How to Recover Files Deleted from Recycle Bin on Windows?
Summary: In this blog, learn how to recover files deleted from the Recycle Bin on Windows PC. We bring you some effective DIY methods that may help you retrieve permanently deleted files and other data. You may also use the Windows data recovery tool to get back your files. Download the trial version below
When you delete items such as files, photos, folders, etc.,they are generally placed into the Recycle Bin on Windows PC. Recycle Bin works as a ‘holding bay’ for the items deleted using only the ‘Del’ key. These items remain in the Recycle Bin for up to 30 days. After 30 days, the Recycle Bin gets empty, and the files get lost permanently.
However, there is a catch. If you deleted your files and other data using the Shift + Del key, the files would not be found in the Recycle Bin. They will be gone permanently. Hence, it is suggested to be careful while getting rid of unwanted data. While deleting some of your unnecessary or junk files, you may mistakenly lose your essential data.
So, if you have deleted your files, try the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) methods shared in this blog to recover deleted files on Windows PC. We also share some preventive measures to avoid file loss in the future!
Recover Deleted Files from Recycle Bin
If the files are deleted only with the ‘Del’ key, we suggest you open your Recycle Bin first and check if the deleted files are there.
a. If you find your files there, right-click on them and click Restore. (See Image 1)

b. The files will be retrieved to the location from where you deleted it in the first place.
However, if you emptied the Recycle Bin or used the Shift+ Del key to delete files, and other data, they are permanently deleted. You won’t be able to find them in the Recycle Bin. To recover those files, follow the methods shared below.
Recover Files Deleted from Recycle Bin
If the files are lost due to the above-shared reasons, the files will become inaccessible to you. Don’t fret! You can still recover deleted files from the Recycle Bin on Windows following the given methods:
#1Use File Backup
You can quickly recover files deleted from the Recycle Bin easily if you have a backup. Many people keep a backup of their important files, folders, documents, photos, and more using an external storage drive or Windows built-in backup utilities such as File History, Backup & Restore, and Previous Versions. If you have used any of these facilities to back up your files, you may quickly recover deleted data.
Also learn, how to recover deleted word documents for free?
But what if I have no backup and I accidentally empty my Recycle Bin? How would I recover the deleted files?
No worries! Recycle Bin recovery is possible. You can still recover files deleted from the Recycle Bin on Windows using a powerful data recovery tool such as Stellar Data Recovery Software.
#2 Recover deleted files with Stellar Data Recovery software
You may quickly recover files deleted from the Recycle Bin on Windows PC using Stellar Data Recovery software. This DIY windows data recovery tool can restore deleted documents, email files, photos, videos, and more. It makes Recycle Bin recovery possible and helps you retrieve lost or deleted files and folders on your Windows PC, laptop, or any external storage media. It also supports data recovery from formatted, corrupted, encrypted,and RAW drives. To recover files deleted from Recycle Bin, you need to run this software on your Windows PC from which you lost your data and scan the affected drive/location to retrieve the files. Follow the below steps and learn how to recover files deleted from the Recycle Bin:
a. Download, install and run Stellar Data Recovery on your PC. (Trial version can be downloaded from the link given below)
b. Launch the software, and you will see the ‘Select What to Recover’ screen.
c. From the ‘Select What to Recover’ screen, select either ‘Everything’ or the type of files you want to retrieve. (See Image 2)

d. Click Next to proceed.
e. Afterward, the ‘Recover from’ screen will appear. You will have to select the location/drive from which you delete the files.
f. After selecting the drive/location, click Scan. (See image 3)

g. Once the scanning process is completed, all the lost files will display on the screen under three panes, i.e.,File Type, Tree View, and Deleted List.
h. Find your files in the Deleted List, select the ones you want to retrieve, and click Recover. (See image 4)

i. Now, click Browse to choose the desired location to save the retrieved files from the drop-down list.
j. Once done, click Start Saving to store the recovered files. (See Image 5)

[Note: Don’t choose the same drive (from which you deleted the files) as the storage location. Always use an external storage drive or another location on your Windows PC to avoid data overwriting.]
Preventive measures to avoid permanent file loss!
