How to Restore Deleted Files from Windows XP?

You have saved all your files, presentations and reports of your college project on laptop running on Windows XP OS. You thought of deleting few files that you felt were not so important and deleted them by using “Shift + Delete” keys. Few minutes later, you realized that you have deleted some crucial files of your project work along with the other files. You could not look for the files in Recycle Bin as you shift deleted it, because files deleted using Shift Delete keys will bypass Windows XP Recycle Bin.

At that moment your mind may stop working as there was no backup of the file and upon that you don’t have time to prepare the assignment again. In such case, you may lose hope thinking that your hard work got wasted. However, Chill!!! Your hard work will not be wasted and you can still manage to get back files that you deleted from Windows XP on your own by using file recovery software.

What are the ways of deleting files from Windows XP system?

Generally users delete or erase files either by pressing “Delete” key or by choosing delete option from menu by right clicking particular file. However, files deleted in this way don’t get permanently deleted from hard drive; rather they will be moved to Windows XP Recycle Bin. If you wish, you can go to Recycle Bin and select “Restore” option to bring those deleted files back to its original location. But after deleting files some users might immediately empty Recycle Bin without checking its contents, which will result in deletion of files.

Some users have a habit of using Cut and Paste commands from menu or Ctrl+X and Ctrl+V keyboard shortcut to move files from SD card, pen drive etc to Windowss XP or vice versa. However, using Cut and Paste commands in incorrect way or interruptions that might appear in form of power failures or system shut down before pasting the files would delete the files from Windows XP hard disk. In addition, deleting files from Windows command prompt, files bypassing Windows Recycle Bin when they exceed in size and third party tools like antivirus program are other possible reasons accountable for deletion of files from Windows XP system.

Is it possible to get back files from Windows XP?

Windows XP has a unique file allocation system, where the files that you save in your computer are in a file cluster by Win XP operating system. When a file deleted, Windows XP does not remove it from the file cluster. In fact, deleted file content actually remains as it is on hard drive; only its index information is removed from file allocation table. That is why deleted files are invisible from system interface and with the help of appropriate file recovery software like Yodot File Recovery software you can rescue deleted files from Windows XP hard drive.

Characteristics of the Software

Yodot File Recovery software is expert in recovering deleted files from Windows XP system no matter how they are deleted. It deeply scans and retrieves your data from Windows XP hard drive without corrupting files during the recovery process. You can undelete deleted files from all desktop as well as laptop hard drives on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 operating systems. The program is capable of retrieving images, Office files, documents etc from any storage device. Using media veriosn of the software you can apply the same steps for restoring deleted videos from SD card, pen drive, iPod, external drive or any other storage medias.

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Procedure to perform deleted file recovery on Windows XP

  • Download and install the software in a drive other than the one from where you want to recover deleted files
  • Launch the software and start the recovery procedure
  • You can see now two options which are “Deleted File Recovery” and “Lost File Recovery”
  • Select “Deleted File Recovery” option and click next. The software will start scanning the hard drive to recover lost files
  • The software will display the list of found files in two different view types
  • Make use of "Raw Search" option to recover specific file by giving its file type
  • Choose files which you want to restore from the list of recoverable files and select the destination location to store the recovered files

Points to Keep in Mind

  • Avoid using Windows XP hard drive for saving new files after deleting files from it
  • Make use of UPS to avoid unnecessary fluctuation of power and sudden system turn off
  • It is better to safeguard your data by creating its backup on multiple storage devices

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