How to check deleted files on your computer. Universal ways to recover deleted files

Hello dear readers of the blog site
Who among you has not encountered such an unpleasant situation when a folder with files was accidentally deleted? This article provides several effective ways to recover deleted files that not everyone knows about.

If you accidentally deleted some necessary folder or its contents from your computer, for example, from your desktop or somewhere else, do not despair and do not rush to search for recovery programs on the Internet; they cannot always help you.

From my own experience, I can say that when I was on my computer, I accidentally deleted one document that was very important to me. Using a special utility, I still managed to restore it, but only the text part, the graphic part, to my regret, was lost.

The second time my child did such a thing, I spent several days returning the deleted folders using different programs, and the result was disappointing. More than 60% of all information could not be recovered; it was completely lost!

(After this incident, I gave each family member their own separate one). I used, of course, free software and that may be why I got such a disastrous result; I can’t say what paid utilities are like. But I know and will teach you how to use standard Windows features with 100% results!

Recovery methods

1. Cancel actions

A deleted folder or file can be returned using the hotkey combination Ctrl + Z. Or, by analogy, right-click the mouse in the directory of the deleted object (a directory is a folder for files or any disk will also be a directory for folders) and click the Undo deletion tab. But this method will only work immediately after removal.

2. Restore from Recycle Bin

If the deletion was made earlier, then it makes sense to check the trash. We find the deleted object in the trash, right-click on it in the menu that appears, and select Restore.

This method will not work if you deleted the file bypassing the Recycle Bin using the Shift + Delete keys or if the Recycle Bin has already been emptied earlier. But don’t despair, the following 2 methods will even help you recover a folder deleted from the Recycle Bin.

3. Restore from a previous version

Using the example of a folder located on the desktop (or any other place on the computer, no matter the algorithm of actions is the same), in my case it is 5555 - I delete it.

Right-click on the trash can ⇒ Clear.

Everything, it would seem, my folder is irretrievably lost if it is not in the trash, but this is not so and now you will see it!
Open My Computer or the Start menu ⇒ Explorer, find the Desktop RMB, call the context menu, select the Properties tab.

In the window that opens, select Previous Versions. As shown in the screenshot, I have several of them in one of the folders and the objects you need will be found.

By double-clicking LMB I open the saved versions of the desktop, where I see my daddy 5555 safe and sound! Now I just need to drag it onto the desktop or copy it, then paste it into the place I need.

4. Restore from archive

In order to use this method, you must have archiving configured. The article describes everything in detail how to use it, and most importantly, why it is so necessary to set up archiving and what is its importance for the user.

That’s all for me today, I hope this article has saved many people’s nerves and a lot of time; now you can restore an accidentally deleted folder or its contents at any time without any problems in almost a couple of clicks.

Good luck and be careful.

If you have any questions, I’ll be happy to help!

And for clarity, watch the video on this topic.

Many people have found themselves in a situation where necessary documents were deleted from their computer. However, even if you deleted a file, this does not mean that it cannot be found on your computer and restored. There are various free programs that can deal with such problems.

You will need

• -computer;
• -Internet.

Instructions

This happens to almost every user, whether experienced or not: you delete a file, and after some time it turns out that you need it again. Plus, files can be deleted by mistake, by accident.

There have already been many articles on the site on how to recover files lost in various ways. This time I plan to describe general “behavior strategies” and the main actions required to recover important data. At the same time, the article is intended primarily for novice users. Although I do not exclude the possibility that more experienced computer owners will find something interesting for themselves.

Is it definitely deleted?

It often happens that a person who needed to restore something did not actually delete the file, but accidentally moved it or simply sent it to the trash (which is not deletion). In this case, first of all, look in the trash, and also use the search to try to find the deleted file.

Moreover, if you used any cloud service to synchronize files - Dropbox, Google Drive or SkyDrive (I don’t know if this applies to Yandex Drive), go to your cloud storage through a browser and look at the “Trash” there. All of these cloud services have a separate folder where deleted files are temporarily placed and, even if it is not in the trash on your PC, it may well end up in the cloud.

Check for backups in Windows 7 and Windows 8

In general, ideally, you should regularly make backup copies of important data, since the likelihood that it will be lost due to a variety of events is not at all zero. And it will not always be possible to restore them. Windows has built-in backup tools. In theory, they can be useful.

