[SOLVED] How To Recover Permanently Deleted Files In Windows [MiniTool Tips]

Delete Files and Folders Permanently

File deletion is a common and necessary computer operation. There is almost no computer user who has never deleted a file/folder from the computer before. Undeniably, it is a convenient way to help you get more free space for new data. Also, it is regarded as an easy solution to protecting privacy.

Most of the users hold the belief wrongly: once they deleted the private files or folders permanently, they’re able to prevent other people from seeing them.

Let’s face the truth: the permanently deleted files and folders can be recovered with special methods. Please seek for more reliable ways to destroy the files you would never want to share with others.

In this post, I will focus on useful ways to recover permanently deleted files in Windows 10/10/8/7/XP/Vista.

Best Data Recovery Software

To think it in a positive way, you can get a second chance if you happen to delete files permanently by mistake. You should acquire MiniTool Power Data Recovery since it is an excellent choice for you to recover deleted files free.

Actually, files deleted permanently can be recovered easily as long as you have professional recovery software. In the next part, I will show you how do I recover permanently deleted files from my PC.

Recover Permanently Deleted Files Windows 10

You may be interested in How can I recover deleted files without software after you deleted useful files by mistake, right? This part shows you how to recover files from hard drive in detail.

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How to Recover Permanently Deleted Files from Recycle Bin

Actually, Windows provides a Recycle Bin for you to store deleted items temporarily. So you should check Windows Recycle Bin first after deleting important files from PC by mistake:

1. Right click on Recycle Bin icon and choose Open (you can also open Recycle Bin directly by double clicking on the icon).
2. Look for the files you need (you can also type a filename into the Recycle Bin search box to find it directly).
3. Select all the files & folders you want to recover and right click on them to choose Restore (you can also drag the files & folders out of Recycle Bin directly to put them back to their original location).

In theory, the deleted files will be kept in Recycle Bin forever. But, with the constant increase of files, it’s easy to reach the maximum size limit of Recycle Bin. When that really happens, the files will be moved out from Recycle Bin in chronological order.

You can change the maximum size of Recycle Bin, but the capacity of the Recycle Bin doesn’t obey to the rule of the bigger the better; this will sacrifice hard disk space, computer speed, etc.

To know more details about Recycle Bin recovery on Windows, please read this page:

[Solution] How To Recover Files Deleted From Recycle Bin

Recycle Bin recovery seems quite difficult for us if the Recycle Bin is emptied or the files are further deleted from it; but, it is not the case.

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If you can’t find need files and folders in Recycle Bin, you must wonder – how can I recover shift deleted files (how to recover deleted files from recycle bin after empty), right? Please keep reading to find a solution.

How Do I Recover Permanently Deleted Folders and Files

You should download MiniTool Power Data Recovery and install it properly on your drive (except the one that contains deleted data). Then, launch the data recovery software immediately to recover deleted files (I’ll take the file recovery Windows 10 as an example). Please look at the following file recovery on PC guide.

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How to recover permanently deleted folders:

Step 1: you need to make the right choice on which tab to select.

• In the case when you deleted the folders permanently from a local partition, the first option – Logical Drives should be selected.
• If you have deleted the files and folders by formatting a hard disk and you want to find them back, choose Devices.
• If you lost your folders saved on an external hard disk, Devices is also the best choice.

Step 2: select the target partition/disk and press Scan to start searching for deleted folders.

Step 3: browse the found partitions carefully to decide which folders are needed and which are not.

Step 4: make sure you have selected all the folders and files you want to recover and click Save to open the directory settings window.

Step 5: choose a drive with enough free space left to save the selected items. Then, click on the OK button to confirm and wait for the folder recovery to complete.

Recover permanently deleted files in other systems:

• This post tells how to recover deleted files Mac.
• As for how to recover deleted files in Android, please click here.
• Read this post to recover data from a Windows Server system.

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Recover Permanently Deleted Pictures from OneDrive

OneDrive is an online file saving service provided by Microsoft to achieve cross-device data storage & management. The original name of this cloud storage service is SkyDrive (also known as Windows Live SkyDrive and Windows Live Folders).

If you have deleted pictures or other useful files from OneDrive storage permanently by mistake, you should start to recover them at once.

