Before reviewing the below recommendations and suggestions, verify that the files are deleted. In some cases, the files may have moved. You can search the hard drive for the files you believe to be missing by running find or search on the computer.

  • How to find a file on a computer.

Restore from Recycle Bin or Trash

If you are running Apple macOS or Microsoft Windows and the file was recently deleted, it may still be in the Trash or Recycle Bin.

If present in this area, it can be recovered by right-clicking the file and selecting Restore in the menu.

  • How to recover a deleted file from the Windows Recycle Bin.

Recover file from backup

If the file was backed up to floppy disk, CD, USB flash drive, or cloud storage we recommend the file be restored from that backup if the file cannot be found.

  • How to back up your computer.

Download freeware program or purchase a program

When a file is deleted (even when removed from the Recycle Bin), the space used by the files is marked as available. However, the data in that space is not immediately overwritten with new data. Assuming no other file has overwritten the deleted file on the hard drive, a recovery program can recover deleted files. Below is a list of freeware file recovery programs that help recover lost data.

  • Recuva
  • Restoration
  • Disk Drill - for Mac and Windows
  • Undelete Plus
  • FreeUndelete
  • Photorec

There are also several companies who have created programs designed to recover your lost data. For example, PowerQuest makes the utility Drive Image that in some cases can recover data from a hard drive.

In Windows, if you’re prompted to run a program as an administrator, such as Restoration, right-click the executable file and choose Run as administrator.

If other programs were installed or data was moved on the hard drive since a file was deleted, it cannot be recovered using these programs.

Utilize a service from a company that specializes in recovering lost data

Utilize the service of a local data recovery company or an out-of-state data recovery company. One word of caution is that these services can sometimes be very expensive. We recommend they be used only if the data is critical or data cannot be read from the hard drive. Below is a listing for a few of the major data recovery companies.

  • Action Front Data Recovery
  • CBL Data Recovery Technologies Inc.
  • Doctor Byte
  • DriveSavers Data Recovery
  • Kroll Ontrack
  • Lazarus Data Recovery
  • Secure Data Recovery Services
  • Stellar Data Recovery
  • DataCent Professional Data Recovery
  • Virtual Data Recovery
  • Wondershare RecoverIt

There are also several companies that specialize in the service of recovering files or documents that are password protected. Below is a listing of some companies that provide this service.

  • Password Crackers
  • Password Recovery software
  • When I delete a file on my computer, where does it go?
  • How to restore a deleted file or folder on Google Drive.
  • Hard drive help and support.
  • See our data recovery definition for additional information and related links.
  • Computer file help and support.