How to restore deleted computer files

Have you deleted some computer files you realized you needed, and on a really bad day you also cleaned out the ‘Recycling Bin’ (Windows) or ‘Trash’ (Mac). Don’t worry it has happened to the best of us. The good news is that you can possibly recover the files you accidentally deleted. In most cases you can retrieve files after you have cleaned them from your ‘Recycle Bin’ or ‘Trash’.

Whenever you empty the Recycle Bin or Trash, the files are not really deleted immediately. They are still resident in your computer’s hard drive, but note that you’ve got a limited time frame, probably, a few days or weeks, in which to recover the files. If you delay beyond that time frame, your operating system will overwrite this reserved space with new data.

An important rule while restoring your deleted files is to ensure you do nothing major with your hard drive; such as using the scan disk or defrag tool, until you have recovered these deleted files. An interesting fact to note; is that the more hard drive space you have left unused, the higher the likelihood, that your files are still accessible.

To “undelete” or restore these files, you will need to download third-party software, because these computer programs are not built into Windows or Mac operating systems (OS). ‘Data recovery software,’ as they are sometimes called, more or less work the same as they allow you to preview deleted files so you can choose which ones to recover.

Some popular solutions for Windows include Recuva (my favorite), Uneraser, Undelete Plus, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, WinUndelete and Restoration. Mac users might consider Data Rescue 3. Some programs, like Recuva, can also recover files deleted from your digital camera memory card, USB thumbdrive, smartphone or MP3 player.

Many of these programs are free, so be sure to start with those. Some others are free while viewing your deleted files but then you will have to pay to recover the files.

There is a handy trick, and that is to see which one works for you. As previously mentioned, many of the available software handles the process in a similar way but performance (and price) varies between them.

As a precautionary step, remember to frequently back-up your important files, just in case there is an accidental delete. Use an external hard drive if you have a lot of files, plus be sure to consider one of the many free cloud services, such as OneDrive, Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive, SugarSync and Box. Most of them offer between 5GB and 7GB of free storage, per account. Personally, I use a combination of the two along with back-ups of the hard drives.

An important precaution; Do not keep all your back-up solutions in the same room or else they can be ruined in case of fire, flood or theft. Consider a safety deposit box, fireproof box or trusted family member’s home, instead.

Finally, to err on the side of caution, set your most-used productivity programs such as Microsoft Office to automatically save the documents you are working on every minute or so. Or you may opt to have a copy saved to the cloud (like Dropbox or OneDrive) just in case something happens to your computer.

Chima Michael Oleru