In Windows 7, a backup copy of a deleted file can be saved even if you did not specifically configure anything. In order to find out whether there are previous states of a particular folder, right-click on it (namely the folder) and select “Show previous version”.

After this, you will be able to see the backup copies of the folder and click “Open” to view its contents. You may be able to find an important deleted file there.

Windows 8 and 8.1 have a File History feature, but unless you specifically enabled it, you're out of luck—the feature is disabled by default. If, after all, file history is involved, then simply go to the folder where the file was located and click the “Journal” button on the panel.

HDD and SSD hard drives, file recovery from flash drive

If everything described above has already been done and you were unable to recover the deleted file, you will have to use special programs for file recovery. But here you have to take a couple of points into account.

Restoring data from a flash drive or hard drive, provided that the data has not been overwritten with new ones, and there is no physical damage to the drive, will most likely be successful. The fact is that in fact, when a file is deleted from such a drive, it is simply marked as “deleted”, but in fact continues to be on the disk.

If you use an SSD, everything is much sadder - on modern SSD solid-state drives and in modern operating systems Windows 7, Windows 8 and Mac OS X, when deleting a file, the TRIM command is used, which literally deletes the data corresponding to this file so that increase the performance of the SSD (subsequently, writing to the freed “spaces” will occur faster, since they will not have to be overwritten in advance). Thus, if you have a new SSD and not an old OS, no data recovery program will help. Moreover, even companies that provide such services most likely will not be able to help you (except in cases where the data was not deleted and the drive itself failed - there are chances here).

A quick and easy way to recover deleted files

Using a file recovery program is one of the fastest, easiest, and often free ways to recover lost data. You can find a list of such software in the article.

One important point to note: never save recovered files to the same media from which they are recovered. And one more thing: if your files are really very valuable, and they were deleted from the computer’s hard drive, then it is best to immediately turn off the PC, disconnect the hard drive and perform the recovery procedure on another computer so that no recording or operating data is made on the HDD system or, for example, when installing the same recovery program.

Professional data recovery

If your files were not as important as vacation photos, but represent necessary information for the company’s activities or something else more valuable, then it makes sense not to try to do something yourself, perhaps it will work out later more expensive. It is best to turn off the computer and do nothing, contacting a professional data recovery company. The only difficulty is that in the regions it is quite difficult to find professionals specifically for data recovery, and numerous home computer assistance companies and their specialists in most cases are not specialists in recovery, but simply use the same programs mentioned above, which is often not enough , and in rare cases it can cause harm. That is, if you decide to ask for help and your files are really very important, look for a data recovery company; those that specialize in this do not do computer repair or home help.

We often encounter important documents or files being accidentally deleted. In some cases they are indeed lost forever, but sometimes they can be restored. I will tell you how to do this and how it is more convenient to perform restoration in this material.

What are the specifics of storing files on a hard drive?

Speaking about the technology of storing files on a hard drive, you should know that a file is physically an area on the hard drive that is magnetized in a certain way. And if a file is deleted, all the information on it is not reset - only the data about the file from the allocation table is erased, which allows you to exclude it from the directory list. Therefore, as long as nothing is written over the deleted information, it can be restored. To do this, you need to run the appropriate program, which scans lists of files not according to the allocation table, but directly according to the sectors of the hard drive.

Is Windows capable of recovering accidentally deleted files?

The Windows operating system provides a two-step file deletion system that has already become familiar to us - the so-called Recycle Bin. All unnecessary files are placed in it, and as the basket fills up (that is, approaches its capacity limit), the oldest files are deleted. And in order to ensure the ability to recover deleted files in Windows, it is necessary to increase the size of the recycle bin, which is especially important if the computer is equipped with a sufficiently capacious hard drive. If you don't have enough free space, you can simply empty the Recycle Bin by removing all files from it or, for example, only the largest ones.

If useful information has already been deleted from the Recycle Bin, then to restore it you need to use an additional utility. However, it should be remembered that any program must first be written to disk. Therefore, it is better to either play it safe in advance and stock up on special software for data recovery, or, if we are talking about really valuable information, remove the hard drive and recreate the files on it by connecting it to another computer. This will avoid the risk of overwriting files when trying to restore them.

Which third-party programs allow you to recover files?

