Destination of Files From Recycle Bin

Destination of Files From Recycle Bin

I don’t agree with the post above. If that’s true that the system creates extra space in the hard drive for use by the recycle bin and by the files that will soon be deleted from the recycle bin after it is emptied, then it is possible to restore all deleted files from the hard drive especially if the reserved space is not yet totally used. But this doesn’t happen. I think you got it all mixed up. The recycle bin doesn’t create the extra space to store more data. The extra space the post above is referring to is the reserved space in the hard drive which is mainly used by Windows for its Restore Points.

The reserved space is available in all drive letters and can be adjusted depending on your needs. But it is recommended not to change this setting. Adjusting the reserved space affects the availability of creating more restore points for the system. The smaller the reserved space is the lesser restore points can be created. Recovery tools don’t use the restore points when recovering deleted files like what is described in the post above. Each tool has their own way of scanning the hard drive in search for deleted files to be recovered.

Here’s what happens to files. When a file gets deleted using Windows Explorer, it doesn’t automatically leaves the hard drive and goes directly to the Recycle Bin. Files in the recycle bin don’t normally appear in the hard drive and even if you can find it, you won’t be able to recognize which file is which. Files in the recycle bin are stored in a folder named “RECYCLED” and sometimes “RECYCLER” located in the root of the drive which is “C:/” or “D:/” and so on. Files inside this folder don’t bear their original names because after deleting the files, Windows renames these files and then move them in the recycle bin folder.

If the files are still in the recycle bin then you can still recover and restore them to their original location. In case the recycle bin is emptied, all files in its storage will all be deleted. But you can still recover them using recovery software. There’s no other way of recovering those files but to use a recovery program. You cannot use the restore points of Windows to recover deleted files because this is not its main purpose. If you do this, you might accidentally uninstall a program or some of the programs previously installed.

When a file leaves the recycle bin after emptying it, it is totally deleted but still recoverable. The file or files at this stage still resides in the hard drive but not physically. They are still in the hard drive but in the form of signatures stored in every cluster they originally occupied. That’s why you cannot recover them without using special tools. They remain like this until they are recovered or permanently deleted due to overwriting. Now while deleted files remain in this state, when a file has been copied to the drive where they are located, the clusters they originally occupied might get overwritten and be replaced with the data of the new file. This is when the files become unrecoverable. That’s why it is very important not to copy or move files to any drive in case you want to recover deleted files because they might get overwritten.