There are a few tips we would like to share with you that may help you prevent file loss in the future, given as follows:
- Immediately stop using the drive from which you lost your files and other data to prevent data overwriting. When you delete files, the space becomes available. However, the file remains there and can be recovered. But if you keep adding more data to it, space will be overwritten, and the files will not be recovered even with the help of a data recovery tool.
- Always keep your PC/laptop virus-free, as a virus may create havoc on the system. Run the latest antivirus program to detect any virus on your PC and get rid of it. This way, you will save your data and keep your PC in good health. So, always use an updated Antivirus program on your PC and keep using it frequently.
- Take a backup of your data regularly. Keeping a backup is the easiest way to get back access to the lost files, documents, and more.
- Always keep a robust and reliable data recovery tool handy so that you can quickly restore your lost or deleted files.
Conclusion
The blog outlined some best methods to recover files from Recycle Bin on Windows PC. Retrieve the deleted files from the Recycle Bin if they got deleted only using the Del key. However, if you mistakenly emptied the Recycle Bin or deleted the files using the Shift + Del key, you may use your Backup to recover files deleted from Recycle Bin. Even if there’s no backup, Recycle Bin recovery is still possible with a data recovery tool such as Stellar Data Recovery. This DIY software can help you extract data even from formatted, corrupted, or encrypted storage devices.
Hi,
Thanks for helps I was going to break my laptop but the information on the blog saves my life. I got recovered all the video which was deleted from recycle bin.
Hello Roni,
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Thanks Aaron
Great work by stellar team that saved my life today. I deleted few important file accidentally, happy to recover after extensive research of two days. Great Job
Hello Tawny,
Thank You so much for the golden words.
One day while I was working through Internet on my laptop my laptop got off . I was so busy on my work that I didn’t realised that the laptop needs to be charged. After that i was not able to on the laptop. Somehow I repaired it .but I lost everything including the pics videos songs and some important files that every collage student need .so now my question is can I recover all those? And there are some files that are outside c drive and d drive i.e in the desktop part of laptop which we can seen automatically when we turned on the laptop. Please help . I am anurag chakma here .
Hello Anurag,
It seems to be Electronic Failure or Power Surges which is either due to very high or very low power supply.
If the hard drive is still inaccessible, then use demo version of Stellar Windows data recovery software for immediate recovery.
As a side note, if you want to restore a deleted file, try not to write anything on your drive until you’re done with restoring that file. That is because the more data that you write on your computer, the more likely it becomes for your deleted data to get replaced with your newly written data.
Hello George,
Thanks for valuable information.
Hi! I would like to us if there is chance that the photos I deleted last 4 months can still be recovered in hard drive?
Hello Luffy,
The software will only be able to recover the lost photo files if they are not overwritten with the newer files.
We suggest to download the demo version of Stellar photo recovery software and check the required images in the preview section.
All the Best
Hello Admin,
Can you please inform me is the software interface available in German language?
Hi Paul,
Yes, our software interface is available in the German Language. Please check our official website.
Data recovery from the image is one of the finest feature of Stellar partition recovery tool. Always perform this task, before the beginning of any data recovery.
Hello Martin,
Yes, it is one of the most famous features of our software. By using it, you may save your data which can be later helpful in recovery by data recovery experts.
Is the above-mentioned software, recovers data which was erased with wiping software. Waiting for speedy response.
Hello Nathan,
Unfortunately not, data after erasing is permanently gone.
During last summers, my younger cousin accidentally deleted my entire presentation while cleaning up laptop. Once I get to know about data lost, I was completely panicked and confused. Looking for magical software to recover all the info. It was Stellar data recovery which saves my day and fully recovered all the data.
It was being pleasured that our software is helpful in your difficult times.
Stellar Window Data Recovery is really a powerful software. Even though I used it only once, but it efficiently recovered all of my desired data. The interface of the software was crystal clear about what to recover and from where. I just select the required folder and happily recovered all my data.
Hello Jyoti,
I have downloaded the software to restore my permanently deleted files from the logical drive. The recommended software recovered all the files, but I am unable to preview some of the images, as they appear as corrupted.
Hello Rose,
Thanks for asking question. The data recovery software only developed to recover lost or deleted files from the hard drive whether they are corrupt or not. The issue you are facing because your files may corrupt and in this case, you need a data repairing software.
Thanks Jyoti for the quick response. I have downloaded the repairing software.
