Accidentally deleted a file? It can probably be recovered

We’ve all, at some point in our lives, deleted a file that we really wanted to keep. The process of recovering it is often as simple as heading to the Recycle Bin/Trash folder and clicking a few buttons but, like they say, even the best laid plans can go awry and we’ve recovered data for clients that’ve accidentally deleted files permanently more times than we can count! Provided you act quickly, though, it’s very, very unlikely that the file in question won’t be recoverable.

When a user tells their device to delete a file, the actual data itself is not removed. Instead, the device is basically told that the user no longer wishes to keep this data and an internal file noting the locations to which data can be written is updated.

In other words, the information that actually comes together to create the document, image or anything else remains and will be recoverable until it has been written over by new data – hence why it is so important to act quickly.

Even if you’ve emptied your Recycle Bin/Trash folder, you may still be able to recover the file without the need to instruct data recovery experts. If you’re using a Mac, for example, you can use Time Machine – an app that allows you to restore your machine to its exact state at a prior point in time. More recent versions of Windows offer a similar feature but the problem – irrespective of the operating system your machine uses – is that this can lead to you losing further files you might want to keep. This can be resolved by backing them up onto a removable piece of storage media which, whilst both laborious and cumbersome as you'll need to work out exactly which files you'll need to backup beforehand, will ensure that you can simply transfer them back to your device when you’re done.

Another thing to consider if whether you’ve ever sent the file to anyone by, say, email, text message etc. If you’ve not deleted the communication in question, you can simply locate it and take the steps required to restore the relevant file to your device.

In the event that you’re unable to recover your file without assistance, though, we have some good news: often, when we are tasked with recovering data that was accidentally deleted, it can usually be recovered with specialist software and the drive neither needs to be physically opened or have any physical alterations made to it, meaning that the recovery should be a relatively straightforward process.

If you’ve accidentallydeleted files and need them recovered get in touch with Fields Data Recovery today.