If you accidentally delete a file, a folder, or a shortcut from your computer’s hard disk, you can quickly recover the item by either undoing your action immediately or restoring the deleted item from the Recycle Bin. The Recycle Bin holds all the files you’ve deleted from your hard disk(s) until you empty the bin or until it gets so full that the oldest files are deleted automatically. When you’ve deleted a folder, you have to restore the entire folder. You can’t open a deleted folder in the Recycle Bin and restore selected files.

Undo a Deletion

1. Point to a blank spot on the Desktop or to a blank part of any folder window, and right-click.

2. Choose Undo Delete from the shortcut menu.

Caution

You can’t recover any files that you’ve deleted from a removable disk or device, so be careful! Once they’re gone, they’re gone forever.

Restore an Item

1. Double-click the Recycle Bin icon on the Desktop, or click Recycle Bin in the Folders list of a window, to open the Recycle Bin window.

2. Select the item or items to be recovered.

3. Click Restore This Item (or Restore The Selected Items if you’ve selected more than one item).