How to Recover Deleted Files & Software
At some point, everyone needs to restore a file or program that was unintentionally deleted. If you find yourself in this situation, stop whatever you are doing and get to work on the data recovery. A file is never truly gone from the hard drive until it is overwritten by other data so it is important to stop all other activity to preserve the file. There are a host of different methods that can be employed to recover accidentally deleted data, from file recovery programs to tools built into Windows. Depending on your situation, one of these will likely be able to help you recover your data.
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Instructions
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Recover File from Recycle Bin
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Open the Recycle Bin from the Windows desktop. If the file was just deleted, it may be easily restored from the Recycle Bin if it was not recently emptied. This process only applies to deleted files and not to deleted software.
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Review the files in your Recycle Bin.
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Select the file you wish to restore.
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Right-click and select "Restore" to recover the file.
Restore Uninstalled Program with System Restore
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Launch System Restore by selecting "Start," "Programs," "Accessories," "System Tools," "System Restore."
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Select "Recommended Restore" if the software was very recently (within the last few hours) uninstalled. If you are attempting to recover a program uninstalled some time back (more than a day or two) then select "Choose a different restore point" and pick a date when the program was available on your system.
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Click "Finish" to begin the restore process. Windows will restart and once complete, your system will be set as it was on the restore date you selected, thus recovering any uninstalled programs. Please note that programs installed after the restore point will be removed during this process.
Recover Deleted File Using Windows Previous Versions
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Navigate to the folder where the file was located using Explorer.
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Right-click in an empty area in the folder and select "Properties."
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Select the "Previous Versions" tab.
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Review the list of previous versions available on your computer. If the file was very recently deleted, there should be a version of the folder that includes your file.
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Click "Restore" to recovery the file.
Recover Deleted File with Data Recovery Program
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Download and install the free or paid data recovery program of your choice (see Resources).
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Launch the data recovery software.
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Scan the hard drive from which the file was accidentally deleted. This process may take a long time (up to 30 minutes) if your hard drive is large.
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Review the list of recoverable files. Many data recovery programs include features that allow you to search or filter the results (since the list of files can be lengthy) making it easy to find the file you are looking for.
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Select the file you wish to recover and click the button that will restore (often this button is called "Restore" or "Recover").
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Tips & Warnings
File recovery is significantly easier than software recovery. Windows System Restore is essentially the only way to restore an uninstalled program. Alternatively, if you do not need the program to be restored exactly as it was configured, you can simply re-install the program and re-configure the settings. This is often a better method than Windows System Restore.
References
Resources
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