[Solution] How To Recover Files Deleted From Recycle Bin [MiniTool Tips]

As a computer user, you can’t be unfamiliar with Recycle Bin, which is used frequently when you perform deletion action on the hard disk. Recently, Recycle Bin recovery is often talked about among people.

Why? That is simply because users tend to make mistakes during file deletion – the unhelpful files may be left over while some really significant data are deleted from hard drive.

Basically, you need to complete two stage of work to recover accidentally deleted files:

1. check whether the files are still in Recycle Bin/Trash;
2. download a Recycle Bin recovery software – MiniTool Power Data Recovery – and use it to recover the deleted items immediately to enhance recovery success rate.

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Please be relax; this recovery software will guide you all the way to find your files emptied from Recycle Bin.

Recycle Bin Recovery on Windows & Mac

As far as I’m concerned, deletion is an ordinary operation you’ve depended on very much. Well, if the files, folders or programs are deleted by mistake, how could you get them back with ease?

When you find your valuable data are deleted by mistake, you must make up your mind to complete data recovery, right? However, you may not know exactly how to do. Let’s tell the truth – different measures should be taken in different situations.

In this part, I’ll focus on telling you the specific steps to recover deleted files without using any software.

3 Ways to Restore Deleted Files from Recycle Bin in Windows

Following 3 ways can be used to undelete files from Recycle Bin in Windows.

The first way is using “Ctrl” + “Z”.

This is a simple shortcut key combination to undo an action which has been performed on Windows just now. This is the easiest and most convenient way to undo the deletion.

The second way is to make use of the “Restore” feature.

1. Just click on the Recycle Bin icon to enter.
2. Then, select the files/folders you’ve deleted accidentally.
3. Afterward, right click on them and choose “Restore” option from the pop-up

The third way is dragging files directly out of Recycle Bin.

1. Enter the Recycle Bin as I suggested in the method mentioned above.
2. Then, select the correct file(s) and drag them out directly to the desktop.

How to recover deleted files on PC?

3 Ways to Restore Deleted Files from Recycle Bin in Mac

The way to recover from Mac Trash is similar to that of recovering from Recycle Bin in Windows. However, differences could still be identified. So, let me show you the specific ways to retrieve files from Mac trash respectively.

How to recover files from Mac when files can’t be found in Trash:

[SOLVED] How To Recover Deleted Files On Mac | Complete Guide

Believe it or not, we can make it easy to recover deleted data on Mac even if you are totally a novice.

Read More

There are 3 ways to undelete files in Mac.

The first way you may as well try is using “Command” + “Z”.

This is similar to the first solution I have mentioned in how to recover files from Recycle Bin in Windows. The only difference is you should use “Command” button in the keyboard to replace “Ctrl”.

The second way is to make use of the “Put Back” feature.

1. Just open the trash can at first.
2. Then, identify the needed files/folders users want to put back to original location.
3. Afterward, right click on them and choose “Put Back” option from the pop-up menu.

The third way is using “Command” + “Delete”.

1. Just enter the Trash as I have suggested in the above
2. Then, select the correct file(s) to make it (them) highlighted.
3. At this time, press “Command” + “Delete” key to return the selected file(s) to its original location.

How to recover data from failing hard drive on Mac?

Above content shows the solutions to files recovery before they’re cleared permanently from the computer. Well, some people will ask “can I restore permanently deleted files”. Sure, the answer would be a certainly yes.

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Recover Deleted Files after Recycle Bin Was Empty

I know you are able to restore deleted files directly within a few clicks if the files which have been deleted mistakenly still remain in Recycle Bin. But, what if the Recycle Bin is emptied afterward?

The OS provides no solution for you to get back files from emptied Recycle Bin. In this case, a powerful third-party tool or a professional data recovery company is of urgent needs to help you recover deleted files from Windows, Mac or other devices. That is why I recommend MiniTool Power Data Recovery for Windows users and MiniTool Mac Data Recovery for Mac users.

How to Recover Permanently Deleted Files from Recycle Bin

Just run MiniTool Power Data Recovery and follow the tutorial given below to get back permanently deleted files in Windows:

1. Choose “This PC” from the left side of the main software interface (actually, there are 4 options in total).
2. Select the drive which was used to keep the deleted files.
3. Click on the “Scan” button to detect all lost files in this drive.
4. Check the files you need and press “Save” to set a safe storage location for them. (A red “X” will be marked on the deleted files)
5. Click on the “OK” button to confirm.

How to Recover Files Deleted from Mac Trash

If you’re running a Mac and would like to recover files deleted permanently from Mac hard drive, please finish those steps:

1. Run Stellar Data Recovery for Mac.
2. Turn on Recover Everything or specify the file types you need.
3. Select the drive from which files were permanently deleted.
4. Click on the Scan button to try to find all deleted files you want to recover.
5. Check all the files you need and then click Recover to specify a proper drive to save those files.
6. Click on the Save button and wait for the process to end.

