You can recover deleted files by checking the recycle bin or trash, using a recovery program, or taking your hard drive to a professional. Use a search tool to make sure the files are deleted, and check the trash for missing files. Hard drive utilities can locate missing files, or a data recovery specialist can help.
All is not necessarily lost if you’ve deleted a file and later decide you need it again. In many cases, you can recover deleted files by finding the recycle bin or trash on your computer and looking for the file you need. Sometimes, however, the deleted files don’t end up there. If so, you may need to use a recovery program to locate the file so that you can attempt to recover it. If all else fails, you might consider taking your computer’s hard drive to a professional data recovery company; sometimes professionals have successes that a computer user cannot produce at home.
The first step you might take in recovering deleted files is a search to make sure you really deleted them and not just moved to a different location. You can use your computer’s search tool to search for files when you don’t remember deleting them but were unable to find them in their normal locations. This might work, for example, if you’ve saved a file in a different location than you intended.
If you have deleted the files you need, you can open your computer’s trash or trash to find them. The trash can usually be found on the desktop and you can open it by clicking on it. Many deleted files end up in the trash and stay there until you empty it. Unfortunately, some files seem to disappear after deleting them. Even if you can’t find them, these files usually remain on your computer until they are overwritten with other data.
You have two basic choices once you find out that you can’t recover deleted files through the recycle bin. You can get a hard drive utility that can help you locate missing files, or you can take your computer’s hard drive to a data recovery specialist. If you choose the first option, you can usually find useful hard drive utilities online. They look for files that have no matching pointer information, which would usually allow you to locate your files. This type of program then provides a list of files to review; you can recover deleted files this way if your hard drive hasn’t already overwritten your data.
If you don’t want to attempt to recover deleted files yourself, you can take your computer’s hard drive to a data recovery specialist. This type of professional typically has special programs and considerable experience with file recovery. Alternatively, you can look for a data recovery specialist who is willing to travel to your home or place of work, but their fees are likely to be higher than if you delivered your hard drive to their place of work.
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