4 Steps to Take when You Accidentally Delete a File

Everyone makes mistakes, but accidentally deleting a file can be a pretty big one. Data loss costs businesses and personal computer users millions of dollars every year, and while some of the most typical reasons for data loss include hard drive failure and electronics issues, accidental file deletion is also surprisingly common.

If you've accidentally deleted a file only to realize that you didn't have it backed up, there's actually a decent chance that you'll be able to get the data back if you're using a Windows or Mac OS system.

Here are a few steps to take to improve your chances of a successful data recovery on an accidentally deleted file.

Turn off the computer. As soon as you realize that a file was unintentionally deleted, you should turn off your computer immediately, as every second that your computer is operating, it's writing tiny bits of data. When a file is deleted, the space occupied by the file is freed up and the hard drive will use the newly-free space the next time that it needs to write something.

The longer that your hard drive runs, the higher the chances that the file will be overwritten, and once a file is overwritten, the chances of data recovery drop dramatically. If you're reading this article on the computer with the deleted file, turn it off immediately and read the rest on another PC.

Look for some data recovery software. You can pay a professional data recovery company somewhere between $300-1000 to recover your data for you, or if you're somewhat comfortable with computers, you may be able to recover the deleted file yourself. Look for data recovery software that advertises an ability to recover deleted data.

The best programs that I've worked with are GetDataBack and DataRecovery.com's SaveMyFiles. Of the two, SaveMyFiles is a bit more user friendly, although I've found GetDataBack to be more powerful. There are dozens of other programs that can recover deleted data, but in order to make sure that you don't waste your money, try to find a program with a free trial.

Install the data recovery software on another computer. Again, you don't want to write new data to the hard drive with the deleted file, so you'll have to use another computer to recover your data.

You'll hook up the hard drive with your deleted data as a slave, or if the second computer is a laptop, you'll have to use an external hard drive enclosure. Don't hook the drive up to your computer until the data recovery software is installed.

Follow the instructions. Data recovery programs work very differently, so from this point on, you'll have to follow the instructions of the recovery program.

If the program can't find your deleted files, you can try another program or use a professional data recovery service. These days, data recovery technology is advanced enough that there's a very slim chance that your data's gone forever unless you've used your computer heavily since the deletion. If the files are important, data recovery software is certainly worth a shot.

Have a good experience with a data recovery program? Post below.