How to Recover Deleted Files Not Showing in Recycle Bin

You go through the Recycle Bin, trying to locate a file you deleted earlier but just can't find it. This may have happened to you before. Your deleted files mysteriously disappeared from the Recycle Bin, where they are "supposed" to be after they are deleted. Truth is, the recycle bin is not a safe where the deleted files are stored and we shouldn't use it as a temporary folder to put aside files we don't currently need.

There could be a number of reasons why your deleted files are not showing in the Recycle Bin:

1. You emptied the Recycle Bin. Recycle Bin is supposed to give us a chance to undelete files when you make a mistake. It acts like a safe net to inadvertent operations. When we emptied the Recycle Bin, those deleted files will be considered as "no longer needed" and will be permanently deleted by the file system. Once the headers, or file references, are removed, the operating system will no longer be able to locate these files. The spaces the files are taking will be marked as "not in use". Even if you didn't actively empty the Recycle Bin, your PC cleaning software might have done it for you.

2. You made your system to remove files immediately when deleted. Check the Recycle Bin Properties. Right-click on the desktop Recycle Bin icon and select Properties. See if you have the checked the option "Don't move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted." This option is by default off. If you accidentally check this option, files will not go to recycle bin when deleted.

3. The recycle bin is full. If you check the Recycle Bin properties, you will find that recycle bin is not a bottomless pit after all. It has a default size and you can customize the size to fit your need. When the Recycle Bin is full, the oldest files in the recycle bin will be removed to make space for the newly deleted files. 

4. The deleted file is too big for Recycle Bin. As is mentioned above, the Recycle Bin has its size limit. When a file is too large to fit in the recycle bin in the first place, you will receive a warning "file too big for recycling bin do you want to permanently delete". If you hit yes, the file will be deleted right away without making a tour to the recycle bin.

5. You used Shift + Delete to delete files. By pressing Shift + Delete, the files will be deleted without going to recycle bin first. With default Windows tools, this action is effectively permanent removal of files. It is suggested that you use Shift + Delete with caution and certainty. Otherwise, use Ctrl + D or right-click-delete in case you delete something useful by mistake.

6. You delete the files from removable devices. Windows Desktop Recycle Bin is a virtual folder that stores the information of files deleted in Window Explorer by users. It is not an actual folder that stores files. When a storage device, such as USB flash drives, is considered as removable storage devices, the deleted files will be removed right away rather than being put aside for future restoration. (See Data Recovery: No Recycle Bin for USB Flash Drives? for more detailed information)

How to Recover These Permanently Deleted Files?

Above are some of the common reasons why deleted files are not showing in the Recycle Bin. If you cannot find your files in Recycle Bin, don't worry. You can use 3rd party data recovery software to help you retrieve your lost files. We would recommend H Data Recovery in this particular case. H Data Recovery has 6 unique data recovery modules, each is designed to handle a different data loss situation. You can choose the Accidental Deletion Recovery module to get your lost files back. You can also recover any files that have been cleared out from the recycle bin with the Recover From Recycle Bin module.

Recover Deleted Files from USB Flash Drives

If you accidentally clicked "yes" when prompted to permanently delete files from your USB flash drive then you'll probably not going to find them in the Recycle Bin. Deletion is a bit different when it comes to removable storage devices. Usually, Recycle Bin is considered the safe net where we can restore accidentally deleted files. But when we delete files from removable storage devices such as USB flash drives, these files will be deleted permanently, without going to the Recycle Bin.

Windows Recycle Bin is a virtual folder that stores the information of files deleted in Window Explorer by users. It records the information such as name, deletion date and the original location of every deleted file.Recycle bin is not an actual folder so it does not have an absolute path. The actual location of recycle bin depends on the operating system and file system. For Windows Vista and above with NTFS, each drive has a $Recycle.Bin folder under it, which normally is set to Hidden. Deleted files’ information is stored in these $Recycle.Bin folders. Desktop Recycle bin collects information from these separate $Recycle.Bin folders and presents them to users so users can view, restore or "permanent delete" these files.

Drives that are considered "removable" - like your USB Pen Drive, SD cards - do not have recycle bins at all. Different operating systems also treat the concept of "removable" slightly differently. For example, your external hard drives are removable in nature but are considered as local drives and have their own recycle bins created by the system. In short, if the system sees the external device as "removable storage medium", it will not assign a recycle folder to it and files deleted from this storage medium will not route to desktop Recycle Bin. 

How to Recover Files Deleted from USB Flash Drives

Since we cannot restore files from Recycle Bin, and Microsoft doesn't provide any built-in tool to recover permanently deleted files, what do we do? 
Permanently deleted files on USB flash drives, SD cards, microSD cards... can be effectively retrieved using third-party data recovery software. H Data Recovery Software allows people to recover permanently deleted files from removable flash memory devices with only a few clicks.

