This has happened to everyone at one time or another; you press the delete button, click OK, and then realize that you need the files that you just deleted.  If you follow these steps, you will be able  to recover the computer files that you unintentionally deleted:

1. You need to be aware that when you click the Delete button to trash a file, you are not actually removing that file immediately from your computer.  What you are actually doing is putting the file into the Recycle Bin, and making the space for new files to write over the “deleted” files.  After a specified amount of time, the “deleted” files will be removed from the Recycle Bin and actually deleted from the computer, and they will be completely gone.  During the time that the file is located in the Recycle Bin, you will be able to recover the file.

2. Double click on the Recycle Bin.  It is typically located on the desktop.  If you are unable to find the Recycle Bin, you can go to the Start Menu and type “recycle bin” into the  Search Programs and Files bar.  This search bar is located at the bottom of the Start Menu.

3. Organize the items in the Recycle Bin so that you can find the title of the file that you want to recover.  If you remember the name of the file that you are looking for, you can click on the name column to sort the files in alphabetical order, by name.

4. Once you have located the file that you wish to recover, highlight the file.

5. Right click on the file and select restore.  This will retrieve the file and place it back into the file where it was located before it was deleted.  If you are unable to remember where the file was located prior to being deleted, you can click on the Start Menu once again and search for the file name on the Search for Programs and Files search bar.

Remember that the unintentionally deleted file must be recovered before it is actually removed from the computer, because once it has been deleted from the Recycle Bin, there is no way to get the file back.

With the large amounts of data generated daily, systems aren’t capable of storing everything. Thus, a backup secondary storage medium is used. However, after the corruption of secondary storage media, recovering data is critical. Secondary storage devices such as hard disk drives, CDs, storage tapes, etc. have high potential risk of losing data as a result of either physical damage or logical damage.

There are innumerate ways which can cause physical damage to storage media. For instance, storage tapes, these are sensitive to scratches and easy to break. Plus, you simply can’t open a hard disk without vacuum. Regular air contains dust particles that can settle on the disk and could be caught between the head and the platter. This results in head crashes, which damage the platter and cause the loss of data.

There is serious lack of know-how in  end users about hardware repairing. Thus, data recovery companies make use of the situation and employ costly methods for the recovery of important data.

The recovery of data from physically damaged hardware may require multiple steps. It may also vary according to the type and severity of damage. For example, by replacing some of the parts of your hard disk, some of the damage could be repaired. Therefore, not all your data will be lost. Aside from that, there is a special procedure called disk imaging, which is capable of reading data from the surface of the storage device. However, only the surface data can be recovered in this way.

Despite several measures and the use of backup, ensuring the security of bulk amounts of important data still remains a challenge. However, prevention is likely better than a cure in most instances. Thus, always make sure that you handle your data storage devices with care.