Retrieving a Deleted File

Have you ever found yourself picking through the kitchen scrap bin, looking for a lost kitchen knife or, even worse, realising it was probably in the rubbish that was collected yesterday?

I often hear of people having the same problem with files "lost" in their computer.

If you have simply "deleted" a document or some other file to the "Recycle Bin" this is not terribly serious; it is simply in the equivalent of your kitchen scrap bin.

You can get anything out of the "Recycle" bin without getting your hands dirty.

The following comments apply to Windows 98, but should be very similar for other Windows versions:-

Find the "Recycle Bin" icon on your desktop - it looks like a rubbish bin.
Click with the left mouse button (it will change colour) then tap the Enter key.

In the new window, which appears, you will see a list of files and folders, with columns of information showing each file's Name, Original Location, Date Deleted, Type and Size. (if the window doesn't take up the full screen, maximise it).

These listed items are all files and folders you have "deleted" by sending them to the recycle bin. They haven't been removed from the Hard Drive, but just stored in this special folder awaiting disposal.

A nice feature is the ability to sort the entries in various ways. For example, if you click on the column header "Name" you will notice all the file/folder entries are listed in alphabetical order from A to Z. If you click the same heading again, the order will be reversed (Z to A). Each time you click, the order reverses.

So if you've lost a file and know its name you can simply arrange alphabetically then scroll through the list to find it.

You can also sort in date order by clicking the column heading "Date Deleted"
You will see the dates are in order, with either the youngest or the oldest deletion date at the top. You can reverse the order by clicking again on the column heading.
(Make sure you are viewing the top of the list by checking the scroll bar at the right of the window to see that it is dragged right up to the top).

Obviously this option is very handy, as you can narrow down the search for a missing file if you know when it was deleted.

Once you have found the missing file you can automatically put it back where it originally came from simply by clicking on its name with the Right mouse button and selecting the option "Restore" from the drop-down menu.

There is no point in keeping unwanted files in the recycle bin if you are never going to want them again, so it makes sense to remove them from the recycle bin altogether. They will no longer take up space on your Hard Drive.

If you like the "all or nothing" approach you can simply click "File" on the menu bar while the recycle bin is open, and then click the entry "Empty Recycle Bin". (Or do this directly from the desktop by clicking the "Recycle Bin" icon with the Right mouse button and selecting "Empty Recycle Bin").

This will permanently delete everything from the recycle bin, and the Hard Drive space previously taken up by the files you have deleted will be available for storing new files.

I prefer a more cautious approach. Every month or two I open the Recycle Bin and sort the entries in date order. Then I scroll down the list to find the first file that was deleted more than six months ago and click its entry.

Next I highlight all the entries from there, down to the bottom of the list by holding down the Shift key and the Ctrl key and tapping the End key.

The highlighted files are then deleted by tapping the Delete key.

In this way I keep my "rubbish" for about six months before throwing it out.

One final comment - any file which is permanently deleted, or removed form the recycle bin is not immediately destroyed. Its data remains written on the Hard Disk, but it will be progressively destroyed as new files are created and written into the vacated disk space.

"Permanently" deleted files can sometimes be recovered, but only if they haven't been overwritten in the meantime.

Therefore, if you accidentally delete a file permanently and wish to recover it, you should not use your computer any more until getting help. Any further use of the computer is likely to create additional files (eg just collecting your email will write on additional disk space), which could destroy or corrupt the file you deleted.

John Selby, technical bloke.

First printed in SNN Newsletter February 2003