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Deleted file recovery guides
Every guide here is written for one situation, not for a general topic. You do not need to read all of them: pick the situation that matches what happened and start there.
The one rule all of these situations share: stop writing to the drive you lost the files from. Everything else comes after it.
Not sure where to start?
If you do not know where to begin, the first guide is the only one that applies to every case: five things to stop doing right now.
Start with the situation that matches yours
- Five things to stop doing before any file recoveryMost permanently lost files are lost after deletion, by the recovery attempt itself. The five mistakes that do the damage - and what to do instead.
- Recover files after emptying the Recycle BinEmptied the Recycle Bin by mistake? The files are usually still on the disk. What to do in the next 10 minutes, and what wipes them for good.
- Recover files deleted with Shift + DeleteShift+Delete bypasses the Recycle Bin. The data usually remains on the disk - here is what to do, and what to avoid.
- Recover files from a formatted USB drive or hard diskFormatted the wrong drive? A quick format usually leaves the data intact. What to do before anything is written to it.
- Recover photos from an SD card or memory cardCard says it needs formatting, or the photos vanished? Do not format it. How to read a damaged card and get the photos off it.
- Recover deleted photos from a phone without a computerDeleted photos on Android or iPhone? The built-in trash folders hold them for a limited time. Where to look first, and what kills them for good.
- Recover an unsaved Word, Excel or PowerPoint fileClosed without saving, or it crashed? Word and Excel usually keep an autorecovery copy. Where to find it before you do anything else.
- Recovered File Checker — is the file you got back actually intact?Check a recovered file without uploading it: missing end marker, zero-filled data, zero bytes, wrong extension. Runs locally in your browser.
- Garbled file name fixer — turn الصورة back into real textPaste a mangled file name and get the original back. Fixes Arabic, Persian and Turkish names damaged by recovery tools, ZIP archives and old Windows. Runs in your browser, nothing uploaded.
If you are not sure what happened
The free check runs inside your browser and uploads nothing. It tells you what can be known from a file name and size before you decide anything.
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Last updated: 2026-10-21