How can I recover a deleted file from my computer?

In many cases, it's possible to recover files that have been deleted by using your computer's Recycle Bin. Marshall Brain reveals ways to recover deleted files -- and how to erase them permanently -- in this episode.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brain Stuff is sponsored by Harry's dot com. Get a
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(00:30):
Hi Am Marshall brain with today's question how can I
recover a deleted file from my computer? When the idea
of the trash can or the recycle bin became popular
on the Apple Macintosh and then in Windows, it immediately
became a fail safe for many users. If you delete
a file and realize that you actually need it, you

(00:50):
can recover it easily by doing the following. In Windows. First,
you open the recycled bin by double clicking on the
recycled bin icon on your desktop, or you can go
to the recycle bin folder in Windows Explorer. Next, you
find the file you want to recover and click to
highlight it. Then you go to the file menu and
choose the restore option, or you can write, click over

(01:12):
the file name and select restore from the menu. After
you do this, the file is now back on your
computer in its original place. It's a great feature. While
the recycle bin is a great utility, there are many
times that a file is not placed in the recycle
bin when it gets deleted. These include files from removable
storage such as flash memory and zip disks, files deleted

(01:36):
from within some applications, and files deleted from the command prompt. Also,
there are times when you'll empty the recycle bin and
then realize that there was a file in it you
wanted to keep. A common misconception is that the data
is actually removed from the hard drive erased. That is,
when you delete a file. Any time that a file

(01:57):
is deleted on the hard drive, it's not actually erased. Instead,
the tiny bit of information that points to the location
of the file on the hard drive is erased. This pointer,
along with the other pointers for every folder and file
on the hard drive, is saved in a section near
the beginning of the hard drive and is used by

(02:17):
the operating system to compile the directory tree structure. By
erasing that pointer file, the actual file becomes invisible to
the operating system. It's still there, it's just invisible. Eventually,
the hard drive will write new data over the area
where the old file is located, but immediately after you
delete it, it's still there. There are several hard disk

(02:40):
utilities that you can find on the internet that will
allow you to recover deleted files. What these utilities do
is search for data on the hard drive that doesn't
have a corresponding pointer information package and present you with
a list of these files. Your chances of fully recovering
a file diminish the longer you wait after you deleted

(03:01):
the file, since the probability that the file has been
overwritten increases. Sometimes you can recover portions of a file
that's not been completely overwritten. What if you really do
want to delete something, Say you have financial information or
passwords or something in a file, and when you delete it,
you really want to delete it and make it disappear

(03:21):
completely from your hard disc. What if you don't want
the file to remain on the disc after you delete
it at all. There are other utilities you can find
that will go in and zero out the files sectors
to completely remove that information. For more on this and
thousands of other topics because that how stuff works dot
com and don't forget to check out the brain stuff

(03:42):
blog on the house stuff works dot com home page.
You can also follow brain stuff on Facebook or Twitter
at brain stuff hs W. Brain Stuff is sponsored by
Harry's dot com. Get a great shaving experience for a
fraction of the price. The quality of the shave is
so important that Harry purchase the factory that makes their blades.
Fifteen dollars gets you a set that includes a handle,

(04:04):
three blades, and shave cream. Go to Harry's dot com
use the code brain stuff to save five dollars off
your first purchase.