INTERNET ARTICLES

Deleted Items

Lost a file and can't find it anywhere? Try looking in your deleted items ...

Losing an important document that you have painstakingly worked on and stored on your computer can be a disastrous situation. The first thing you should do if this happens is to take a deep breath and count to ten. Then you should look in all the obvious places. Check your desktop - make sure that your lost document is not hiding, possibly partly obscured by another icon. If nothing turns out the next best place to look is your Trash/Recycling Bin. If still nothing turns out, and you've gone ahead to scour your hard drive, then you might want to consider that your document could be hiding in your deleted items. You might think you would be stupid enough to have moved it to your deleted items, but check anyway - you'd be surprised how often this happens.

Hopefully, your deleted items still exist on your system. If your deleted items have been permanently removed from your system then you have a big problem. You can let out a scream of angst at this point because you're in trouble now!

But don't despair too much - there are still ways and methods of retrieving your document, even if it mistakenly got moved to your deleted items and was subsequently deleted.

You can do a Google search and look for information on retrieving deleted items, or just visit some of the links on this page. You will likely be able to locate software that you can scan your system with to locate your deleted items. It is best if you do not turn your system off, or restart your computer, before running this software. Otherwise your missing documents and deleted items may no longer be stored in your recent documents cache, making it that much more difficult to find your deleted items.

Some data recovery software is available free of charge. Other software products used to restore deleted items will be available at a cost. You will likely need a credit card in order to download this software. You will have to decide how important it is for you to find your missing document and to recover your deleted items, and make a decision as to whether you are willing to pay for software to scour your system to find these deleted items, or not.

In the end, you will likely recover your missing document. It can be a very stressful situation, however, today's technology always provides a way out, of nearly any sticky situation. The fact that it's so easy to recover deleted items, should also serve as a word of warning to anyone who might have private information on their home or office computer. If it's that easy for you to retrieve your own deleted items, imagine how simple it would be for someone else to restore files that you have previously deleted. This goes to emphasize the importance of properly password protecting all of your systems for your own peace of mind.

For more information about the internet, internet tips and advice, see the "resources" section of this website, or go to articles about internet.