Recover Deleted Files From Computer On Surface Pro 4 (Solution)

Most of the time, we tend to perceive the accidental delete of a file as a minor incident. But there are also instances when it can turn into a tragedy on your Microsoft Surface Pro 4. When documents that are very important to us or our work for an extended period of time just vanish from our computer, it can be extremely upsetting. But there’s a way to recover deleted files from recycle bin or your hard drive.

While many people believe that once deleted, a file can never be recovered, it doesn’t always work like that. In fact, there are so many options we can try to recover deleted files that we’d be surprised of how many solutions we have at hand.

Of course, not every strategy out there on how to restoring deleted files will work in your particular situation. There are also instances when a method only works for partially recovering deleted files from recycle bin on your Surface Pro 4.

Either way, you should be well-aware of all those options and put them into practice whenever you need, however you see fit. So without any further ado, here’s what you should know:

Understand what deleting means

When you have a clear picture of what happened, you are more likely to keep calm and recover your files on Microsoft Surface Pro 4. Most of the times, we panic because we don’t understand what we did; we only see the outcome, we jump to a false conclusion – that we will never get it back – and everything is lost from that point.

But the truth is that no deleted file is truly deleted. You should think of this “disappearance” as if your files are just being hidden. While the document is no longer in plain sight, only a mouse-click away, it is still there.

The problem is that while still on your device’s memory, the document you lost is just waiting to be overwritten with another piece of information. The more things you do on your computer before initiating the recovery, the higher the chances to lose it for good on Surface Pro 4.

That’s why it is important to stay calm and act fast. The recovery process can take anything from a few minutes to a several hours, depending on various factors, such as:

• When you deleted the file
• How you deleted the file
• How do you normally handle your Recycle Bin folder
• What else you did on your computer in the meantime etc.

Stop doing anything unnecessary for the file recovery

Judging by all of the above, when trying to recover deleted files, it is very important that you do not make anything that will determine your device to write information on the hard. That’s because that new information could overwrite your deleted files. When that happens, your chances to get it back are going down for sure.

Wondering what kind of actions would lead to overwriting new information on the physical space still occupied by your deleted files? It’s usually installing software, streaming music and videos, downloading various files and so on your Microsoft Surface Pro 4.

Since there is no particularly detailed list of such actions, the only things you should be doing when you realized you have lost something are the steps from below.

Recover Delete Files From Recycle Bin

This is one of the reasons why we previously listed “How you deleted the file” and “How do you normally handle your Recycle Bin folder”. If you just select a file and click on Delete, the data should go to Recycle Bin. That’s the purpose of this folder. If you access it and find a document you deleted, you always have the option to recover deleted files from recycle bin on Surface Pro 4.

Nevertheless, Recycle Bin is no help at all when:

• You have deleted your file by using the keyboard combination “SHIFT + DELETE”, which will automatically bypass the Recycle Bin folder;
• The files you deleted are too big to be stored in the Recycle Bin;
• The files you deleted weren’t stored on your hard, but rather on an USB device, a media card, an external hard or even a network share.

If none of the above applies to you AND if you haven’t emptied your Recycle Bin folder since you accidentally deleted the file, chances are you will get it back in one minute on your Microsoft Surface Pro 4.

Download Recuva: Software to recover deleted files

Recuva is software to recover deleted files. This data recovery program available for free. You can easily use it to scan for and recover your files. This method is especially effective when you’ve cleared the Recycle Bin.

However, the advice from above on not overwriting information is more important than ever! So whether you decide to choose Recuva or any other free software, you should go for the portable version of it:

1. Download the software either on another drive than the one where your files were stored or on a flash drive;
2. Extract the software, because, most likely, it will come in a ZIP archive (which, by the way, Windows natively supports, so you shouldn’t worry you won’t be able to open the archive);
3. Also, unzipping the software should be performed in the same location with the archive, for the same reasons (if you have absolutely no other option than to download on the same drive with the missing files or to download anything but the installable version, proceed with the steps and set the software in place);
4. Run the software and initiate a scan by using the “Scan” button;
5. When the scan is over, you should receive a list of what the software found as recoverable files;
6. Check if your desired files are on that list, select and click on “Restore”.

We haven’t detailed the exact steps of running the scan because they might be slightly different depending on what software you choose to work with. But the principles are the same everywhere. So you should really have no problem with realizing what you need to do.

These are the simplest steps you can try. The problem is that even when you follow the exact steps from above, you might not be able to undelete everything you lost. Not even with Recuva or with other software considered more or less effective. That’s because not all deleted files are recoverable, at least not 100%.

So if you haven’t solved your problem yet, don’t feel guilty. Just try to think smart and also, consider the following issues on recovering deleted files.

• Don’t play smart and skip the Recycle Bin step. If you didn’t check it yet just because you’re sure your file can’t be there, do yourself a favor and access the folder. You can never know, until you check!
• Do a bit of extra search and surf the web or ask your friends. Is there any other way you could try to recover files deleted from flash drives, music players, network drives, smartphones etc? These processes might require extra steps. Again, you can never know what you’ll learn from someone else’s practical experience.
• Do not blame yourself that you didn’t have any data recovery software already installed on your computer and you had to do it now. Just make sure you keep one in place for the next time you’re in this situation.

Is your deleted file on a hard drive that isn’t functioning properly or that failed to work at all in the meantime? Resorting to a specialized data recovery service could be an option. That, of course, will cost you. So ask yourself – how important is the lost data to you? Such services are working with professional software that you might not know of or not have access to. If it matters to you enough to pay for it, you should probably do it. After all, you already did your best on your own, without success on your Surface Pro 4.