At one point in the time you use your computer, you can have a file or more deleted because of your personal reasons. This could be intentional or accidental, but if it is the latter, you can be assured that deleted or missing files in Windows can be recovered – whether it is Windows 7, 8, or 10.
Before concluding that your file could’ve been deleted, it is good to double check for availability of a copy in your File Explorer. Go ahead and open File Explorer, click My PC. Type a keyword of the file name in the search bar of the explorer and click Enter as you wait on the search to complete. The missing file should show up in the search result.
If the lost file doesn’t appear in File Explorer, it is probably deleted so your next step should be restoring the deleted file from Recycle Bin.
The key point to note is that if you simply delete a file from your computer, it will be moved to the Recycle Bin.
How to restore deleted files from Recycle Bin
This option applies only if you are sure that you didn’t empty the Recycle Bin or delete the file from there. However, you ought to know that once the Bin runs out of space, the longest existing deletions are wiped out automatically to create more space.
To restore deleted files on your Windows PC, open the Recycle Bin; enter the keyword of file name in the search bar, and the deleted file should show up in the search result. Right click on it and select Restore. The file will be put back to their original location.
If the missing file can’t be found in the Recycle Bin, then the possibility is high that it was deleted permanently. Good enough, you can still recover the permanently deleted files on Windows.
If you happen to store your files to OneDrive, Dropbox, or any other cloud service; You can check there to see if the files have a copy saved.
Read About: How to recover deleted files on a flash, hard disk or memory card
How to recover deleted files from Windows backup
If you are the type that backs up your files with Windows’ backup utility, you can restore the lost files from the backup which is available on Windows 10, 8, and 7.
Click on the Start menu, and navigate to Windows System, then to the Control Panel, and click on Backup and Restore. If there is any backup available, you will see a ‘Restore my files’ option in the Restore section. Click on it and follow the on-screen instruction to recover your files.
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How to recover deleted files using System Restore
If you have no backup available, you can opt to restoring the folder to previous version.
Go to the folder that used to contain the deleted file or folder. Right-click the folder and select Restore previous versions from the drop-down list. If the folder is hard to remember, then choose the drive that used to contain the file or folder.
A list of the previous versions of the folder should appear. Open up the one that you created before the file was deleted, and find in it the deleted file or folder you need and drag it to desktop or another folder.
Find Out: How to recover deleted files from your Android phone
If you have no previous version of a folder or file to restore, the last option is to use a file recovery program for Windows to restore the files.