The universal program Magic Uneraser allows you to work with deleted files in the same way as with existing ones on the disk. Using it, you can recover data on a hard drive or flash card by simply connecting it to your computer. A utility built into the Windows shell will prompt you to analyze the disk for the presence of deleted files. After scanning, both existing and deleted files will be visible in Windows Explorer, and you will be able to examine the list of blocks available for recovery and even preview the data to be recovered. If they turn out to be what you were looking for, they can be immediately returned to any directory on the disk.

Magic Uneraser also performs a "deep analysis" of deleted files, which allows you to find even files that are partially damaged by repeated writing. When you select this option, a special folder called “Deep Analysis” will appear on the disk, where the preserved parts of file names, sorted by extension, will be placed. The content can also be viewed using standard Windows tools. The program's functionality also helps to find files lost due to recent disk formatting - this process takes a lot of time, but is capable of extracting all potentially useful data from the hard drive. In the same way, files are recovered from deleted disk partitions. The price of Magic Uneraser depends on the type of license and ranges from 1000 to 6000 rubles.

Serious file recovery tools are available in comprehensive computer optimization software packages such as Symantec Norton Utilites. The Norton Unerase system is included with other software. The entire family of Norton Utilites is built firmly into the operating system, so the user can easily run any diagnostic utility, disk defragmenter, or registry cleaner. The same thing happens with Norton Unerase - in any folder in the context menu you can scan files for deleted files by selecting items to be restored from the list. Norton Unerase recovers both partially saved and lost data during formatting.

A special feature of this solution is the creation of a special secure Norton Recycle Bin, into which files go instead of the standard Windows Recycle Bin. Norton Recycle Bin ensures that deleted files are retained for as long as possible by optimizing disk write processes so that the most important types of documents are retained for as long as possible. Additionally, Norton Utilites allows you to recover accidentally deleted email messages for some email clients. The cost of the Norton Utilities kit is 1,500 rubles. per PC, which is very affordable, considering the number of software products included in the kit.

MunSoft offers discrete products for recovering various types of data. In particular, the MunSoft Easy File Undelete utility is offered directly for files. It can work with NTFS, FAT and FAT32 file systems, simply restoring data in user-selected directories. An additional advantage of this program is its compactness - the distribution kit has a volume of 8.1 MB.

For photographers and designers, a special program is offered that restores exclusively digital images, eliminating the need to look for them among other deleted data. MunSoft Easy Digital Photo Recovery is a compact utility (4.6 MB) that can analyze a disk or selected folders for deleted photos. Before recovery, you can view the contents of the images in a format convenient for you (slideshows or thumbnails), which makes the program quite convenient for solving your problems.

You can recover MS Outlook and Outlook Express email messages using the separate software product MunSoft EasyMail Recovery. The comprehensive recovery system MunSoft EasyOffice Recovery allows you to recover not only email messages, but also other Microsoft Office documents, even if they are partially damaged. However, you can purchase a complete package of MunSoft Data Recovery Suite data recovery software for RUB 3,000. for the organization. The convenience of this approach is that you get the opportunity to recover any data, including data lost after formatting, but at the same time you launch a specific utility, depending on the type of information being recovered.

However, you can always give preference to a free program such as PC Inspector File Recovery. It interacts with NTFS and FAT file systems, simply displaying a list of deleted files in the corresponding directories. By and large, such a utility allows you to find any files that can be recovered, it just requires an accurate understanding of what was deleted and where the file was located. When working with PC Inspector File Recovery, it is recommended to save the recovered files on another drive, since they may take the place of the information you need if the recovery is not yet complete and you continue to search for lost files.

Conclusion

It often happens that important data is deleted due to user error, operating system failure, or a false positive from an antivirus program. Sometimes the equipment itself fails, and you have to restore files from a partially inoperative hard drive. The above programs are able to force the action and recreate important information if possible. However, if you work with business-critical data (customer information, financial documents), it is advisable to use preventive measures, for example, the use of backup systems. In this case, the lost data can always be restored from the backup storage.

Source http://www.it-world.ru/

Is it possible to recover deleted files?

Unfortunately, today there are dozens of different ways through which information can disappear from your computer. Accidentally deleted files, an emptied Windows Recycle Bin, a formatted flash drive, or a damaged hard drive are just some of the possible causes. Fortunately, information is usually not lost forever. New generation programs analyze any storage media and can restore all deleted files. If you don't know how to recover deleted files, Magic Uneraser will help you.

