How to Find Deleted Files after Disk Cleanup?

Written by Lucy John on February 28, 2024

“Recently, I ran a Disk Cleanup program to delete some unwanted and old files on my computer's hard drive. Unfortunately, the wrong files got deleted as well. And now, I want to restore them. Is there a way to restore those erased files after disk cleanup? Any help would be appreciated” - User

Understanding Disk Cleanup Utility

What is Disk Cleanup Utility?

Disk Cleanup is the inbuilt utility that comes with Windows; it was first launched with Microsoft Windows 98 OS. The tool is mainly intended to clean or delete a specified set of unwanted files on a PC to free up storage and boost performance. Disk Cleanup programs can clear temporary internet files, old compressed files, Recycle Bin files, unused applications, downloaded programs, Windows temporary files, and more.

Is it possible to Find Deleted Files After Disk Cleanup?

After you delete a file from a hard drive, the operating system doesn't immediately erase your data. Instead, it removes the file entries from the index table and designates that space as available for new data allowing it to be overwritten. So, until that space is overwritten with new data, your old files can still be restored. To recover files deleted by the Disk Cleanup tool on a Windows system, it is recommended to use an advanced file recovery application like Yodot File Recovery promptly.

How do I Recover files from Disk Cleanup?

Note: Before we move on to the solutions, you may want to avoid using your PC unless it is to recover your data. The more you use your PC system, the greater the chances are that your data gets over-written making it harder to recover.

Recover Files After Disk Cleanup using Professional Software

Yodot File Recovery is a well-known data recovery software, that can recover all your files after a disk cleanup on a Windows. It has a user-friendly interface and can be used by everyone to retrieve their crucial files. Yodot File Recovery is compatible with systems running Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, MacOS, and more!

Note: Yodot has introduced a Pro version of this utility with special features such as the capability of recovering dynamic disk partition, bad SSD drive recovery, RAID partition recovery, failed hard disk data recovery, and many more.

Steps To Recover Deleted Files By Disk Cleanup Program:

  1. Download and install Yodot File Recovery software to your system.
  2. Run the software to start the file recovery process and follow the recovery procedure.
  3. The software displays two options on the main screen. i.e., ”Delete File Recovery” and “Lost File Recovery
  4. Select the “Delete File Recovery” option to recover deleted files by the Disk Cleanup tool.
  5. It will scan the system and show all partitions present in the hard drive.
  6. Select the logical drive from where files are erased by the Disk Cleanup utility.
  7. The software scans the selected logical drive and displays all deleted files in Data View and File Type View.
  8. At last, save the retrieved files to your desired destination location on the system.

To Conclude:

I hope that you were able to recover the solutions to recover your deleted files after the Disk Cleanup. To avoid such scenarios from occurring, I would personally recommend that you maintain a backup of all your data before cleaning your PC.

Other Popular Software

Yodot Hard Drive Recovery (Windows)

Accidentally deleted a partition in an attempt to make a dual boot system? Relax you can recover your important with ease using Yodot Hard Drive Recovery software for Windows. The software can find and recover data from deleted partitions.

Yodot Mac File Recovery

The only undelete application for Mac that can recover deleted files from HFS+, HFSX partitions on Mac. The software also has the ability to recover lost files using RAW signature method.