Step 1. Download and install H Data Recovery Software. Launch the software and select the USB Flash Drive Recovery module shown as below. This particular module allows you to recover files from USB thumbs, camera SD cards, smartphone microSD cards and other flash memory devices.

Step 2. Scan your USB flash drive or other flash memory devices to locate and reconstitute permanently deleted files. Select the files you wish to restore and save them to the directory of your choice. It is recommended that you save the recovered files to other drives or partitions instead of the original USB flash drive to avoid overwriting.

How to Recover Files Deleted by Cleaning Software

There are various PC cleaning applications available that aim to clear junk files out of your computer system, preferably with only one-click. But if you just go ahead and clean whatever files as the application tells you to, you might end up deleting something you still need. To avoid this, you can check the settings to make sure that the cleaning application is going to delete only what you absolutely don't need.

Temp files, for example, often eat up many drive space and are the primary targets for many cleaning software. They are created to hold information temporarily while a file is being created. After the program has been saved, the temporary file should be deleted.  Temp files may appear on the hard drive beginning with a tilde character (~) and ending with a .TMP extension. These may be temporary files created by Windows that remain on the hard drive due to an irregular exit from a Windows session.

Many applications come with Auto-Recovery feature, which enables users to recover from previous temp files in the event of an unexpected crash or power outage, such as .asd files from Microsoft Word and .temp files from Adobe Photoshop. In short, some temporary files can be used to help recover lost data if the program is abnormally halted without saving.

How to Recover Files Deleted by PC Cleaning Software

If your cleaning application deleted all the temp files for you, and you find you may still need some of them, do not panic. With the right data recovery tool and prompt action, you can get the deleted temp files back. Prompt action is very important because if you continue to use the computer, new temp files will be created and possibly overwrite the space where the old files took. When files get overwritten, the chances are slim that they can be successfully recovered. This applies to not only temp files but all the data recovery situations. A highly recommended, professional data recovery software is also very important when attempting to recover deleted files. Here we recommend H Data Recovery Software. H Data Recovery Software is proven very effective to restore files from deletion, emptied recycle bin, formatted hard drives, crashed partitions, USB flash drives, and various other flash memory devices...

Step 1. Launch H Data Recovery Software and select "Deleted Your files Accidentally" module.

Step 2. Select the partition where your files used to be before they get deleted. If you wish to recover files on Desktop or from Recycle Bin, choose partition (C:). Click Next to start the scan process. 

If you are not sure where the files were stored, try "Universal Recovery". It is a special module that deep scans and locates all deleted files.

Step 3. When scanning is done, you will be able to see all the files that can be recovered. Check the files you wish to recover and click next to start the recovering process. You will be asked to choose a directory to save these recovered files. Please note that it is recommended to save the newly recovered files to another drive or partition other than their original to avoid potential overwriting.

These steps also apply to other accidental deletions such as deletion by anti-virus, human errors, permanent deletion by pressing Shift+Del... 

Can We Recover Data from A Cleaned Hard Drive?

"I accidentally cleaned my hard disk. Can I recover the data?"

To answer this question, we have to get a clear definition of "cleaned" and how the cleaning is done because that would determine whether we can recover data or not. Let's first inspect the data recovery process.

Data recovery software takes advantage of the mechanism of deletion. When we delete a file, the file system only removes the address pointer to that file. But the file itself as raw data is still there. The computer just marks it as “deleted, can be overwritten”. If we put new files in, the computer may notice the newly freed space and cram the new file there. By doing so, the data of the old file, which is a complex combination of ones and zeros, will be re-arranged to form the new file data. That’s why overwritten files can hardly be recovered. The same goes to quick format. When we quick format a memory card or hard disk, the file system only clears the address table to all files. The operating system will not locate any files without their index so when you look at the hard drive you would not see any data and assume the drive is erased. In fact, the files as raw data are still there but they are no longer exist as files. They are hidden from users and will be freely overwritten. 

To sum up, as long as your files are not overwritten or physically destroyed, professional data recovery software such as H Data Recovery will be sufficient to scan, search and reconstitute these files and restore them.

Did You Truly Cleaned Your Hard Disk Drive

There are many ways we can clear all the contents on a hard disk drive, such as formatting, erasing, deleting... But clearing all the contents does not equal to cleaning a hard disk drive.  As is mentioned above, data would be unlikely to recover if they are overwritten. That is why most safe cleaning methods involve overwriting. The strict sense of "cleaning a hard disk drive" would be that you wipe every bit of original data on that hard disk, either overwriting and blurring with new data or applying physical degaussing.

Various software is available, such as DBAN, for the secure erasing of files from hard drives. This kind of software is designed to overwrite the hard disk drives with random ones and zeros repeatedly. Its purpose is to blur the residual pattern so that even the most advanced lab-level recovery tools can only recover negligible fragments, if not none, of data from previous files.

You can also achieve this effect by full format your hard disk drive. Unlike quick format, a full format will zero-fill your hard drive so that all the files would be erased and permanently gone. You can perform a full format by using the command line format p in your Windows CMD console.