Real Cases

Case 1:

Was stupid enough to trust my photos on the cloud. At first all of my photos were successfully stored on the cloud. Then recently my computer needed to refresh and erased them. The photos were successfully still on my cloud afterwards so I never had put them back on my computer. Today after uploading some new pictures, I noticed some of my folders were empty. So of course I'm freaking out and have no idea how to recover. I tried looking in the recycling and still no luck. PLEASE HELP?! What do I do?– by MaliaLombard

Case 2:

Earlier this week, I accidentally emptied my Onedrive's bin, web-version (containing files and pictures I had previously deleted other synced PC). I attempted to stop emptying my drive, and that didn't even STOP. Now, nothing is left in my drive, and I feel terribly devastated. Can Microsoft restore some of my files and folder which was deleted on last Monday?– by Suki Marz

How to Recover Permanently Deleted Files from OneDrive

When you find the pictures/photos were missing from OneDrive, you should firstly go to check Windows Recycle Bin and OneDrive's bin.

OneDrive online service also includes a recycle bin, designed to help people deal with mistaken deletion. If you have deleted files permanently by pressing Shift + Delete or emptying the Windows Recycle Bin, you may log into your Microsoft OneDrive Account and check the recycle bin to take chance.

After you deleted a file from OneDrive storage, the corresponding profile will be kept in the database in a deleted state. And the default retention period of OneDrive recycle bin is 30 days. If you don’t take measures to handle your files here, they will be moved out and you could only resort to third-party recovery software to recover deleted files from OneDrive.

How do I recover permanently deleted photos from OneDrive:

1. Download MiniTool Power Data Recovery and install it onto your local drive properly (don't save it to the drive containing OneDrive).
2. Launch the recovery software and choose Logical Drives to recover deleted files from OneDrive.
3. Select the drive that holds your OneDrive. (You should choose C: since the default location of OneDrive is C:\Users\*\OneDrive.)
4. Press the Scan button and wait.
5. Look through the photos and pictures found by the software and click on the Preview button to decide whether you want to recover them.
6. Press the Save button, choose a location and click on the OK button.
7. Wait for the recovery to complete.

• If this fails to find the pictures/files you need, you may as well go back to the main interface of the software and select Devices to perform a full scan to the whole disk.
• If you have used OneDrive to synchronize pictures/photos and manage them on an SD card, you should connect the SD card to your computer and select Devices to recover deleted photos from SD card.

Click to see do I do to recover permanently deleted pictures from my desktop.

Securely Remove Data from Hard Drive

Possibility of Permanently Deleted Files Recovery in Windows

Basically, whether a Windows user can recover files deleted from hard disk is closely related to the success rate, which varies from case to case. Here is something I want to talk about the recovery possibility.

You should try your best to confirm the time of file deletion.

If you realize that permanently deleted files are useful right after the deletion, you have a great chance to get them all back. In this case, you’re supposed to take actions to recover permanently deleted files as soon as possible.

If several days or months have passed and now you finally realize the wrong deletion, the possibility of files recovery in Windows mainly depends on whether new data are written into the hard drive or not and whether the deleted files are overwritten by them.

No matter what the result is, you need to carry out operations to try to recover files anyway.

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How to Wipe a Hard Drive Windows 10

Since the permanently deleted files and folders can be recovered without trouble, you should wipe your disk to clear private data completely. After that, you can throw the disk away or resell it to others trustingly if you want.

How to Wipe Disk:

1. Get MiniTool Partition Wizard and install it properly.
2. Launch this disk management tool to see the main interface.
3. Select the disk which contains data you want to clear completely from the right pane.
4. Locate Clean Disk from the left pane and select Wipe Disk under it.
5. Choose one of the five wiping methods provided by Partition Wizard and click on the OK button to confirm (the last option: DoD 5220.28-STD is suggested).
6. You’ll find the disk becomes unallocated and now you should press Apply to execute the pending operations.
7. Wait for the completion of the wiping process.

If the data you want to clear is located on your external hard drive, you should wipe the external disk by using Partition Wizard.

How to wipe an external hard drive? You need to connect the external hard drive to the computer before launching the software; the rest steps are the same.

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Ruin Your Device Totally

If you don’t want the confidential files saved on your storage device, you can also break it into pieces or burn it to ashes under the condition that you don’t need the device anymore.

But you should confirm repeatedly before you decide to do this; that is because both the files and the device will be gone forever, leaving you no room for regrets.

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Last Words

After you deleted data files, pictures, or other useful files permanently by mistake, you must be eager to recover permanently deleted files, right? You should use MiniTool Power Data Recovery to start file recovery on Windows 10 or other systems as soon as you find the deleted data are still useful.

You would ask how to securely remove hard drive data since even permanent deletion can’t prevent privacy leakage. Actually, for people who want to clear private and confidential data completely, they should wipe the disk by using MiniTool Partition Wizard or ruin the disk by breaking it into pieces or burning it to ashes.

Recover Permanently Deleted Files FAQ