How to recover deleted files in Windows 11

Accidentally deleted a file from your PC? Here’s how you can recover files you’ve deleted on Windows 11 and 10.

Screenshot of Windows 11 desktop with Windows File Recovery and Recycle Bin open

Have you ever deleted a file you didn’t think you’d need only to find yourself looking for it weeks later? You’re not alone, and it’s not a fun feeling to realize you could have saved yourself a lot of trouble if you had been more careful. Thankfully, when things like this happen on Windows 11, there are ways you can try and recover the files you deleted accidentally or absent-mindedly.

Recovering these files can encompass two things. The easiest method is simply going into your Recycle Bin, which is where most deleted files tend to go before being deleted permanently. However, if those files aren’t even in the Recycle Bin anymore, you can still go deeper and recover them using specialized software. This may not work for everything, but it can help tremendously. We’re going to take a look at both options.

How to recover files from the Recycle Bin

By default, all the files you delete, except for abnormally large ones, go into the Recycle Bin, and they generally stay in there for a long time. Features like Storage Sense on Windows 11 can delete files from the Recycle Bin after some time, but more recent files should still be there. To recover them, simply follow these steps:

On your desktop, open the Recycle Bin.
- If the icon isn’t visible, you can also open the Start menu and search for Recycle Bin.
Search for the file you want to recover. Note the location mentioned next to it.
Select the file or files you want to recover, and then click Restore in the menu bar at the top.

The file will now reappear in the folder where it was originally stored, and you can use it as if it was never deleted.

This is a very simple procedure, but admittedly, it’s one that you may already know about. So what if the file you want isn’t in the Recycle Bin?

Recover files using Windows File Recovery

There are many programs that can help you recover deleted files from the depths of your drive. Many of these programs are paid, or if they have free versions, they can be limited in functionality. However, a few years ago, Microsoft actually stepped up with its own solution called Windows File Recovery. This is an app you have to install separately from Windows, but it does allow you to recover deleted files that may seem like they’re gone forever.

A downside to this tool is that it’s entirely based on a command line interface (CLI), so it may not be the most comfortable to use, but we’re here to help with that.

Download Windows File Recovery from the Microsoft Store.
Launch the app from the Start menu and click Yes when the User Account Control prompt appears.
The app explains the usage of the recovery commands. The basic command is
```
winfr source-drive: destination-folder [/mode] [/switches]
```
- source-drive: represents the drive where the file was originally stored
- destination-folder indicates the folder path where the recovered files will be stored. This can’t be in the same drive as the source.
- mode can either be regular or extensive. Regular is adequate for non-corrupted NTFS drives and is more useful for recovering recent files. Extensive mode works with all file systems and can perform a deeper search.
- switches allow you to specify your search, particularly with the n switch. You can use this to specify a folder path or even a file name you want to recover, so you don’t recover every file that’s ever been deleted.
Let’s say you want to recover a file from your Documents library. In this case, we’ll enter the command as follows to run a scan in regular mode:
```
winfr C: D:Recovery /regular /n usersjoaocDocuments
```
This will attempt to recover all the files deleted from the Documents library for the current user (joaoc).
- You can also use wildcards by adding a *. For example, if you know you deleted a Word document but you don’t remember its name, you can enter usersjoaocDocuments*.docx at the end of the command.
After entering a command, you’ll be asked to confirm the search conditions. Press Y on your keyboard to confirm.
If multiple files have the same name, you’ll be prompted to choose whether to keep both or only one. Press B to keep all files with the same name, or a different key depending on the action you want to take.
The file or files will be recovered if possible. You can press Y again to open the destination folder and see your recovered files.
If searching in regular mode didn’t work, you can replace regular with extensive in the command above to see if a deeper search can find what you’re looking for.

This should help you recover the files you lost. You can tweak the parameters in the command above to search in different drives or folders or to restore the files to a different location. If you still can’t find them, it’s possible they’re beyond saving, or you may need special paid software to do it, which tends to be fairly expensive.

If you’d like to learn more about other lesser-known Windows 11 features, maybe check out how to use Windows Event Viewer to find error logs in Windows 11, or how to create a battery report for your laptop.