How to Recover Items Deleted from Recycle Bin?

Can you recover permanently deleted items from Recycle Bin?

It can be said that the Recycle Bin is a second chance provided to users to consider if they want to recover recently deleted files. But some users will manually or intentionally delete items from Recycle Bin, and some even do it on a regular basis.

Items get deleted from Recycle Bin for multiple reasons.

Items get mistakenly removed in Recycle Bin. 

You have accidentally emptied the Recycle Bin. 

You have enabled the Storage Sense. 

Users set an automatic deletion using Task Scheduler in Windows.

No matter what leads to file loss, the priority for users is to get this fixed and recover those files.

This article is aimed at giving methods on how to prevent files from being deleted again and restore things deleted from recycle bin.

How to stop files being deleted from the Recycle Bin?

Firstly, if the files were not manually and intentionally removed by users themselves, e.g., Storage Sense, Tsk Scheduler, etc., they need to figure out how to stop it accordingly.

Notes: If you are sure the files were removed by you manually, please move on to the next method to recover items deleted from Recycle Bin.

Method 1. Disable the Storage Sense to stop files getting deleted from Recycle Bin

Some users will activate Storage Sense to remove files from the trash bin to free up space especially when the storage space is running low.

If you found Recycle Bin deleted files automatically, follow the steps to turn the Storage Sense off and stop this issue.

Step 1. Press the Win+I key > Windows Settings > System.

Step 2. Click Storage > Configure Storage Sense or run it now.

Step 3. Turn off the Storage Sense.

Method 2. Turn off Task Scheduler

Some users would also enable Task Scheduler to carry out tasks automatically and regularly; for example, emptying the Recycle Bin every week, etc.

If so, users can delete this task to avoid files from lost again.

Step 1. Input Task Scheduler in the Windows search box > start it.

Step 2. Find the auto-deletion/auto-emptying Recycle Bin task > Disable.

Thus your files won’t lost from Recycle Bin again.

As mentioned above, users will intentionally remove files from the trash bin to gain more space; if so, users need to find other ways to recover them.

How to recover items deleted from Recycle Bin?

To get your deleted items recovered from Recycle Bin, several practical approaches are available for users.

Method 1. Recover files after deleting from recycle bin via Previous Version

Firstly, Previous Versions could be of some help. Your computer will automatically create copies of your folders & files as restore points, you could restore previous versions of files to get your folder and file back to an earlier state.

Step 1. Go to File Explorer and locate the folder where your deleted files used to be.

Step 2. Right-click the folder > Properties > Previous Versions > choose a folder version and click Restore.

Then you could get files back into the folder.

Method 2. Restore things deleted from Recycle Bin via Windows backups

If the files were not lost from the C: drive but another local drive, you could turn to the backup and restore feature of Windows to recover items deleted from Recycle Bin.

Step 1. Control Panel > System and Security > Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

Step 2. Click Restore my files.

Step 3. Click Browse for files > locate your deleted files > Next.

Step 4. Choose a preferred location to store the recovered files > click Restore.

Also, you can browse for folders to recover a deleted folder on desktop.

Method 3. Restore deleted things from Recycle Bin via Windows File Recovery

How to restore things deleted from recycle bin? If there are no previous versions available, maybe you could utilize some other tools.

Windows File Recovery, an official command-line tool from Microsoft. It is quite helpful when you need to recover permanently deleted files or restore files from Recycle Bin after emptying.

However, using this tool can be a tough task, because you need to use complex commands to achieve your goal.

Windows File Recovery does not offer any graphical user interface, if you need an easier tool, you could go straight on to Method 4.

To recover files after deleting from recycle bin using Windows File Recovery, you could choose a recovery mode according to your File System and the condition of your hard drive.

Then, in case you can’t recall the file name or file type, switches are to help you.

Now, let’s figure out these first.

File System: start This PC > right-click on the drive that has lost files > Properties.

Recovery modes:

Switches:

Then check out the steps as follows.

Notes:✎...

To get more detailed instructions on recovery modes and switches, please refer to how to use Windows File Recovery. 

If no recovery mode is specified, Regular mode will be utilized in default. 

The source drive (where your files are lost) cannot be the same as the target drive (where you choose to store the recovered files). 

If Windows File Recovery failed to create destination folder, please get help.

Step 1. Install Windows File Recovery in Microsoft Store.

Step 2. Run it > input the command:

winfr source-drive: destination-drive: [/mode] [/switches]

Let’s take a simple example, you need to restore a zip file deleted just now from Recycle Bin under C: drive to E: drive, but you cannot recall the filename, then you could utilize a wildcard “*” with the switch “/n”. And the command will be like:

winfr C: E: /regular /n \C:\Recycler\*.zip

Step 3. Press y to continue, then a recovery folder will be created in the destination drive.

Method 4. Recover items deleted from Recycle Bin  effortlessly 

Some users may find it too much difficult to use Windows File Recovery; what's more, a bunch of users doesn't have backups in advance. They will wonder how to achieve data recovery.

don’t panic, there is an efficient & easy tool ready for you. MyRecover, a Windows data rescue application with an intuitive user interface, could guide you to recover deleted files effortlessly.

No matter what you have lost, like office/media/compressed files, etc., you could recover them within just a few simple clicks.

Now follow the guide here to start an easy Windows data recovery.

Step 1. Start the program > Hover the mouse over the drive and click Scan to scan.

Step 2. It also supports data recovery during the scanning process.

Step 3. Go to Deleted files > RECYCLE BIN > select the deleted items you want > click Recover x files to restore.

This tool could help users detect and retrieve lost files like photos, videos, charts, texts, etc. For instance, it will be a simple task to restore deleted Excel files from hard disks using this tool. 

For more methods, please check: recover deleted files from Recycle Bin.

Bonus tip: back up files smartly

To get yourself away from file loss for good, the best bet is to back up your files on a regular basis.

To give a specific suggestion, please back up your files in more than two ways. You could save several copies of your important files in different places: one on an external hard disk, one on the cloud, or one on your computer.

Here is a good backup tool that can help you back up your files smartly – AOMEI Backupper. You could use “File Backup” to back up files only.

The ways to recover items deleted from Recycle Bin have been elaborated on in this article. Firstly, Previous Versions could be utilized; if you are familiar with commands, then an official tool Windows File Recovery can also help;

But if you want to get rid of difficult and complex commands, you might as well try MyRecover and let this easy tool help you recover files after deleting them from recycle bin with ease.