It seems like once you have permanently deleted a file, you’re done with it: you’ve cleared out your Recycle Bin, or held down the Shift key when you deleted it. However, that rarely means the file is actually gone. Until something writes over that area of the drive, the data is usually still there, waiting. Here’s where a “permanently deleted” file really goes, along with how to retrieve it on both Windows and Mac, and the one rule that determines if you are able to do so.
Removing a file and clearing out the bin removes it from view and makes the space it occupied available for other files, but it does not scrub the data. On a hard drive, it stays in that physical location until it is overwritten, which is exactly why speed, and not writing to the drive, matters most.
Once you’ve deleted a file and cleared out your Recycle Bin (or used Shift+Delete to skip it), Windows or macOS simply removes the reference to that file from its index and flags that section of disk space as available for reuse. The actual content remains physically present on the disk until some new data happens to be written over it. This is why recovery is possible at all, and why it becomes a race. The window for recovery exists between the moment the file is marked as “deleted” and the moment it is “overwritten”, and how long this window lasts depends entirely on how much the disk is used afterwards. On a busy system disk, it may be just a matter of minutes; on a rarely used external disk, it may last for months.
Check for copies that may already exist before using recovery software: they are much quicker and safer. On Windows, check whether File History or a Windows backup has the file, and right-click the folder where it was located and select “Restore previous versions”. On a Mac, Time Machine allows you to step back through different versions of a file. On both, cloud services such as OneDrive, iCloud Drive, Google Drive and Dropbox often keep deleted files in a deleted items bin or version history for weeks after you remove them locally. So if any of these still has your file, you can recover it without touching recovery tools at all.
If you do not have any backups and the file existed on a mechanical hard drive, recovery software has a good chance. Free recovery applications such as Recuva, PhotoRec and Windows File Recovery scan the drive, create a list of the files they believe are recoverable and allow you to restore them, and our guide to the free options covers which does what. It is essential that you install the application on, and recover files to, a different drive than the one you are rescuing; otherwise, the recovered files could overwrite the very files you want to recover. The best option is an external disk or USB stick as your destination.
There is one big exception, however: SSDs. Because SSDs use TRIM, when you delete a file on an SSD, the drive physically erases the blocks behind it in the background, often within minutes. Because of this, a permanently deleted file on an SSD frequently can’t be recovered by software at all, whereas a deleted file on a hard drive remains accessible to recovery software. In addition, if the drive itself is failing rather than the file simply being deleted (it’s clicking, no longer showing up or throwing errors), software is the wrong tool, and running it can make things worse. When dealing with irreplaceable data, or when the drive is misbehaving, we would recommend stopping immediately and getting a diagnosis. A single-drive recovery is from £300 +VAT, and if you are recovering photographs specifically, please refer to our deleted-photo guide.
Often, yes, on a hard drive. Emptying the Recycle Bin or using Shift+Delete merely frees the space where the file was stored; it does not scrub the data, so the file usually stays on the drive until something overwrites it. File recovery software can rebuild it, as long as you act before it is overwritten and recover to a different drive. On an SSD, however, TRIM means there is much less chance of successful recovery.
Nowhere, at first. Deleting a file and emptying the bin do not actually erase it from its location on the drive; they only remove it from the index and indicate that its area of storage is eligible for reuse. The contents remain on the drive until new data is written over them. This gap between deleted and overwritten is what allows recovery, and using the drive afterwards reduces your likelihood of success.
Before trying anything else, check for a backup: File History or a previous version on Windows, Time Machine on a Mac, or a cloud recycle bin. If there is none, try free tools such as Recuva, PhotoRec and Windows File Recovery, which can recover deleted files from a hard drive. Always install these programs on, and recover to, a different drive than the one you are rescuing.
Because of TRIM. When you delete a file on an SSD, the drive is told which space has been freed up, and its housekeeping function erases those blocks in the background, generally within minutes. Deleting files on a hard drive is different: the deleted data lingers until it is overwritten. On an SSD, it means a deleted file often cannot be recovered through a program, even the moment after deleting it.
When the files are irreplaceable, or when your drive is dying rather than a file simply being deleted (clicking, not detected or throwing errors). Recovery software will only help a healthy drive with a logical loss; running it on a dying drive may make things worse. In those cases, we image the drive read-only in our lab, and a single-drive recovery is from £300 plus VAT.
If the file is irreplaceable or the drive is misbehaving, don’t take the chance of writing over it. Send the drive in and we’ll recover it read-only, with a free diagnostic and a fixed price quote before starting work.