanently deleted files this way, follow these steps:
- Open the Start menu;
- Type “backup” and press Enter;
- Under “Looking for an older backup?”, select “Go to Backup and Restore (Windows 7)”;
- Click “Select another backup to restore files from” and choose your backup;
- Click “Next” and follow the instructions to complete the restore.
To restore permanently deleted files in Windows 10 from a File History backup:
- Open the “Start” menu;
- Type “Restore your files with File History” in the Start menu and press Enter;
- Find the folder where the deleted files were stored;
- Select the files and click the “Restore” button to return them to their original location.
If you can’t find any folders, File History was probably turned off. In that case, this method won’t work for the files you’ve lost, but turn it on now to protect your files in the future.
Restore from previous versions (folders and files)
Windows 10 has a very useful feature called “Previous versions”, which lets you restore earlier versions of files and folders on your computer, as long as System Protection or File History was already turned on before the files were deleted.
To turn it on:
- Open the “Start” menu;
- Type “Create a restore point” in the Start menu and press Enter to open System Protection;
- Choose a drive under “Protection Settings” and click “Configure”;
- Select “Turn on system protection” and click “OK”;
- From then on, you can use “Previous versions” to return a file or folder to an earlier state.
Just right-click a file or folder, select “Properties”, open the “Previous Versions” tab and choose the version you want to restore.
Restore files from previous versions in Windows 10
To use this method, find the folder where the deleted files were stored and right-click it.
Click “Properties” and open the “Previous Versions” tab. Windows will list the available earlier versions of the folder, which may still contain the deleted files.
If no previous versions are listed for the folder, some people create a new file with the same name and in the same place as the deleted one and check its previous versions. This only works if restore points exist, and writing to the disk can overwrite the deleted data, so use it only as a last resort.
To do this, go to “Properties” > “Previous Versions”, select a version and click “Restore”.
Unfortunately, this method doesn’t always work.
And if you don’t remember the exact name and location of the document, you won’t be able to find it this way. Meanwhile, the more you use the computer, the more likely the data is to be overwritten and lost for good.
This method also won’t help if the files were never included in a restore point or a File History backup.
So if you have accidentally deleted important files, the best solution is to contact a company that specializes in data recovery. It is the safest way to try to get your files back.
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Conclusion
When you use your PC or laptop, it’s not unusual to make mistakes, such as accidentally deleting files permanently.
Despite the word “permanently”, files deleted from the Windows Recycle Bin are not necessarily lost for good.
As long as you stop using your computer immediately, it is often possible to recover your files.
If you use Windows, you can try to restore them from a backup or from previous versions.
However, these solutions don’t always recover all your files. That’s why the best alternative is to turn to a company that specializes in data recovery, like Bot.
Our highly qualified professionals, with more than 200,000 cases behind them, recover data from all kinds of devices every day, so they know how to recover data from your PC or laptop safely and effectively.
What’s more, with more than two decades of experience, our experts work in a Class 100 (ISO 5) cleanroom, with airborne particles fully controlled, which makes the recovery process safer and increases the chances of getting your data back.
We also work fast: the standard diagnosis is free, and you receive your quote within 48 hours.
And to make things easier for you, we collect your device free of charge (islands not included).
