Everybody deletes a file or folder in error at some point. Thankfully, the files can be retrieved in most cases. This article looks at deleted files recovery options for hard drives and external storage devices.

Always start by checking the recycle bin. If your files are in the bin then you can simply select and restore them. Note that each partition and flash drive have their own recycle bin so make sure to the check the bin in the right partition (the one that last contained your file).

Your deleted files are not instantly cleansed from the hard drive. They normally just have their index altered in the file allocation table (FAT) so that your document does not appear in the directory structure. However, the data clusters representing the document are left untouched on the drive’s memory.

All delete files recovery software work the same way by scanning the hard drive for clusters and checking the FAT for lost documents. You start the process by selecting the drive to scan then copy the files the software is able to find. This could help fix PC errors if you deleted some system files in error.

In terms of software, they each specialize according to a file system format. The most common is FAT-32 that is used by hard drives and flash memory. Due to its commonness, there are also plenty of good reliable freeware recovery tools such as Recuva that are available.

Just note that the chance of finding deleted files diminishes over time as the operating system will gradually begin overwriting data clusters of deleted files on the disk, so you have to act promptly to ensure success.

One final tip: try starting scheduled backups so that you can always revert to backup copies rather than do deleted files recovery. At least this way you are guaranteed to have a recent version of your lost files.