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Wendy said:
I accidentally deleted a word file from the recycle bin.
I did a "system restore" to a prior day's checkpoint, but
it did not put the file back. How else can I get it
back? Please help. Thanks.
System restore restores system files. It does nothing for files
you create.
"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 is 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 on a friend's
computer and bring it 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.
