How to Recover Files That Were Deleted From Recycle Bin for Free

Are files deleted from the Recycle Bin really gone?

The Windows Recycle Bin is a temporary storage area for files and folders that you delete. When you delete a file, it isn’t immediately removed from your hard drive. Instead, it is moved to the Recycle Bin, allowing you to restore it if needed. The file remains there until you manually empty the Recycle Bin or it exceeds its allocated storage limit, at which point older files are permanently removed.

"Are files deleted from the Recycle Bin really gone?" No, files deleted from the Recycle Bin are not immediately gone. The operating system removes the file’s reference from the file system, marking the space as available for new data. However, the actual data remains on the hard drive until overwritten. With specialized recovery tools, it’s often possible to recover files that were deleted from Recyle Bin.

Can I Get Something Back I Deleted from the Recycle Bin?

Yes, it’s possible to recover files even after they’ve been deleted from the Recycle Bin. As mentioned above, when you empty the Recycle Bin, Windows removes the file’s reference but not the actual data, which remains on the hard drive until overwritten. To retrieve these files, you can use the following methods.

Free Methods to Recover Files That Were Deleted from Recycle Bin

Accidentally deleting files from the Recycle Bin can be frustrating. Fortunately, there are several free methods to recover permanently deleted files. This guide covers easy-to-follow solutions for recovering lost data deleted from Recyle Bin for free.

Method 1. Use File History (Windows Built-in Tool)

If you have set up a backup beforehand using File History, you can try recovering deleted files using Windows File History and restoring them to your local computer. How to do it specifically? Just do as following:

Applies to: Windows 8, 10 and 11

Step 1. Open File Explorer and go to the folder where the deleted file or folder was originally stored.

Step 2. Right-click the folder and select "Restore previous versions".

😃Note: If the folder was located at the root of a drive (e.g., C:\), right-click the drive itself and choose Restore previous versions.

Step 3. In the Previous Versions tab, you’ll see a list of available backups of the file or folder.

Step 4. Choose a previous version that contains the file or folder you want to recover, then click "Restore" to bring it back.

Bonus tip: how to back up using File History

Plug in an external hard drive or USB drive to your computer. Alternatively, you can use a network location as the backup destination.

From the Control Panel, under System and Security, select Save backup copies of your files with File History.

Select Turn on to enable File History.

Method 2. Apply Window File Recovery Command

The Windows File Recovery command-line app helps recover lost files that are deleted from local storage devices like internal drives, external drives, and USB devices or thatcan't be restored from the Recycle Bin.

Step 1. Download and install Windows File Recovery app in Microsoft Store.

Step 2. In the Command Prompt window, enter the command in the following format:

winfr source-drive: destination-drive: [/mode] [/switches]

For example: Recover your Documents folder from your C: drive to the recovery folder on an D: drive.

Winfr C: D: /regular /n \Users\\Recycle Bin\

Step 3. When you are prompted for confirmation to continue, enter Y to start the recovery operation.

Method 3. Use Free Data Recovery Software

If you can’t recover files deleted from Recycle Binusing built-in Windows tools, free data recovery software can be a reliable solution. Here we recommended MyRecover, providing comprehensive and powerful Windows data recovery solutions for kinds of data loss scenarios such as deleted files recovery, Recycle Bin recovery, formatted file recovery, data recovery from system crash and virus attack.

Easy steps to recover files deleted from recycle bin after empty

Step 1. Download and install MyRecover software.

Step 2. Open the MyRecover. Click “Recycle Bin Recovery.”

Step 3. Select the location where deleted/lost files stored and click “Scan”.

Step 4. Choose “Recycle Bin”again to scan files. Once done, you can preview them.

Step 5. Select the target file and click “Recover”. Select a destination location to save the restored files.

Step 6. Then wait the process to be completed.

Then you can navigate to the destination location to check the files that were deleted from Recycle Bin. To recover unlimited data or get back lost files from crashed computers, just upgrade to MyRecover Pro or Tech.

Summary

Files deleted from the Recycle Bin are not immediately gone. Fortunately, you can recover these files that were deleted from Recycle Binusing 3 free methods. If you have a backup in place, File History allows you to restore previous versions of your files. If you don't have a backup, both Windows File Recovery and MyRecover are excellent options to try. For the easiest recovery process, MyRecover is the best choice, as it supports recovering over 200 file types from various devices and file systems across Windows 7 to 11 and Windows Server.What’s more, it does not require complex commands.