How to Find Lost Files
It can be very frustrating to lose files that you urgently need or are important to you. If you share your computer with other users, important files may be accidentally deleted or moved to another location. This is one reason why it is always wise to store backup copies of your files to an external storage device. If you've lost files before you had a chance to back them up, there may still be a way to find them and get them back..
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Instructions
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Use the Windows "Search" feature. If you are using Windows XP, click "Start," then "Search." Select "All files and folders" and then type either the complete file name or a part of it. Narrow down your search by selecting the time frame it was modified or specifying the date you last modified the file. Click "Search." Browse through the search results for the file you need.
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Click on "Start," then type the file name or a part of the file name directly in the search box if you are using Windows Vista. Select the location or use the "Advanced search" button to narrow down your search and find lost files. Alternatively, you can use the "Search" feature that you will find in any folder or drive in Windows Vista. This is located at the upper right corner of the screen.
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Open your "Recycle Bin" to check if the lost files were accidentally deleted. Scroll down and look for the files. If there are several files in your Recycle Bin, click on a file and type the first letter of the file name. Keep on pressing the first letter of the file name until you find the files that you are looking for.
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Tips & Warnings
If the steps above do not generate positive results, the files may have been deleted from the "Recycle Bin." Fortunately, you still might be able to recover lost files with the use of recovery software (see Resources).
Note that although recovery is possible for deleted files, they should be recovered immediately after you realize that they were deleted. Recovery may be unsuccessful if the location of the files were overwritten with new data. Do not install the recovery software in the same drive where your deleted files were located to avoid overwriting the documents you want to recover.
