How to Recover Files Deleted from Recycle Bin for Free (5 Ways)

Can I recover files deleted from Recycle Bin?

Yes, it's possible to recover files deleted from Recycle Bin and there are 5 effective methods. The Recycle Bin is a special folder that stores deleted files and folders for a limited time, depending on how you use your computer and the amount of empty space on it.  

If the Recycle Bin is emptied, your files are deleted permanently. However, it simply removes the file references instead of overwriting them. In this situation, you can use powerful data recovery software to track their path and recover them quickly. If you are in the habit of backing up files, it will be a wise choice to restore files from backup images.

How to recover files deleted from Recycle Bin for free?

How to recover files deleted from Recycle Bin for free? As a matter of fact, several methods can help you restore permanently deleted data from Recycle Bin, but some of them require a copy of backup image. While others are not user-friendly and difficult to operate.

Here we will introduce you to one free & user-friendly way to recover deleted files after emptying the Recycle Bin, with a high success rate. It's using powerful data recovery software for Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, etc., and Windows Server - MyRecover. With advanced scanning methods, you can find as many files as possible, thereby recovering them completely.

MyRecover

Free Windows data recovery software

• Support up to 7 file types, ranging from images (eg: Restore lost pictures on computer), documents, audio, videos, compressed files, etc.
• Support over 200+ file formats, such asTXT, DOCX, XLSX/CSV, JPG/JPEG, PNG, PDF, PPT, TIF/TIFF, MP4, MOV, AVI/NAVI, CDA, WAV, 7Z, ZIP/ZIPX, and more.
• Keep the recovered files with the original file name, path, format, and quality.
• Filter, preview, and recover deleted or lost files during the scanning process.

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Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 & Server

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In addition, MyRecover has three editions: Free, Pro and Technician. Among them, the Free edition allows you to recover files deleted from Recycle Bin over 500 MB. You still can enjoy Crashed PC recovery, especially useful when your computer becomes unbootable.

▶ Recover files after deleting from Recycle Bin using MyRecover

Step 1. Download and launch MyRecover on your computer. Take Windows 10 as an example. Select the partition where the files deleted from Recycle Bin were stored before. Hover the mouse over the drive and click Scan to scan.

Step 2. The software runs the scanning process quickly and goes into deep scan automatically to find more deleted files and other missing files in this partition. 

During scanning, you can filter, preview, and recover any file you need. If you don't know how to restore specific files, learn the following filter options first:

Type: It will contain all the file types in the local drive, such as images, videos, documents, emails, webpage, compressed files, etc. 
Data Modified: It supports today, yesterday, last 7 days, last 30 days, and custom. To recover deleted files at a specific time period, try the last option.
Size: It allows you to filter file size from less than 128KB to 128KB ~1MB to 1MB ~ 512MB and above, or custom.

Step 3. Select the file or the folder that you want to recover under the Recycle Bin folder and click "Recover files".It will ask you to select a new location to prevent the data from being overwritten.

MyRecover can also be used for Windows Server 2012(R2), 2016(R2), 2019, 2022, etc. So you still can try it to recover deleted files in Windows Server 2012 for free or other server operating systems. 

It's free up to 500MB. To recover unlimited data, it's suggested to upgrade to MyRecover Pro or Technician edition. In addition, the Technician edition still supports unlimited usage within one company and provides billable technical services to clients.

How to recover files after deleting from Recycle Bin without software

If you want to recover files after deleting from Recycle Bin without using third-party software, you can try File History, Backup, and Restore, Windows File Recover, or restoring files from cloud storage like OneDrive, Google Drive, or Drop

▶ Recover files deleted from Recycle Bin with File History

File History only backs up files regularly in the Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos, and Desktop folders, as well as One Drive files that are available offline on your computer. That is, you could add files or folders from other folders if you want to make a backup.

You cannot only recover the previous versions of files if they are lost, damaged, or deleted, but search for and restore previous versions of files. This method only applies to Windows 8 and above. Follow the detailed steps below to recover deleted files from the Recycle Bin with File History. (Take Windows 10 as an example)

Step 1. Press Win + Q and type “restore files” to open “Restore your files with File History”.

Step 2. Navigate to the folder that stores your deleted files. Click the “Restore” button to recover the data to the previous location.

Step 3. Alternatively, you could right-click the folder and choose “Previous Versions” to recover permanently deleted files according to the time.

▶ Recover deleted files from Recycle Bin after empty using Backup and Restore

Backup and Restore, first introduced in Windows 7 and later inherited on Windows 8, 10, and 11, is another file backup software, that backup data files saved in libraries, on the desktop, or in default Windows folders. More surprisingly, it still allows you to backup system in Windows 10.

Step 1. Go to “Control Panel” > “System and Security” > select“Backup and Restore (Windows 7)”. Then, click“Restore my files”.

Step 2. Click the “Search…”, “Browse for files”, and “Browse for folders” options to find your deleted files or folders.

Step 3. Select where you want to restore your files - the original new location. Then click “Restore” to restore files deleted from the Recycle Bin for free.

▶ Restore files deleted from Recycle Bin using Google Drive

Google Drive is one of the most popular cloud storage to help you save, edit, and share your files on a Windows PC. If you turn on this feature to sync files to Google Drive, you can restore deleted files from it with the following steps.

Step 1. Go to your Google Drive and log in with your account.

Step 2. Go to the Trash folder, right-click the deleted files in Google Drive, and click Restore.

▶ Recover files deleted from Recycle Bin for free via Windows File Recovery

Windows File Recovery is a free data recovery software, released by Windows in 2020 to help users restore deleted or lost files from local hard drives, like internal and external hard drives, USB drives, SD cards, etc., cloud storage is not included.

Users try to input kinds of command lines to restore files according to different data loss scenarios with Windows File Recovery. Currently, Windows File Recovery only supports Windows 10 2204 and above.

It has four modes to use and you need to add various switches to control the command: Regular, Extensive, Segment, and Signature. There is a basic command format for your reference:

winfr source-drive: destination-drive: [/mode] [/switches]

Step 1. Download Windows File Recovery from the Microsoft Store. Press the Windows + Q keys and type “Microsoft Store” to open. And then search “Windows File Recovery” and click “Get”.

Step 2. When you install Windows File Recovery on your computer, please open it as administrator.

Step 3. Right-click the drive that saved the deleted files and select “Properties” to view the file system.

Step 4. There are some common switches to use. According to different recovery options, you could use switches to control the command.

Step 5. Examples:

1. If you want to recover an entire folder named “Test” from E: drive to F: drive, you could input the command like this:

winfr E: F: /n \Users\Stephanie\Documents\Test\

2. If you want to recover files with the string “Test”, you could input:

winfr E: D: /r /n *Test*

Some users may receive the error message “Winfr.exe is not recognized as an internal or external command” when inputting command lines, please check the solutions.

Conclusion

You could try the five methods above to solve the "How to recover files deleted from Recycle Bin for free". If there are no backup files, it's recommended to use MyRecover instead of Windows File Recovery. Because MyRecover is easier to operate and has a more user-friendly user interface. Users could click buttons to recover deleted files with a higher success rate.

What if you deleted a partition? The files in the partition get lost together. AOMEI Partition recovery is the best way to help you recover deleted partitions from hard drives with simple steps. You could easily get partitions and data back together.

MyRecover

Free and easy to use Windows data recovery software

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Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 & Server