We show you how you can recover recently deleted files on your PC, either through some tricks to put into practice, or through the use of data recovery software.

Who has not ever had the fact of having mistakenly deleted files or files from the computer that they later wanted to recover and it has not been possible or has not known how to do it.

Windows has the ‘Recycle Bin’, which acts as a security element to be able to rescue everything that goes into it. However, if you have deleted files in order to free up disk storage space, it may no longer appear here.

You should know that there are alternatives to recover files, although for this, you have to resort to the use of third-party software or data recovery programs. There are programs that, if you have previously installed, will save you some troubles.

Before showing you the options for recovering lost files, you should know that the longer it has been since they were deleted, the more difficult it will be to recover them. Things get tricky on SSD drives, where unused cells are regularly removed to free up space.

There are free and paid software options that can help you in the task of recovering deleted files, but you must be careful before installing and using them since they could overwrite the same files that you are trying to recover.

If one of the following methods is successful, we recommend making a backup copy of your files to avoid a similar situation in the future. Whether backed up to the cloud or an external drive, adopting good habits will save you from headaches.

Most file recovery disk utilities work in a similar way, although as we indicate in each explanation, the efficiency of one to the other may vary. Proceed as follows for recovery.

• Download the recovery software. Whenever possible, install the program on a different hard drive than the one containing the deleted files you want to recover.
• Select the disk containing the erased information to allow the software tool to scan for recently erased files.
• Select the files to recover.
• Choose a location to save what the tool has located and is recoverable. It should be a different location than the original disk.

Recover deleted files from Recycle Bin

Whenever you have deleted something that you later want to recover, the first thing you have to do is go to the Windows Recycle Bin. When you select a file and press the Delete key (or right-click and choose ‘Delete from the menu’), Windows passes it here.

The operating system moves it to the Recycle Bin, which has its own icon on the desktop. Restoring a file from the ‘Recycle Bin’ is simply double-clicking on the desktop icon to display the contents and then right-clicking on the file and selecting ‘Restore’.

If the Recycle Bin icon isn’t visible, look under ‘Show or Hide’ in the Start menu and you should see a shortcut to Settings where you can check the box next to the Recycle Bin to make it appear.

However, don’t always rely on the Recycle Bin as a safety net – it has a size limit and once you exceed it, old files will be permanently and automatically deleted.

The default size is suitable for most people, so there is a good chance that the files you want to restore are still present in the Recycle Bin. To check the capacity or modify it, right-click on the Recycle Bin and select ‘Properties’.

However, if you are in the habit of using the ‘Shift-Delete’ shortcut keys, they bypass the use of the Recycle Bin, thus permanently deleting the data. Also, if your files were on an SD card or USB drive, there is no Recycle Bin feature.

Before resorting to file recovery software, you should opt for some additional avenues. Have you shared the file or document by email? Have you saved or synced it with a cloud storage service? Or maybe you took a backup?

If the answer to all of these questions is no, you are ready to proceed with the option of using a file recovery tool or software program.

Free vs paid data recovery software

Here’s a list of freeware options. The most famous among users is usually Recuva from Piriform.

• Recuva
• Paragon Rescue Kit 14 free
• CGSecurity PhotoRec
• Minitool Partition Wizard Free Edition 9.1
• Kroll Ontrack EasyRecovery Free
• Stellar TestDisk

Sometimes a free tool is all you will need. But many of these programs have limited power to recover files, or are limited in the number of files or the amount of data that you can recover before paying for another more advanced version.

Often times, these premium versions can find and restore files that the free versions cannot. For example, if you format a hard drive (the long option, not the fast one), then you may find that free recovery software can still recover files.

Here are three of the best payment options, most of which offer a trial version or at least show the files available for recovery before you have to pay, which is quite a detail.

• Stellar Windows Data Recovery: From € 79
• Kroll Ontrack EasyRecovery Home: From € 45
• Disk Drill Pro: From € 97.76

Tips to recover deleted files

Act quickly! The sooner you realize you’ve accidentally deleted a file, the better your chances of recovering it. When you notice its loss, don’t save anything to disk and don’t even download or install a file recovery utility.

If the file was on the hard drive of your PC or laptop, do not modify its current state, as a change could overwrite the same files that you are trying to recover.

Use the portable version. Some recovery programs can be run directly from a USB flash drive, but you must download them using a different computer.

Even browsing the Internet to find a recovery utility causes files to be overwritten on your drive, so use a different PC to download the software program or tool.

Free up some space. The recovery utilities only work reliably with sequential files. If your disk is reasonably full, Windows often has to divide the file into blocks around the disk.

Also, the drives use different file systems and any disk recovery utility will only work with certain types of file systems. Windows hard drives use the NTFS file system.

However, USB flash drives and memory cards generally use some variant of FAT (FAT16, FAT32, or exFAT) and you must select the software with the necessary support for all your media.

Can files be recovered from a bad SSD or hard drive?

Once we have clarified that the files do not have to be lost forever, we come to the greatest fear on the part of computer users: the appearance of a hard disk failure.

This could manifest itself in a number of ways, but in general, Windows won’t start, not even in ‘safe’ mode, and turning on your PC may be accompanied by unpleasant disk noises. You risk losing all the contents of the disc.

Some suggest that certain hard drives have been repaired by putting them in the freezer for a while. But this is like putting the wet mobile in a jar with rice grains to await their salvation, it only happens on certain occasions.

Often times it won’t work and trying it could be the last straw for the record to break down further. Our recommendation, therefore, is that you do not try this or any other repair associated with DIY.

In return, as soon as you suspect a hardware failure, you should immediately shut down your PC and contact a data recovery company like Kroll OnTrack. These companies have large stocks of replacement parts that they can exchange in their cleanroom to restore the failing part.

Once this is accomplished, they will copy all the data they can recover onto encrypted removable media such as a USB drive. This works for failures of disk parts such as electronic circuit boards, the motor, or the read/write head, but there is a limit.

In the case of mechanical discs, if it is the disc part or the head plates that are scratched, you usually end up with recovery options. Fortunately, these failures are rare.

As always, it is worth assessing which company we should use and whether it is a good idea to choose a company that diagnoses the problem or provides us with a budget since in most cases advanced recovery will cost us an arm and a leg.

Technicians can also use the latest techniques to recover data from a failing SSD drive. These services can cost around € 700 so it should be the last resort to turn to and only if the lost data is of great value to you.

How to recover deleted files

For our tests, we have used Diskdigger, but the process is similar to all recovery programs.

Step 1. Download DiskDigger. You don’t need to install it, just extract the contents of the .zip file and run the .exe file. Remember that if you have already accidentally deleted some files, you should not download DiskDigger to the disk that contains your lost files.

Step 2. Start DiskDigger. The main screen shows all discs. Select the one containing the deleted files and click ‘next’ three times. Now the disk will be scanned and all deleted files will be listed; this could take some time.

If the files you are looking for are listed, continue to the next step. If not, you could try altering some of the options on the previous screens and scanning again.

Step 3. DiskDigger will not be able to display the correct file names, so to help identify lost files, a preview option is provided. Select a file from the list on the left and choose the label ‘Preview’ (for photos) or ‘First few bytes’.

Also useful for photos is the ‘thumbnail’ option in the ‘view’ menu, which will show small images in the list.

Step 4. When you have identified your lost files, select them from the list on the left and click ‘Recover selected files …’. Next, select the device and folder where you want to restore your files (this should not be on the same physical drive as the lost file).

The rest of the files will be saved with automatically generated file names, so you will need to rename them to your original names.