Guide to recover files from the recycle bin in Windows

The recycling bin of the Operating System Windows It’s like insurance, a first line of defense against accidental file loss. In this text we give you a guide to recover them.

The first thing you have to know is that it is key that, if you accidentally delete important files, you must be calm and act quickly. When you delete a file, it does not immediately disappear from the system, but is moved to that temporary recycle folder.

It is insisted: the ideal thing when you realize that you deleted something you didn’t want is not to panic. You should know that most deleted files are not lost forever, they are simply moved to the Recycle Bin. This space on your hard drive acts as a safety net, temporarily storing files until you decide to permanently delete or restore them.

The first thing you should do is open the Trash with a double click on the icon. The official website of Windows indicates that, if you cannot find it on the desktop, you must right-click on the desktop and select “View”. “If Show desktop icons does not have a check mark, click it to add one,” they wrote.

And it continues. “If that doesn’t work, try the following: Select Start > Settings > Personalization > Themes > desktop icon settings. Make sure the Recycle Bin checkbox is checked, and then select OK. The icon should appear on the desktop.”

“If you can’t find a file on your computer or you’ve modified or deleted a file by mistake, you can restore it from a backup (if you’re using Windows Backup) or you can try to restore it from a previous version. Previous versions are backup copies. files and folders that Windows automatically saves as part of a restore point. Previous versions are sometimes called snapshots,” says the Windows Website.

The second step is use the search bar in the trash or browse the folders and files within it. If you remember the name of the files you are looking to recover, you will have a certain “advantage” when doing this. If not, you can simply search for it to restore it.

Then the time will come restore the file. You can do it through two methods. The first is with a right click on the file you want to recover and you must select “Restore”. The other way is by dragging and dropping the file from the Recycle Bin to the location where you want to save it, as if you were moving it from one side to the other.

Take into account certain considerations for this purpose. When you empty the Trash, the files are permanently deleted and you will not be able to recover them with this method. There are some recovery software in case you emptied the Trash and need to recover the file. However, this method does not always guarantee success. Today, there is the chance to store files in the cloud in accounts such as Google Drive or others.

Don’t forget to check your Trash from time to time to free up space and make sure there are no important files you need to recover. You can also configure the maximum size of the Trash to adapt it to your needs. Additionally, if you work with large volumes of data and need periodic security, you can work with an external drive to have a backup.