Whether you are a virtual assistant or someone doing business online, chances are that you may be keeping an important offline file in your desktop. This can be anything from spreadsheets or a design work-in-progress, and you wouldn\’t want to lose it one way or another. Now, what if, for some reason, you have accidentally deleted this very important file?
Regardless of what happened, don\’t fret. You can still recover your file, and if you are using Windows, you\’re in luck. We know how to recover your file with this operating system, and these are the first steps that you should take:
- Right click+“Undo Delete” or Ctrl+Z. If you have just deleted your file, this is the best option you have to get your file back. Just hit your mouse\’s right button, and the usual shortcut menu should pop up. You will notice an option saying “Undo Delete.” Click it and voila! Your file is back where it used to be. Alternatively, you can just hit the Ctrl and Z keys at the same time while you are in any Explorer window.
- Check the Recycle Bin. Provided that you did not press the Delete and Shift keys at the same time, expect your file to land in your computer\’s Recycle Bin. If your Recycle Bin is swamped with deleted files, Windows has a handy search feature that can help you out.
- If you can\’t find your file in the Recycle Bin, start all over again with a backup. Backing up important files is a good, highly encouraged practice. If you have a backup of your missing file, you can simply work with it. You may lose some time, though, as you will have to redo the changes you have made. If the backup is fresh, however, this should not be a big issue.
Now the real problem comes when you cannot find your deleted file in the Recycle Bin, or if you do not have any backups to work on. That\’s not saying that all hope is lost, though. Here are the steps that you should take in such cases.
- Remember the original file location.
- Close all your running applications. If there are any background programs running in your taskbar, you should close them as well.
- Recover your lost file with a data recovery software. Fossbytes have a great list of data recovery software that you can use for this matter. Personally, I\’d recommend Recuva as it has saved my life—and the contents of an entire drive once—more than a few times. Data recovery software will scan your computer or individual drives for deleted files, which it then allows you to recover. The software will then list all the files that can be recovered, and you will have to locate your file manually. You can search for it by name, but if that were not possible, just look for it based on its original location.
Accidentally losing important files truly is a nightmare, but that\’s not something that you cannot solve. It is also something that you can avoid as well by habitually creating backups. If you don\’t have the time to deal with such matters, though, this is the right time to tap the services of your own virtual assistant.
