How to Recover accidentally Deleted File(s) and Folder(s)?

Have you ever deleted a file or a folder, then realized three weeks later that you really needed that file? No backup before, and you went to the Recycle Bin but it had already been emptied? And you started kicking yourself for being so stupid as to delete such an important file or a folder? It happens to the best of us, but fortunately there are ways to get these lost files back.

Usually when we talk about file or data recovery, we're talking about trying to restore data from a hard drive that's crashed or just flat out isn't working. That's the big time. But just because you aren't trying to recover your entire hard drive doesn't mean you don't have options open to you.

It's Almost Impossible to Remove a File From Your Computer Accidentally.
When it comes to data on your computer, it is almost impossible to accidentally remove it beyond recoverability. Even if you are intentionally trying to completely wipe a file from your hard drive it is exceedingly difficult. In fact, there is an entire market of software products out there designed to help you securely remove data from your system because of the difficulty in doing so.

When you delete a file from your computer, you aren't actually doing anything to the file itself. It stays on the hard drive right where you left it. What you're doing is changing the way the operating system looks at the file. You're telling the computer "This file isn't here anymore." Even though the file is still there, as far as the operating system is concerned it isn't. This means that you can't see it or open it when you are using your computer, because as far as the computer is concerned the file is gone forever.

There is one concern here. The file is still occupying space on your hard drive, but the computer isn't viewing the file as being there. The space that file is occupying is then being viewed as free space. That means that it's possible the computer will write new data over this old data, because it doesn't see the file as being there. If this happens, it can make it more difficult to retrieve your data, but usually it takes even more than this for your file to be completely removed.

If you want to recover deleted files, especially under Windows Vista/2008/Windows 7, our ALL-IN-ONE data recovery solution - EASEUS Partition Master is highly recommended. Besides data recovery feature, it also provides Partition Manager and Disk & Partition Copy for better partition management. Home Edition is FREE for home users.

Download | Learn More | Support

As always, Do Not Forget to Backup Your Partition or Disk in Case of Data Loss! Get Started with Free Windows Backup Software - EASEUS Todo Backup!

See also: How to recover deleted files and folders?

Common problems related to data loss and our solutions

• How do I recover deleted file(s) and folder(s)?
• How do I recover missing or lost logical drives?
• How do I recover formatted logical drives?
• How do I recover Fdisked drives?
• How do I recover lost file(s) and folder(s)?
• How do I recover repartitioned (such as Partition Magic resize partition error) drives?
• How do I recover hard disks involving Scandisk and Chkdsk?
• How do I Recover 'Ghosted' (or 'imaged') hard disk drives?
• How do I recover Raw Drive?
• How do I recover Encrypted Data on NTFS Partition?
• How do I recover Compressed Data on NTFS Partition?
• Raid Drive Recovery Overview
• Professional Data Recovery Software: EASEUS Partition Master