The Windows Recycle Bin

The Windows Recycle Bin is a folder that contains files that you’ve deleted from your hard drive. Each time you delete a picture, text document, or other file, it is deposited in the Recycle Bin as a last stage before final deletion. Think of the Recycle Bin as a precautionary measure that allows you to restore files that you didn’t really want to delete. There are many ways that files can be accidentally deleted. Files are moved to the Recycle Bin by right-clicking a file and choosing Delete; selecting a file and pressing the DELETE key on your keyboard; selecting a file and choosing Delete from the File menu or the sidebar menu within a folder; or by dragging and dropping a file into the Recycle Bin.

The Recycle Bin only catches and stores files that have been deleted from your hard drive, not from removable media. That means when you delete a file from your USB flash drive, camera memory card, CD, or DVD, it’s gone for good. The Recycle Bin can also only hold a certain amount of information; by default, it holds 10% of the size of your hard drive. For example, if you have a 120GB hard drive, the Recycle Bin can only hold up to 12GB of deleted data (at its default settings). If 10% of your hard drive seems like too much or not enough space to save deleted files, you can customize your preferred settings in the Recycle Bin Properties (more on this later).

Restore a deleted file. To retrieve a file from the Recycle Bin, open the Recycle Bin and locate the desired file. In WinXP, you can restore the file by right-clicking and choosing Restore or by selecting the file and choosing Restore This Item from the left sidebar. If you’re ready to delete a file for good, follow the above instructions, choosing Delete instead of Restore. To delete all files from the Recycle Bin, simply click Empty The Recycle Bin on the left sidebar (within the Recycle Bin folder) or right-click the Recycle Bin icon on your Desktop and select Empty Recycle Bin. In Windows Vista, follow the same instructions; notice, however, that the Restore This Item and Empty The Recycle Bin options are found at the top of the window rather than on the left sidebar.

Change Recycle Bin settings. To change the size of the Recycle Bin in WinXP, right-click the Recycle Bin icon and choose Properties. Under the Global tab, you can use the slider to select the maximum size of the Recycle Bin. By default, all the drives on your computer are configured with this setting. If you have more than one partition, or section, on your hard drive and would like to customize the Recycle Bin size for each one, click the Configure Drives Independently radio button at the top of the Global pane. You must then manually set each drive with its own Recycle Bin size by clicking the tabs with each drive’s letter. In Vista, changing the Recycle Bin size is the same except that instead of choosing a percentage with a slider, you must type in how many megabytes you want to allot for the folder.

Microsoft Office AutoRecover

Imagine that you’re creating a presentation for work using Microsoft PowerPoint. Suddenly, your computer shuts off without warning, and you haven’t saved your project. It may appear that your work has been lost, but Microsoft Office programs have a built-in safety net called AutoRecover that’s designed to help you get your work back in the event of an unexpected shutdown.

Every time an Office program starts, it searches for potential AutoRecover files and displays any that are found on a pane to the left of the screen. Documents will have “original (last manual save)” or “recovered” next to the file name. Click your document’s file name and choose to either save the file or close the file without saving. Keep in mind that AutoRecover only saves files when there is an unexpected shutdown and that it doesn’t replace the Save command, so you should save your work often.

To change the AutoRecover settings in an Office 2007 program, click the Office button at the top left and choose <Program> Options (for example, Word Options). On the left sidebar, click Save. Under the Saved Documents section, you can customize how often the AutoRecover feature saves your work and where recovered files are saved.

Data Recovery Software

Sometimes data loss is much more severe than accidentally deleting a file or an unexpected shutdown. What if your hard drive crashed or you unintentionally reformatted your hard drive? Your data won’t be saved by Microsoft Office, and you won’t find those files in the Recycle Bin. But all is not lost. Special recovery software made just for circumstances such as this can help you retrieve the files you’ve lost.

Diskeeper Undelete 2009 Home Edition

Diskeeper Undelete ($29.95; www.diskeeper.com) is a lot like the Windows Recycle Bin: It catches files that you delete and stores them in an application called the Recovery Bin. But unlike Recycle Bin, Undelete catches files deleted from shared network folders, the DOS prompt, and even files that you might have accidentally saved over in Microsoft Office.