Hi,
My computer system is behaving very strange, and I have been trying to diagnose the problem. The system deletes my downloaded files automatically even don’t show them in recycle bin. Don’t know why it is behaving like this; please help me out.
Hello,
It Seems that your drive has set permissions to everyone full control and this may the bad practice. To troubleshoot this issue, it is recommended to change the permission setting of your drive and give access to required people. Make sure Antivirus is not quarantined your files suspecting as virus-infected files.
Good Luck!
Hi,
My drive stopped showing up in my computer system. I have Toshiba hard drive, and it worked fine till last night. Now not appearing in my computer system please help me out how I can make it visible in my computer system.
Hello Larry Kim,
I believe the drive stop supporting the Windows. You need to check your drive in device manager to update it and make it compatible with the existing OS. Just do a right-click on the drive and update the drive’s driver software and then reconnect it see if it start showing up.
Thanks!
Hi,
I have an external hard drive which is now not being recognized by Lenovo laptop. The drive is previous for me; please help.
Hello Shane,
Before giving you a solution, I would like to know the status of the drive in disk management. Please acknowledge me the status so I can help you out.
Hi,
I have a Windows format external hard drive from which I have deleted some of my files. I looked into the recycle bin but didn’t found them there. Please suggest what happened to those deleted files. Are those files recoverable?
Hello Jake,
Once you delete files from the external drive, then they don’t go the recycle bin and become unrecoverable. To get deleted files back from the external drive you need to use data recovery software.
Thanks!!
Prior, reading this post, I assume that once the data is deleted from recycle bin. It will not recovered back by any means. But, I really feel glad, when I retrieve almost 6 GB of movies data after working with stellar phoenix software.
Great… The above-mentioned software helped me to recover data from my 1TB Seagate hard disk. I don’t find any difficulty while working with my XP OS. Keep it up and always looking for more content to learn from your platform.
Hi,
I am not technical person and don’t know much about the data recovery tools so can you please tell me the steps to run this software to recover my permanent deleted files.
Yes Elan, I am happy to help you!
Considering this point in mind; I have already shared a blog on similar topic https://www.stellarinfo.com/blog/download-free-data-recovery-software-full-version/. Here you find all the steps to recover your lost data. Thanks!
Hello Editor,
I have a hard drive, which is undetected in my computer system, do the above software will able to detect it.
Hello Jacob,
The software can detect all the drive, which are visible in a computer system. If your system is not recognizing the drive, then the data recovery software cannot help you out. However, if your drive is visible in disk management and not visible only in Windows Explorer, then software can easily detect that drive and recover your lost data.
Hello Jyoti,
I have a hard drive, and it has many bad sectors, and it is visible in Windows Explorer but don’t show data on it. Now I wanted to know is the above software can recover data from the bad sector hard drive. Thanks in advance.
Yes, the software has advanced features, which helps to extract data from the bad sector, affected hard drive. The software skips all the bad sectors of the hard drive and shows a preview of all possible recoverable files.
This blog really helps me a lot while recovering my lost data, a few months back. The points are briefly explained which makes my work easy to recover data. Since then I always refer this post to my many friends and colleagues who face data loss and looking for a best possible solution.
Hello Jyoti,
How to recover files after USB Drive corrupt whenever I tried to access the drive it shows me the error message that drive is corrupted. Can you please tell me is it possible to recover data from the corrupted hard drive?
Hello Peter, you can download the data recovery software to recover data from the corrupted hard drive. Above-mentioned data recovery software can recover data from the corrupted or non-corrupted hard drive.
Yes, the software supports almost all file types, and it can easily recover all your DOTX and DOCX files from the formatted drive.
Hello Jyoti,
Recently I have formatted my D drive where there were a bunch of DOTX and DOCX files collection stored. Do those files are recoverable with the help of this recommended software. Please help.
Hi,
I have downloaded the above software to recover my data from the unrecognized hard drive, but it is not showing the drive in the software interface. What should I do now?
Hello Lily,
Initially, software only recognize the drive, which is recognized by your system. If your system is not able to recognize the drive, then the software will also don’t that drive in the interface. In this situation, you need to use the “Can’t find drive” option to search for an invisible drive.
Hi,
I have the external hard drive, which is working fine for quite some years. Today I have accidently deleted some of my documents from that, external drive and when I tried to restore them from recycle bin, those were not available there. Can you please suggest why those deleted documents are available in recycle bin for recovery?