On the left is a list of disks located on your computer, as well as devices connected to it. To recover deleted files from a flash drive, connect it to your computer, after which it will appear in this list. Select the drive that contains the deleted files. On the program panel, click the "Analysis" button. Magic Uneraser will begin to analyze the selected disk, displaying its contents. This procedure will take some time.
You can stop the file recovery process by clicking the "Stop" button, but we recommend waiting until the program finishes the operation after analyzing the entire disk.

After analysis, the program will display a list of folders located on the selected disk. By selecting the required folder on the left, you can view its contents on the right side. Thus, the program provides the ability to view the contents of the disk in the same way as in standard Windows Explorer. In addition to existing ones, deleted files and folders will be displayed. They will be marked with a special red cross, making it much easier for you to recover deleted files.
Use the "Search" option to find the required file. For convenience, use the "Filter" option to see only deleted files. Use the right pane to recover the necessary files. If the "View" option is active, then when you select a file, its contents will be immediately shown.

On the right side, select the files or folders you want to restore, and click the "Recover" button in the panel. A file recovery window will appear. You can select the folder where you want to restore deleted files. The program allows you to not only save recovered files to a hard or removable drive, but also burn them to CD/DVD, and upload them via FTP.

Use the "Deep Analysis" option if you were unable to find the required files when analyzing the disk. The program will add a "Deep Analysis" folder, where it will add the found files, sorting them by extension.
You can stop recovering data from the disk by clicking the "Stop" button.
Also use the Deep Analysis feature if you are interested recovering files after formatting hard or removable drives.

View files before recovery

The Preview option allows you to preview the content before how to recover deleted files. The preview panel is on the right, it has two tabs: "Hex" and "Preview". The first tab ("Hex") displays the file contents in hexadecimal (like a Hex editor), and has three columns: address, hexadecimal, ASCII. The second tab ("View") allows you to view the contents of the document in the form you are familiar with (either a photo, or an MS Office document, or a text document, etc.).

How to recover files from deleted drives?

The program allows you to recover files from deleted drives. To do this, click the "Find disks" button.

Specify the hard drive on which you want to find the deleted partition. Specify the search scope and type of file systems to search for. All found partitions will be added to the list of disks. Now you can work with deleted disks as with existing ones.

All file recovery options

Sometimes (only when working with the FAT file system) the program may mistakenly determine the beginning of the file (the first sector of its contents), several options arise. Other programs simply take the first option, with the result that, for example, instead of the desired photo, the program restores a completely different one. Magic Uneraser offers all the options, allowing you to manually select the beginning of the file. There are two ways to see the file start selection window. If the "Preview" option is active, then when such a file is selected, a button for selecting the beginning of the file appears in the preview panel. A selection window also appears when such a file is restored.
On the left side of the file start selection window, you are offered options for the first sector of the file. By selecting values ​​on the left, you can view the contents of the file on the right side of the window.
The "Save all" button allows you to restore a deleted file in all the proposed options, and if the file is called, for example, "My file.txt", then it will be saved as "My file1.txt", "My file2.txt", " My file is 3.txt" etc.
If you select the "Do not display in this session" option by clicking "Save All", the program will no longer display the file start selection window, applying this option to all such files.

A headache for PC users is the loss of files: photos, documents and other data. We won't go into theory: this practical guide explains the basic principles of file recovery. We hope you can put them into practice.

Let's look at three main scenarios on how to recover deleted files on a computer:

Programs used during recovery:

Is it always possible to recover deleted files on your computer?

Not always, but in many cases it is quite possible. Let me explain.

After deletion, the files remain on the hard drive. In the file table they are assigned a label – “0”. This means that this space is not occupied and can be used to record other information.

Thus, the file is hidden from your eyes, it is deleted only conditionally and can be restored as long as it is not overwritten by other data. (By the way, you can restore files after overwriting, but there is a risk that they are partially damaged and cannot be returned).

How to assess the chances of recovery after removal?

The likelihood of file recovery depends on many factors. The checklist looks something like this:

• How the deletion was carried out - through the Recycle Bin, bypassing it (Shift + Del), through the formatting command
• Time elapsed since deletion - the further you go, the higher the risk of files being overwritten
• Type of deleted files - some files (images, videos) can be partially recovered, others cannot be recovered if even one byte of data is lost
• Type of storage device – hard drive, RAID array, etc.
• File system type - NTFS/FAT/exFAT, etc.