Also, if you are resetting your computer with Windows system, choosing the option "Remove files and clean the drive" will also clean wipe your hard drive.

Hard disk drives use billions of small magnetic domains to store data. These domains make up the writable surface of hard disk drives with magnetized cells represent "1", while demagnetized cells represent "0". The degaussing method uses a powerful magnetic field that demagnetizes all of the cells, neutralizing the data stored.

These are the most common methods to truly clean hard disk drives without the physical destruction of them. Files lost in a cleaning process are not likely to be recovered. That is why these methods are also widely applied when disposing of sensitive data and personal information. If your cleaning process doesn't involve the overwriting or degaussing mentioned above, you can surely restore your lost files with data recovery utilities like H Data Recovery.

Android Phones microSD cards: How to Choose and How to Recovery Lost Files

A micro SD card is a small device you can insert in your smartphone to add more storage space. There are various forms of memory cards. The most common memory cards used in Android phones are microSD cards. 

When purchasing microSD cards, you'll probably notice two types: SDHC and SDXC. SDHC stands for Secure Digital High Capacity. SDHC cards have a capacity of 2GB to 32GB and are often preformatted with the FAT32 file system. Alternatively, SDXC cards, which stands for Secure Digital eXtended Capacity, adopt Microsoft's exFAT file system and can range from 32GB to 2TB in capacity. Keep in mind that not every Android device supports microSD cards and remember to check the supported maximum capacity for microSD cards on your Android device.

Another important feature of a microSD card is the speed. microSD card speed is customarily rated by its sequential read or write speed. The sequential performance aspect is the most relevant for storing and retrieving large files, such as images and multimedia. For mobile devices, there are three common speed classes: Class 10, UHS-I Class 1 (U1), and UHS-I Class 3 (U3). UHS stands for Ultra High Speed, and currently has two bus types, labeled I and II. UHS-II has physically more pins but is backwards compatible to UHS-I and non-UHS for both slot and card. Class 10 and UHS-I U1 cards have a minimum read/write speed of 10MB/S and are capable of Full HD (1080p) video recording and consecutive recording of HD stills and real-time broadcasting. UHS-I U3 can support 4K video files at 60/120 fps. The specifications of a microSD card are labeled on its surface as shown in below example.

(An SDHC UHS-I Class 1 card with a storage capacity of 32GB)

Unlike built-in storage, many memory cards are designed with portability in mind and can be removed and accessed on other devices. The plug in and out makes memory cards prone to damage and potential data loss. You might also have experienced accidental deletion or formatting that costs you all the important files stored on the microSD cards. To fix a microSD card or to recover files accidentally deleted, you'll need a computer and a card reader.

microSD cards Errors

If you receive error messages like "The file or directory is corrupted or unreadable" or "Disk in drive X:\ is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?" when you connect your SD card to the computer, it means your SD card is faulty. We can run a simple command to try to fix it.

1. Insert your memory card into a USB memory card adapter. Plug the USB adapter into a USB port on your computer. Windows automatically recognizes the device and assigns a drive letter to it. 

2. Go to the start menu, type in cmd in a search bar, hit enter and then you can see cmd. exe listed. You can also press Windows key + R to quick access the Command Prompt.

3. Type in "chkdsk drive_letter: /r" (quotes not included). For example, if "H" is assigned to your memory card, type "chkdsk h: /r".

4. Wait until the "chkdsk" program finishes checking your memory card for structure corruption. When it is done, you're prompted to save lost chains into files. Click the “Yes” option. In a few moments, "chkdsk" will display all of your lost data files that have been repaired on your computer.


5. Exit to Desktop and enter Computer. Double click on the memory card drive letter to check if it has been successfully fixed.

Recover files from Deletion or Formatting

As long as you haven't specifically erased your microSD card, we can attempt to recover the lost files using 3rd party utilities such as H Data Recovery Software. H Data file recovery is a fully-featured data recovery software that could recover lost files in most data loss situations, including microSD cards and other portable flash memory devices. Here is how to do it:

1. Install and launch H Data Recovery Software.

2. Insert the memory card into a USB card adapter and plug your card adapter into your computer. Select the Flash Memory Recovery module by clicking it. The software will automatically detect all the flash memory cards currently connected to this computer. Choose your memory card and click Next.

3. H Data Recovery will scan the memory card file system and try to find and reconstitute the files. When the scan is complete, you will be able to see the list of all recoverable files. If you act quick enough after the format, the chance of a complete recovery is very high.


4. Select all the files you want to restore, and click the Next button. Choose a directory that you want to restore these files to.

Deleted files can be overwritten by new files so it is important that you perform the data recovery with the right tool as soon as you can. Also, when choosing the directory to put your recovered files during the recovery, do not store these files directly on your microSD card in order to avoid other unrecovered files being overwritten.