- 1). Visit the recycle bin or wastepaper basket if you wish to recover files you have recently deleted. Right click on the recycle bin icon on your desktop and open the application. A list of files you have deleted will be be visible. Right click on the file you wish to recover and choose restore. The file will be restored to the place it was originally deleted from. You can also drag and drop files from the recycle bin to a new location.
- 2). Download a third-party file recovery software program, such as Recuva from Piriform, to recover files that have been deleted from your recycle bin. Recuva is a freeware program, but a number of commercial file recovery packages are available online and from computer shops. Use an external hard drive to install the software. This prevents the installation of new data from overwriting the deleted files on your main drive.
- 3). Follow the software instructions to scan your hard drive for deleted files. Provided the files you want to recover have not been overwritten, they will appear and the program will instruct you on how to restore them. Save any recovered files onto an alternative drive or disk to prevent any overwriting of other valuable data.
- 4). Contact a data recovery centre such as ABC Data Recovery if your data recovery software cannot find the files you are looking for. You may have to take or send your hard drive to their premises and will be charged for any data recovered, even if it is not the files you required.