Here's the video guide on Recycle Bin recovery:

Reasons for Deleting Files

4 Main Purposes of File Deletion

1. When the unused space of a storage device is becoming less than enough, you will delete some useless files to release free space for the storage of new data.
2. If your private information like bank account and password are saved in a certain hard disk, but many other people could access this disk in an easy manner, you have to delete them right after using to protect privacy.
3. Sometimes, various kinds of data are saved to the hard disk without classifying. In this case, it’s not easy for you to find the needed file accurately. So, you may need to classify the messy data and delete unnecessary files.
4. Once you find the running speed and responding speed of the computer is gradually decreasing over time, you’ll take actions to stop this. System reinstallation, system restore, disk defragmentation, and file deletion are all employed to try to accelerate the speed.

A Closer Look at Recycle Bin

What is Recycle Bin exactly? The so-called Recycle Bin is actually a system folder included in the computer; it is mainly used to temporarily store the deleted hard drive files.

Recycle Bin in Windows

In general, files, folders, pictures, shortcuts and Web pages deleted from hard drive are frequently found in recycle bin and those files will be kept there until we further delete them/empty the recycle bin or until the total size of deleted data exceeds the maximum limit.

As you can see from the above content, you can get data recovery done easily if you found you’ve made a horrible mistake (deleting valuable data carelessly) before files are further cleared from the Recycle Bin.

Indeed, you’re able to use and manage Recycle Bin in a good way and configure it to be more personalized.

Trash in Mac

Like the “Recycle Bin” in Windows, Mac also has a similar unit called “Trash”, which is also mainly used to save deleted files in a computer, offering you a regret chance. After clicking on the icon of Trash Bin in the Dock, you will see a Finder window opening on the computer screen. In this way, all the files it contains will be displayed in front of you.

To be honest, with Trash, Mac users are allowed to put the icons they don’t want to hang around on their hard drive in convenient and easy ways.

The management of Trash in Mac is similar to Windows Recycle Bin, so I’m not going to talk about it there. But you can click to know it in detail if you’re interested.

How to Delete Files from Recycle Bin in Windows & Mac

The following ways can help you delete file(s) from the hard drive and other places in both Windows and Mac computer; just choose a suitable one to go ahead.

Steps to Delete Files in Windows

Remove some files from recycle bin.

If you want to delete some files, folders or programs from recycle bin, this tutorial will be very helpful.

1. Double click on recycle bin icon to open it or just right click on the icon and choose “Open”;
2. Find and highlight the target files by right-clicking on them;
3. Choose “Delete” option from the right-click menu;
4. Tap “Yes” showing in the prompt window to execute deletion.

Remove all files from recycle bin.

Here, I’ll show you 2 methods for deleting all files in recycle bin.

Method 1:

1. Open recycle bin by using the way we just mentioned now;
2. Press “Ctrl” + “A” in the keyboard to select all the files there (if there are only a few files in recycle bin, you can choose to select them all one by one);
3. Right click on any part of the highlighted area and choose “Delete”;
4. Tap “Yes” to confirm deletion action.

Method 2:

1. Right click on the recycle bin icon to make it highlighted;
2. Choose “Empty Recycle Bin” from right-click menu options to continue;
3. Tap “Yes” in the pop-up prompt interface to allow permanent deletion of items.

Steps to Delete Files in Mac

Remove some files from Trash.

1. Find and enter Trash in the way you like;
2. Select one or more files you want to delete here;
3. Right click on them and choose “Delete Immediately…” from the right-click menu;
4. Click on “Delete” in the prompt window to confirm.

Remove all files from Trash.

Method 1:

Right click on the Trash icon and then choose “Empty Trash” from the pop-up menu, in which “Open” option is listed ahead of “Empty Trash”.

Method 2:

Enter Trash and select all files inside. Then, right click on them and choose “Empty Trash” option.

Method 3:

Activate the Finder and select “Finder” in the menu bar and choose “Empty Trash” from its submenu.

Method 4:

Make use of shortcut key combination – “command” + “shift” + “delete” – to show delete confirmation window and then agree to delete permanently.

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Conclusion

After reading the above content, you must know that Recycle Bin/Trash is a unit in the computer to keep files deleted from the hard drive for a certain period of time. This unit still belongs to the hard drive; in other words, it still takes space from the hard drive. Thus, if you’re pretty sure that the files saved there are not useful anymore, you could start removing them from Recycle Bin/Trash completely.

If you made a mistake – deleting useful files, Recycle Bin gives you a second chance to regain the files. What’s more, even if the Windows Recycle Bin or Mac Trash has been emptied, you still have the chance to find back the mistakenly deleted files by using MiniTool Power Data Recovery/Mac Data Recovery.

So in a word, please don’t panic even if you have deleted files due to carelessness. Just seize the time to get them back by relying on Recycle Bin/Trash directly or by using the recommended powerful data recovery software.

Recycle Bin Recovery FAQ