Find a deleted file. The easiest way to find a deleted file is to use the Search Recovery Bin icon found on the top tool panel (it’s the fifth button from the left). Type the name of the file you need to find in the available field and then choose a search location. Click Search on the upper right. The search matches will appear in the bottom pane for you to browse. You can also find a file by using the main window’s folder tree. The application window has two panes: The left pane has an expandable tree that lists all of your computer’s folders; the right pane shows what’s inside each folder you select from the left pane. Start with the letter of your hard drive and expand the folders until you reach the one that holds the files you are looking for.

Restore a deleted file. Once you locate a deleted file, simply click the Recover Selected icon found in the top menu bar (second from the left). You can also right-click the file and choose Recover, as well as Delete or Exclude (more on this later). When you choose to restore a file, Undelete will ask you to specify a restoration location. By default, the restored item will save to the Desktop, but you can choose to save the file in My Documents or another folder.

Recovery Bin Exclusion List. You can direct the Recovery Bin to forgo storing certain files or file types when they are deleted. For example, you may have sensitive work documents that need to be deleted and, if found in the Recovery Bin, could be restored by any user on the computer. To exclude a certain file or file type from getting stored in the Recovery Bin, go to Tools and select Recovery Bin Exclusion List. On the left side of the window, browse the available files. When you find the file you’d like to exclude, select it and then choose Add in the center of the window. You will see the file added to the Exclusion List on the right. Similarly, if you’d like to remove a file from the Exclusion List, simply select it and click Remove.

Recovery Bin Properties. You can change some settings by going to Tools and selecting Recovery Bin Properties. Reminiscent of the Windows Recycle Bin, you can choose to have one collective Recovery Bin for all drives on the computer or specify a separate bin for more than one drive. Under the Global Settings tab, use the radio buttons to choose your preference. Here, you can also change the size of the Recovery Bin much the same way as you changed the size of the Recycle Bin in Windows.

White Canyon Recover My Files

Recover My Files ($59.95; www.whitecanyon.com) is another easy-to-use recovery program that can locate files that were deleted from the Recycle Bin, were lost when your hard drive crashed, or were infected with a virus. Recover My Files can also find and restore files that are deleted from memory cards, USB flash drives, and discs. Instead of searching for a particular file to restore, Recover My Files searches your computer for all recoverable items, puts them in a list, and lets you search and select which files you’d like to restore.

File search. The Fast File Search and Complete File Search are used to find files that were deleted from the Recycle Bin, as well as temporary files (such as an unsaved Word document). The Complete File Search does a deeper scan of your hard drive and can potentially find more lost or deleted files, but if you’re in a hurry, the Fast File Search is a good starting point. To perform a scan, click the preferred search type and then click Next. Choose which drive you’d like to search (in most cases, the C: drive). The next window will ask you to specify which types of files to locate. To select all files in a particular folder, simply click the box next to the folder’s heading. Click Start to begin the search. When the search is complete, you can narrow the results by clicking Filter on the top menu bar. Type the file name and click OK. When you find the file you’re looking for, click Save Files in the top menu bar. You must save the file to a location other than the hard drive to ensure that you don’t accidentally overwrite other important information. Save your file to a USB flash drive, other network drive, or a CD or DVD.

Format recover. The Fast Format Recover and Complete Format Recover options help you search for and restore files that were lost when your hard drive was formatted, when your hard drive reports as RAW or Dynamic, and even if you have reformatted your hard drive and reinstalled Windows. Run these scans the same as the file searches discussed above. Keep in mind that the Complete searches will take longer than the Fast searches, as they are more in-depth. The results window looks the same as the Search windows, and saving your recovered file is as simple as clicking Save Files on the top menu bar.

Revive Your Hard Drive

Whether you accidentally delete a file, your computer shuts down unexpectedly, or your hard drive takes a turn for the worse, these simple solutions can help you get your digital life back. But remember, you can lessen the possibility of major data loss due to a hard drive crash by backing up your files to an external hard drive, USB flash drive, or DVD.

by Kris Glaser