Hello Andrew,
Deleted files from external hard drive don’t go to the recycle bin even when you don’t delete them using shift + delete button. To get those deleted files back, you are required to go with the data recovery software, which can extract your deleted data from the external hard drive.
Hi Jyoti,
I reached to your article when I was looking for the way to recover my data, which I deleted from the recycle bin. I read the whole article and tried the recommended solution, and it efficiently worked for me. Thanks buddy for sharing the information.
Hello Jyoti,
Great information, nice write up. I am looking forward to read your more new informative articles.
Hi,
I have downloaded the above-mentioned data recovery software to recover my data from the external hard drive. It worked very fast to recover my data from the highly loaded external hard drive. I am so happy after downloading data recovery tool.
Hello Jyoti,
Thanks for sharing helpful information. It helped me to recover my files, which were deleted from the recycle bin. Really liked this article.
Losing important information from the hard drive due to such mishap is really an annoying moment. I too faced the same problem, but with the help of above data recovery software, I successfully recovered all my files.
Informative stuff about the recovery of permanently deleted data. I was looking for the same information, and after reading this blog, my all doubts are clear now. Keep sharing such kind of informative posts.
Hi,
I have Toshiba external hard drive, which is not detecting in my computer system. I tried to make it accessible by changing the SATA cable and checking it into device manager, but still, it did not recognized. Dear editor can you please help me out.
Hello Steve,
Have you checked your drive in disk management? If not, then first check your drive there. Might be the drive letter is missing and that is why it is not recognized. Just assign the name to the drive and check if your drive starts detecting by the system.
Hello Editor,
I have downloaded the recommended software to recover my permanently deleted files. The software worked very fast and showed the preview of all recoverable files, but some of my files are not available in the preview section. Can you please tell me why my all data are not available there?
Hello, it might be possible that some of your deleted files overwritten. When the deleted file space overwrites by the other files, then recovery of those lost files is not possible with any software.
Hello Jyoti,
I lost some of my important files from the 4TB Toshiba external hard drive. The format of the files I have lost is JPEG, XHTML, TEXT, DOCX, and XLSX. Does this software is cable to restore these file types?
Hello Joe,
Yes, the software supports almost all file formats. You can download this software to see how easily this tool scans your hard drive and shows you a preview of all files types, which were deleted, from your hard drive.
Good Luck!!
Hi Jyoti,
Thank you for the article, it just helped me to save my files, which I had deleted from the recycle bin. I downloaded the above data recovery software and feeling so relieved as it gave me my all files back. Thanks again buddy for sharing such a helpful post.
Hi,
I am in data loss problem; please help. 10 minutes ago, I permanently deleted some of my videos from the D drive. I tried my luck with the previous version but it didn’t help me, there were no data available for restoration. Can you please suggest if there is any other manual way of recovering those deleted files?
Hello Edward,
You can restore your deleted files with the help of backup and Restore option available in control penal to recover your lost data. However, to use this feature, a backup should be setup first. If you haven’t activated the backup option, then this Windows feature won’t help you. If you don’t find any backup available for restoration, then you can use above recommended software for recovering your deleted videos.
Hi,
I am using HP Pavilion desktop with Windows 10 operating system. Yesterday, I deleted some of my files from the desktop to clean it, but accidently I deleted one of my important project file, which was also on the desktop. Also, I had deleted those files from the recycle bin also. I tried to find a manual solution to get that file back but did not get it yet. Please help.
Hello Jack Roger,
As you have deleted your files from the recycle bin also then there is no manual command available to recover that permanently deleted data. In this case, you need to download and scan your drive using above-recommended Windows data recovery software. Software will list all the recovered file in left pane, you can see the preview of your file before saving. Good luck!!
Hi,
I have an external hard drive and recently I have deleted some of my files from that drive. Now, the files are not appearing in the recycle bin. Can you please suggest what I can do to get those files back?
Hello,
As you have deleted data from the external hard drive, then those deleted files do not go to the recycle bin and have deleted permanently. To recover those permanently deleted files, you need to download the above-mentioned Windows data recovery software.
Hi, I am so thankful that you have shared such an amazing post. The Windows data recovery software you have recommended in the post helped me a lot to recover my data from the reformatted hard drive. It worked like a miracle for me.
