How to Recover Permanently Deleted Files from Recycle Bin without Software

Scenario: Is it possible to recover permanently deleted files from Recycle Bin?

"I had downloaded songs from various websites and saved them in one of the folders under 'Library' on my laptop's 'C:' drive. However, this folder was inadvertently transferred to the Recycle Bin, and the Recycle Bin was later emptied. So, can somebody tell me how I can recover these files? Because software obtained from an unknown source may contain a virus, I would want to avoid doing so as much as possible. Thanks."

After you deleted some files, these files won't be wiped instantly. The first location where they go is the Recycle Bin, and they are still stored on your disk. Your deleted files will remain in this storage location until new data overwrite on your disk. Therefore, the Recycle Bin is essentially a temporary storage location for discarded data.

In fact, Windows provides multiple approaches for recovering files that have been permanently deleted from the Recycle Bin. So, if you happen to delete files from your Recycle Bin, then from this article, you can discover two cost-free methods for recovering deleted data from the Recycle Bin without the need for extra software.

How to recover deleted files from Recycle Bin without software

Some users will try many operations after they accidentally delete files from Recycle Bin. Well, if you want to recover permanently erased data from the Recycle Bin, please don’t do too many operations at first, because any step can cause data-overwritten. This will pose a great obstacle to data recovery. In this section, we'll recover deleted data using backup files like File History, although you may also use the command prompt to recover deleted files from the Recycle Bin.

Way 1. Recover deleted files from Recycle Bin Windows 10 via File History

File History may retrieve deleted files from the Recycle Bin without using software. It's a built-in Windows application that generates incremental backups of files that can be recovered if they are unintentionally deleted or lost. In Windows, you may restore deleted files from backups.

If File History is enabled, it periodically backs up files in the Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos, and Desktop folders.

Step 1. Press the Windows key, and type “restore files” to open “Restore your files with File History”.

Step 2. Check the folder where your deleted files are saved. Click the “Restore” button to recover Windows 10 files to the previous location.

You can also right-click the folder which includes the deleted files and select “Previous Versions”. Then you could get the folder back to a previous date by clicking “Restore”.

Way 2. Using CMD to recover shift deleted files without software

Microsoft introduced Windows File Recovery to support Windows 10 versions 2004 and later OS users to recover lost files. But it lacks a graphical user interface, meaning you must enter certain CMD to recover deleted data.

To utilize Windows File Recovery successfully, you'll be asked to choose one of four modes: Regular, Extensive, Segment, and Signature. To restore files removed from the Recycle Bin, you must first recall the previously saved location and then perform the command: winfr source-drive: destination-drive: [/mode] [/switches]

Step 1. Type “Microsoft Store” in the search box and open it. And then find “Windows File Recovery” and click “Get”.

Step 2. After installing Windows File Recovery on your computer, type Windows File Recovery in the search box and select “Run as administrator”.

Step 3. Right-click the drive which saved the deleted files and select “Properties” to check the file system.

Step 4. There are some common switches to use. You could check them and their description in the following chart. To find more switches in the Windows File Recovery tutorial.

Step 5. For example, if you want to recover a zip file but you don’t know the detailed name from C: drive to E: drive, you could input the following command: winfr C: E: /regular /n \C:\Recycler\*.zip

Way 3. Best Windows File Recovery tool-AOMEI Partition Assistant

It may be difficult to utilize Windows File Recovery to retrieve deleted data from the Recycle Bin if you are unfamiliar with command lines.  As a result, you might try using AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, a free third-party Windows data recovery software.

This utility assists users in removing difficult command lines required to retrieve lost data from the Recycle Bin. It offers a user-friendly UI. Users on Windows 7/8/8.1/10/11 may quickly retrieve lost and deleted data from HDD, SSD, external hard drives, USB drives, SD cards, and other storage devices.

Now is the time to get the software to recover lost data from the Recycle Bin.

Note: The free edition supports 30MB size files to recover, if you want to recover more files, you can upgrade to the Professional Edition. And Windows Server users can turn to the Server Edition for Windows Server device.

Download

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant. In the Main Tab, please click "Recover"> "Recover Data".

Step 2. The Recover Windows Data tool will pop up. Please select the partition location to start data recovery and click "Start Scan".

Step 3. Once the scan is completed, all deleted files, recycle bin, and other missing files will be displayed. Please select data you would like to recover and then click "Recover".

Step 4. Please select a folder path on your PC to save the recovered data.

Step 5. The recovery progress will start and data will be saved to the path you select once the recovery process is successful.

To sum up

This is how to recover permanently deleted files from Recycle Bin without software. You may utilize File History to restore your files and folders to a prior version, or you could use Windows File Recovery to restore permanently deleted data from the Recycle Bin using command lines. But AOMEI Partition Assistant offers an easier way to recover deleted files.

Beside the data recovery function, this practical tool can also clone disk/partition, move installed apps, convert disk to MBR/GPT without data loss, etc.