deleted files

L

ljubljanaian

accidently emptied recycle bin thus permanently deleting the files in it, is
there any way i can get those files back or are they really permanently
deleted?
 
L

LVTravel

Don't use the machine. When a file is deleted and then removed from the
Recycle Bin the data is still located on the hard drive. The only thing that
is changed is that the file management system now knows that the physical
space occupied by the deleted files is now available to be overwritten. The
more you use the machine, the more of the deleted data will be overwritten.
Using another computer, Google for file undelete software. Download, place
on USB or floppy and run on the machine with the deleted files. You may be
able to get some of them back.
 
K

Ken Blake, MVP

accidently emptied recycle bin thus permanently deleting the files in it, is
there any way i can get those files back or are they really permanently
deleted?


"Deleting" a file doesn't actually delete it; it just marks the space
as available to be used. There are third-party programs that can
sometimes recover deleted files. The problem is that the space used by
the file is likely to become overwritten very quickly, and this makes
the file unrecoverable.

So your chances of successfully recovering this file are decent if you
try recovering it immediately after deleting it, and rapidly go
downhill from there. If you've been using the computer since then (for
example to write this question and read this answer), your chances are
probably very poor by now.

But if the file is important enough, it's worth a try anyway. Stop
using the computer in question immediately, if you haven't done so
already. Download an undelete program (here's one:
http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html but there are several
others to choose from; do a Google search) on a friend's computer and
bring it to yours on a floppy to try.

If this fails, your only other recourse is to take the drive to a
professional file recovery company. This kind of service is very
expensive and may or may not work in your case.
 

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