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Speaker 1: brain Stuff from how stuff works dot com where smart happens.
Speaker 1: Hi Am Marshall brain with today's question how can I
Speaker 1: recover a deleted file from my computer? When the idea
Speaker 1: of the trash can or the recycle bin became popular
Speaker 1: on the Apple Macintosh and then in Windows, it immediately
Speaker 1: became a fail safe for many users. If you delete
Speaker 1: a file and realize that you actually need it, you
Speaker 1: can recover it easily by doing the following. In Windows. First,
Speaker 1: you open the recycled bin by double clicking on the
Speaker 1: recycled bin icon on your desktop, or you can go
Speaker 1: to the recycle bin folder in Windows Explorer. Next, you
Speaker 1: find the file you want to recover and click to
Speaker 1: highlight it. Then you go to the file menu and
Speaker 1: choose the restore option, or you can write, click over
Speaker 1: the file name and select restore from the menu. After
Speaker 1: you do this, the file is now back on your
Speaker 1: computer in its original place. It's a great feature. While
Speaker 1: the recycle bin is a great utility, there are many
Speaker 1: times that a file is not placed in the recycle
Speaker 1: bin when it gets deleted. These include files from removable
Speaker 1: storage such as flash memory and zip disks, files deleted
Speaker 1: from within some applications, and files deleted from the command prompt. Also,
Speaker 1: there are times when you'll empty the recycle bin and
Speaker 1: then realize that there was a file in it you
Speaker 1: wanted to keep. A common misconception is that the data
Speaker 1: is actually removed from the hard drive erased. That is,
Speaker 1: when you delete a file. Any time that a file
Speaker 1: is deleted on the hard drive, it's not actually erased. Instead,
Speaker 1: the tiny bit of information that points to the location
Speaker 1: of the file on the hard drive is erased. This pointer,
Speaker 1: along with the other pointers for every folder and file
Speaker 1: on the hard drive, is saved in a section near
Speaker 1: the beginning of the hard drive and is used by
Speaker 1: the operating system to compile the directory tree structure. By
Speaker 1: erasing that pointer file, the actual file becomes invisible to
Speaker 1: the operating system. It's still there, it's just invisible. Eventually,
Speaker 1: the hard drive will write new data over the area
Speaker 1: where the old file is located, but immediately after you
Speaker 1: delete it, it's still there. There are several hard disk
Speaker 1: utilities that you can find on the internet that will
Speaker 1: allow you to recover deleted files. What these utilities do
Speaker 1: is search for data on the hard drive that doesn't
Speaker 1: have a corresponding pointer information package and present you with
Speaker 1: a list of these files. Your chances of fully recovering
Speaker 1: a file diminish the longer you wait after you deleted
Speaker 1: the file, since the probability that the file has been
Speaker 1: overwritten increases. Sometimes you can recover portions of a file
Speaker 1: that's not been completely overwritten. What if you really do
Speaker 1: want to delete something, Say you have financial information or
Speaker 1: passwords or something in a file, and when you delete it,
Speaker 1: you really want to delete it and make it disappear
Speaker 1: completely from your hard disc. What if you don't want
Speaker 1: the file to remain on the disc after you delete
Speaker 1: it at all. There are other utilities you can find
Speaker 1: that will go in and zero out the files sectors
Speaker 1: to completely remove that information. For more on this and
Speaker 1: thousands of other topics because that how stuff works dot
Speaker 1: com and don't forget to check out the brain stuff
Speaker 1: blog on the house stuff works dot com home page.
Speaker 1: You can also follow brain stuff on Facebook or Twitter
Speaker 1: at brain stuff hs W. Brain Stuff is sponsored by
Speaker 1: Harry's dot com. Get a great shaving experience for a
Speaker 1: fraction of the price. The quality of the shave is
Speaker 1: so important that Harry purchase the factory that makes their blades.
Speaker 1: Fifteen dollars gets you a set that includes a handle,
Speaker 1: three blades, and shave cream. Go to Harry's dot com
Speaker 1: use the code brain stuff to save five dollars off
Speaker 1: your first purchase.