How to Restore Permanently Deleted Files from Recycle Bin for Free

Where do deleted files go after Recycle Bin? Is a deleted file really gone? Does the Recycle Bin include everything deleted from hard drives? Is it possible to restore permanently deleted files from Recycle Bin in Windows 10/11 after empty? Keep reading to get answers to the questions.

Recover Deleted Files from Recycle Bin

It is easy to restore deleted files from Recycle bin after you delete them. However, what if you emptied the Recycle Bin? Besides, the Recycle Bin only stores files removed from the internal hard drive of a computer for a certain period, not including external hard drives and removable disks. Is there a way to restore permanently deleted data from Windows & Mac?

As a matter of fact, deleted files are not actually disappeared forever. They are just hidden momentarily until being overwritten. So remember not to save or change anything in disk after emptying recycle bin. The faster you take measures, the more files you could recover. Here are two solutions about how to recover permanently deleted files from recycle bin after empty.

How to Recover Files from Recycle Bin in Windows & Mac

Recycle bin in Windows, or Trash in macOS, is somewhere the operating system stores the files you deleted from the computer local disk. Yes, unlike smart phones, you can remove files from a computer without worries as it is easy to recover deleted files from Recycle bin or Trash in most cases.

Restore from Recycle bin in Windows:

Now the file or folder shall be restored to its original location.

Note: Make sure you know the original location of the file or folder, otherwise it may take you a long time to find the recovered file. If you forget the location, please choose Properties on Step 3, and you will see the original folder (instead of the full path) of the file.

Restore from Trash in macOS

It’s worth mentioning that external drives have their own Trash in Mac. If you deleted files from a pen drive in your Mac, which are not moved to the Trash of your desktop, you might be able to find them as hidden files.
Enable hidden files in macOS Sierra or later: Press “Shift + CMD + .” shortcut, then check the “.Trashes” folder in your external drive.

How to Permanently Deleted Files from Recycle Bin after Empty

However, you may not find the files you need in Recycle bin or Trash in some cases:

When you cannot find a deleted file in Recycle bin, it might have been permanently deleted, or so thought as the operating system and most people. As a matter fact, as long as the deleted files have not yet been overwritten by new data, it is still possible to restore data from Recycle bin after empty or under other occasions. To recover permanently deleted files, you will need a good data recovery software.

RePicvid Free Data Recovery is capable of recovering permanently deleted files from emptied recycle bin. With it, you can undelete photos, videos, audios, Office documents and compressed files from computer hard drive, USB flash disk and memory card. What’s best, this Recycle bin file recovery software will help you recover photos 100% for free. Follow the guide below to start restoring files from recycle bin.

WindowsFree DownloadWin Version MacFree DownloadMac Version

How to Restore Permanently Deleted Files from Recycle Bin without Software

If you have created a backup before, it is feasible to recover deleted files from recycle bin without software. The backup comes from restore point or Windows backup. You may restore deleted files by returning it to previous versions. Do as following steps:

  1. Select a folder where deleted files are, and right click it.
  2. Choose Restore to previous version.

Normally the restore button is not available if you don’t use Windows backup or it won’t show any old version there. Anyway, the existence of Restore point enables users a proper method to back up Windows computer and files stored. A similar mechanism is also available in macOS.

How to Show the Hidden Icon of Recycle Bin

There may be occasions when you accidentally hide the recycle bin, not delete the files. You could restore the hidden recycle bin with solution below (take Win 7 system as an example):

  1. Right click the desktop and select Personalize.
  2. In the left panel, click Change desktop icon and tick recycle bin from a pop-up window. Then click OK to confirm.
    After that, your deleted recycle bin would show on desktop again.

Verdict

In this tutorial, we have learnt several ways to recover deleted files from Recycle bin which shall be applied under different conditions. In case data loss happens to you, don’t hesitate to choose a solution of Recycle bin recovery according to your situation as soon as possible. Feel free to share your experience or opinions in the comment.

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