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I just accidentally emptied my recycle bin! How do I get my files back?

Don’t fret! When you delete files on your computer it doesn’t really delete them for good – it just flags them to be overwritten later. You can probably restore your files if the drive has enough free space and if it’s just after you emptied the recycle bin.

In order to get back your deleted files, you need to make sure to do as little as possible on your computer and avoid writing to the hard drive. Try not to reboot your computer, don't create and save new files, or open any unnecessary programs.

If you have a USB Drive (and if you don’t, go get one) you’ll want to go to here, read the instructions, and download Restoration. Restoration is a free program to recover files from a deleted recycle bin. Save it to your USB Drive, and run it from there.

If that doesn’t work, or if you don't feel comfortable using free software, here are a couple programs to recover your files. They come on CDs. Try Recover My Files or Recover Lost Data.