If the circumstances are successful, the files can be restored in whole or in part. It’s impossible to determine the probability in numbers, but it’s worth a try.

How to recover files from the Recycle Bin

Usually, after deleting (via the Del key), files are sent to the Recycle Bin. The Recycle Bin is temporary storage; the data is there for 30 days, after which it is automatically deleted. If during this time you change your mind (for example, remember that the files you need are among the deleted files), check the contents of the Recycle Bin and restore the files. How to do it:

1. Open the Recycle Bin through the icon on your desktop or through Explorer
2. Select the files to be restored and use the Restore item in the context menu
3. The files will be restored to their original location

How to recover files if the Recycle Bin has already been emptied

Even when you empty the Recycle Bin, the files are not permanently destroyed. However, you will need additional utilities and time to successfully recover deleted files. Recovery programs work on the same principle: they scan the file system, looking for sectors on the computer marked “file deleted.”

Note. By installing a program, you inevitably make changes to the file table, reducing the chances of recovery (depending on the amount of computer information recorded on the hard drive). We recommend installing the recovery program on a flash drive, another computer, or a disk partition that was not used to store deleted files.

Recovering files after formatting

Let's move on to more “severe” cases. In particular, after formatting, not only individual files, but also the entire partition of the hard drive undergoes changes. The result is permanently deleted files.

Is there a chance to recover data on a PC in such a situation?

• After quick formatting - yes
• After full formatting the chances are minimal

What programs will help you recover files on your hard drive?

In fact, there are dozens of recovery programs. We do not recommend taking the first one you come across: there is a risk that you will not only not recover your files after deletion, but will also waste money on useless functions. We will list three programs that have been tested and are respected by other users.

1. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard: advanced file recovery after deletion (in difficult cases)

1. Convenience. Data Recovery Wizard is perfectly integrated with the file system and Windows OS. Thanks to the built-in recovery wizard, working with it is convenient.
2. Secure Recycle Bin. Unlike the standard Recycle Bin, you can store deleted files in it and restore them even after emptying.
3. Solving complex cases. Recovering files deleted without the Recycle Bin (via Shift+Delete), after formatting or on HDD partitions with the “raw file system”.

2. Recuva - a universal solution for file recovery

Recuva is a free and actively developing program for the Windows platform. It's very easy to restore files on your computer, plus it doesn't require money for basic functions or lifting limits. By the way, on the pages of Softdroid we have already told. Read our detailed guide.

Let us note three main features of this program.

1. Simplicity. Recuva offers the most novice users to use the Deleted File Recovery Wizard. Here you can specify certain types of files (for example, only photos), select a search location, and set other parameters for finding deleted information.
2. Deep scanning. By activating the option, you increase the chances of recovering a deleted file, even if a normal scan using other recovery utilities failed to find anything.
3. Visibility. All found files are marked. The color indicates the probability of recovery: high, medium, low. A quick preview is available for found images.

3. DiskDrill – recover deleted files on PC and Mac OS X

DiskDrill is a young product on the computer recovery software market, but good technical support and community indicate the maturity of the program.

DiskDrill functionality is suitable for recovering most files stored on a PC: images, music, videos, documents, archives. There is a version of the program not only for Windows, but also for Mac OS. Regardless of the OS, you can recover 100 MB of found files for free (and this is a generous limit).

Features of DiskDrill:

1. Selecting the type of data to be recovered. You can only select file types that will appear in the search results. Filtering by attributes and flexible search among recovered files are also available.
2. Pause/continue scanning at any time. Convenient if you have a large HDD/SSD.
3. Overwrite protection. By locking partitions while DiskDrill is running, you protect your hard drive from overwriting deleted files.

Recovering files on your computer using Hetman Partition Recovery

Hetman Partition Recovery: universal recovery toolkit

Question-Answer

Photos were deleted from the computer in an unknown way. I suspect that some kind of virus could have done this. I tried to recover a deleted file using the Wise Data Recovery program. All files that were found are in the "LOST" state. As I understand it, they cannot be restored? Did the virus eat them? Or is there a way to somehow cure these files and still restore them?

Answer. See if Wise Data Recovery has a deep scan mode. Most likely not. Install other recovery programs. For example, Recuva has an in-depth scan feature, which increases the chances of recovering deleted files. You can also use PhotoRec to recover photos on your computer. Both recovery utilities are free.