On Windows XP, after deleting an object and emptying the Recycle Bin, where do they go? Can you retrieve them?

Question

I accidently deleted some files I needed about a month ago, and I also emptied out the recycling bin when they were in it. I was just wondering if these files are permanately gone, or if I'd maybe be able to get them back anyway.

Answer 1

Technically they'd be on your hard drive if you just deleted them a few minutes ago and hadn't done much since. If it was a month ago, chances are the space has been reclaimed already. I'd be surprised if you could get them back in decent condition unless you either have (a) a TON of free space on your machine and (b) haven't done much in the last month.

Answer 2

It is very hard to recover them in good condition because their registries are written over by other software. Two free software, PC Inspector File Recovery and Recuva, claim to do the job efficiently; but I have tested both and they are hardly of any use. You may try them though. Just search for them in Google.

Answer 3

Its true that you can use recovery programs to "undelete" files but none of the programs I've tried nowadays don't really work in terms of the integrity of the recovery.

Good thing I have this so-called "Lost and Found" program.

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Answer 4

u could get some data retrieval softwares which retrieve permanently deleted data but a doubt if 1 month long data will still be retrievable

Answer 5

It's depend....those files will not lost permanently if your system restore is turn on.
If it's turn off, then they are lost forever....
To restore them, just launch system restore....

Answer 6

those files still exsist on your harddrive, you can use software to recover them very easily

here is a link: http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/collection/collid,1295-order,1-c,downloads/files.html