| Computers are a blessing, until you get the infamous | | | | a human recovery specialist. These specialists |
| blue screen of death, or perhaps less dramatic, you | | | | understand the ways of a computer and where it |
| accidentally erase a file. In many cases of deleted | | | | puts things; but will not be inexpensive. |
| files, the file can be retrieved. | | | | If you lost your entire hard drive (this may or may |
| If you recently deleted the file, look through the | | | | not have activated the blue screen of death), first |
| Recycle Bin (or Trash for Macintosh users). In the | | | | take a deep breathe and let it out. Secondly, use the |
| Recycle Bin you can browse through a list of deleted | | | | disk repair program included with Microsoft and |
| items, or search for a specific item. Restoring the file | | | | Macintosh software. If the software disk does not |
| from the Recycle Bin is simple. You can restore it | | | | help, move onto a disk repair program purchased |
| directly from the Recycle Bin, move the file to the | | | | from another company. Your last choice is to have a |
| desktop for restoration, or open the file and resave | | | | specialist come in, or bring the hard drive in to try |
| it. | | | | and recover as much information as possible. This |
| If the Recycle Bin or Trash does not have your file, | | | | option will be costly with no guarantee of success. |
| look throughout the computer for a back up. The | | | | Once you go through this process once, there is the |
| back up could have been manually created by you, or | | | | guarantee that you will not want to do it again. |
| automatically created by your computer. If you are in | | | | To avoid losing every file you have made, back up |
| a network, look through the server's files for your | | | | every file you have made to a location other than |
| missing file. If you find a backup, be thankful and | | | | the hard drive. Disks, USBs, CDs or servers are all |
| resave the file. | | | | good options. After each major change to your file, |
| If at this point you still have not been able to find | | | | remember to save the file to both, or all, locations. |
| the file, you will likely need to start spending some | | | | When installing a file recovery program, use the |
| money. Be sure to consider how much time and | | | | program from its installation device to avoid |
| money the lost file is worth. If it is not much, now | | | | accidentally rewriting any of your files. Lastly, try to |
| would be a good time to cut your losses and | | | | install this program before you have lost files. The |
| recreate the file. If the file was one of a kind, not | | | | likelihood of recovering lost files greatly increases if |
| redo able, find a file recovery system program or hire | | | | the program is installed ahead of time. |