Ifyou've deleted a critical file, it may seem at first that it's gone forever. Ifyou act quickly, though, you may be able to recover that file and return it toits rightful place on your hard drive. Here is the best data recovery software and follow this guide to recover your lostfiles in Windows

Step 1 Check your recycle bin for the file

The Recycle Bin will hold files before deleting them,allowing you to restore them to your computer if you change your mind. Torestore a file, open the Recycle Bin, right-click on the file, and selectRestore. The file will be returned to its original location on the hard drive.

·     Large files may be permanently deleted instead ofbeing sent to the Recycle Bin.

Step 2 Immediately stop accessing the drive

Ifyour files are not found in the Recycle Bin, don't save or delete anything fromyour computer. Your chances of recovering the file are much higher if you don'tsave anything new. This is because when a file is deleted, it is actually justset to be overwritten. If no new data has overwritten the original file, thenit can usually be recovered.

Step 3 Download a data recovery program on another computer, or a differentdrive

Make sure that you don't save it tothe drive that you need to recover a file from, or you may overwrite the fileyou need to recover. Some of the more popular free programs include:

·        Recuva

·        Restoration

·        Glary Undelete

·        Puran File Recovery

·     Download a portable version of the recovery program ifpossible, so that you can run it directly from a USB drive without needing toinstall it. Not all file recovery programs offer portable versions.

Step 4 Run the recovery program

While every program is different, they all follow the samebasic steps. Make sure that you don't install the program to the same drivethat you are trying to recover from.

Step 5 Specify what you are looking for

Point the recovery program at the disk that the file was onwhen it was deleted. You can also recover files from a USB drive this way. Mostrecovery programs will ask what type of file you are searching for. You canalso specify the file name, or get a list of all recoverable files to browsethrough

Step 6 Perform a deep scan

Some programs will give you the option to perform a deep scanwhile looking for files. This will take significantly longer, but may result inmore files found.

Step 7 Browse for the file you want

Once the scan has returned results,look through the list to see if your file was recovered. Different programswill have different methods for recovery, but in general you just need toselect your file and click the Restore button.

·     Not all files will be 100% recoverable. This isbecause files are often stored in multiple parts of your hard drive, and onepart of the file may have been overwritten but we can offer data recovery service.

·     Some programs restore the file to its originallocation, others will restore it to a Recovery folder.