Can you Find a Deleted File Even if Windows Can't?

It happens all the time all around the word on business machines and personal computers, a file you may think you don't need any more or one you accidentally delete without looking too closely and then you empty the recycling bin and ... that's it; the file is gone ... Or is it? Can you find a deleted file or is it totally lost? The answer is yes.

To understand why we must understand how windows and other operating systems find and display files on your computer. Every file and program and bit of data that your operating system can access has what is called a reference or pointer to where that file is stored on your hard disk. This file may not even be stored sequentially on your disk it may be stored in bits and pieces if it is large and the file itself has pointers referencing where the next pieces is and so on. These pointers are absolutely essential for windows to be able to see if a file exists, if there is no pointer to that file then as far as the operating system is concerned it does not exist.

Data on a hard drive when deleted is not lost, the same sequence of 1's and 0's that make up all parts of data and software are still there sitting on the disk it just cannot be found as there is no reference, it is lost not deleted. To truly delete a file the locations where the file is stored must be scrambled so that it does not make any sense to any system, only then is a file unreadable and effectively destroyed.

However when you delete a file it does not scramble and destroy the file it simply removes the pointers that reference it. This means that while windows cannot find your file and never will be able to the file exists and will continue to exist until such a time when that space on the hard disk is used to store other data.

So if you cannot find a deleted file at the moment you will not be able to get it back without some outside help from third party programs that can scan your hard disk and find your files for you. While annoying (or possible job security threatening!) losing a file does not have to be the end of things as it still exists!