Windows Recycle Bin

[Alcatraz]

I've been wondering for a while... Can you restore a file that has been deleted from the recycle bin? If so, how?

[MrLinus]

Well,

There is a restore option on the recycle bin. In addition, you can use data recovery tools like http://directory.google.com/Top/Comp...Data_Recovery/

I just used one recently to help my b/f recover some files he deleted accidentally. It was pretty decent even if he did re-install the OS on top of what he had "erased"

[Conf1rm3d_K1ll]

Originally posted by MsMittens
Well,

I just used one recently to help my b/f recover some files he deleted accidentally. It was pretty decent even if he did re-install the OS on top of what he had "erased"

To permanantly delete data you need a deletion tool. Just sending items to the recycle bin only removes the path to the data but the data still remains untill it's written over in the future. You need to secure free space and eliminate swap file. Simple little tools such as BC wipe from Jetico wil do this for you.


If you use a deletion program such as BC wipe than all deleted files are gone for good. But if you're just sending items to the recycle bin, as ms mittens stated, they can quite easilt be recovered.

[Alcatraz]

What I mean is: First you send the file to the recycle bin, then you empty the recycle bin...can you still recover the file?

[Terr]

Originally posted by Alcatraz
What I mean is: First you send the file to the recycle bin, then you empty the recycle bin...can you still recover the file?

Okay, a little background info...

Deleting things to the recycle bin isn't *really* deleting them. What happens is that windows puts a special character in front of the filename, one that DOS can't read. Anyway, the files in the 'recycle bin' are really just a list of files that are hidden from the system. When you empty the recycle bin, *then* they are deleted in the conventional sense, meaning that the clusters they occupied are marked as empty.

It's like having a garage full of cardboard boxes with stuff in them. You have a clipboard that shows what parts of what stuff are in which boxes, and in which order. Usually stuff is in boxes that are next to each other, but not always (defragmenting your files means rearranging these boxes so as to make it easier to find things for your hard drive.)

Conventional deletion means that you erase the entry on the clipboard, rather than actually removing the stuff from the box and burning it. When you put stuff into the box, the stuff already inside is destroyed...

So the file MIGHT still be around, if you haven't tried to put new stuff into the box it last occupied. Finding the file is like looking through these hundreds of boxes, trying to find all the pieces, and some of the box contents might be over-written.

Short answer: Possible, but not something you want to do for fun.