Hi, my daughter had accidentally deleted some of my files from the system. It has been a week over. I want to know that is there any chances of recovering those deleted files?
Hello,
Yes, there is still an option available to get your deleted data back. You can look into the recycle bin to restore your files. If you’ll unable to find your files there, then download the above-recommended data recovery software to recover deleted files.
Hi, I am looking for the Windows disk recovery tool which can retrieve data from my Windows computer system. I have an old computer system and a running Windows 7. Last night, I accidentally deleted some of my important files from the D drive and and didn’t found them on the recycle bin or anywhere else in my system. Please suggest how I can recover my files?
Hi Mike,
You can try our software mentioned in the above post. The software is fully capable of recovering permanently deleted data from the computer’s internal hard disk. You can download this software for recovering your lost data. Thanks!!
I am really impressed with the tool you have recommended to recover deleted files from recycle bin. The software helped me a lot as I got everything back. Thanks!!
In past, some of my official files are accidentally deleted from me, while arranging them. I googled for various tricks and techniques, being a non-techie fellow, I opt for easiest method i.e data recovery tools, the software successfully recovered by desired data efficiently.
Thanks for the info on data recovery after deleting data from recycle bin. I have downloaded the above data recovery tool and got my all permanently lost files back.
Hi, two days back, I had deleted some of my files from recycle bin; and now I need them. Can you please tell me is it possible to recover those files? Also, I want to tell you that I haven’t used my PC since the deletion, so might be data overwritten haven’t taken place.
Hello Benny,
Yes, the data recovery software I have recommended above can help you in the recovery of permanent data loss situation.
Before reading this blog post, I believe that if a data is deleted from Recycle Bin, the chances of retrieving back data are nil. But, thanks to this blog post, due to which, I get all my precious data back without going anywhere. Good Experience.
Hi, yesterday I had faced problem in restoring the deleted data from recycle bin. When I did right click on file stored in recycle bin, the file didn’t appear on the desktop. I tried this thing many times, but it didn’t work. Finally, I tried the above-recommended software, and it recovered my data successfully. Thanks for sharing this post.
Hi,
A while back, I have downloaded a free game on my system, and after an hour I realized that the game has the virus. Because, after downloading the game, my system started misbehaving. That virus permanently deleted my D drive data. Now I wanted to know whether this tool is capable of recovering data from virus affected drives or not.
How can I recover deleted photos (with shift-del)
When you delete a photo from your computer, it is not deleted permanently. Only the disk space is marked as available. If you can recover your photos, before the OS starts writing any new file on it, you can get your photos back. To get your photo back, you have to use a third party recovery software.
Recycle Bin is the primary place where everyone goes to check and recover their file once deleted. But, what if one has deleted their file by pressing the ‘Shift+Delete’ command? This is the same issue which I had faced and which makes me stand on this platform that I have to search for the data recovery software. So, I went through this page after Google research and found the amazing software with its procedure. Luckily, I got all my deleted data with me. Thanks for sharing an informative post with us.
Recycle Bin is the safest place from which we can recover our deleted data. But what, if you have pressed ‘Shift+Delete’ option? Then, a person has to reach a third party tool as what I did for recovering my files. So, I opted Stellar as a best data recovery tool which can easily recover my lost/ deleted data. Thanks for sharing the blog with us.
Hi, I am looking for my important file which is missing from the D drive. I have doubt, that I accidentally deleted it from the system. A few days back, I had cleaned the recycle bin. Now, I wants to know that is it possible to recover data from recycle bin after three-four days of recycle bin cleaning?
Hello, it totally depends on the frequency of data deletion. If you have continuously deleted data from your system, then chances of data recovery are very less because the more file you have deleted from the system, the more recycle bin will rewrite data on it. Still, you can try your luck with the above-recommended software.
Good Luck!!
I am a college student and have a lot of stuff like my assignments and seminar presentations in my system. A few days back, I was cleaning my system by removing the unnecessary files from it. I was using ’Shift+Del’ option to delete my files. By mistakenly, I had shift deleted my seminar presentation which I am going to deliver next day. I don’t know any option that what step should I take to recover my data. So, I began my search online and found this blog. The software recommended in this blog works great for me. I had purchased this software and recover my data back. All are impressed by my presentation, and this is all due to this software’s magical powers which had returned me back my presentation file.