Cause of loss · erased & missing files
Delete a file on a spinning disk and you tear up the map, not the treasure — the contents stay put until fresh data lands on top. A current SSD begins wiping cells within seconds. Everything hinges on which one your machine holds, so both cases are below.
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| On screen | What that tells you | First step |
|---|---|---|
| File gone, and nothing in the Recycle Bin | Shift+Delete, removable media, or an oversized file — each one skips the bin completely | Stop writing to that drive |
| This file is too big to recycle | Windows wiped it outright rather than binning it | The underlying contents normally remain |
| Erased from a memory stick or SD card | Removable media keeps no bin; the entry goes instantly | Unplug it and leave it |
| Files disappeared once the cloud synced | OneDrive or the like pushed a deletion down to your machine | Look in the service's own bin first |
| A folder now empty that once held work | An erase, a sync clash, or a changed profile | Shut it down before digging further |
| Erased from a solid-state drive | TRIM hands the drive a list of blocks to wipe quietly, and it often obliges in seconds | Cut the power immediately |
As soon as it lands with us, your device gets its own case number. An engineer works out the fault, says what can genuinely be pulled off, then puts one fixed price in writing — no charge for diagnosis, no obligation, and no chargeable work until you approve it.
Ordinary use never stops writing: cache files, patches, thumbnail previews, all landing on the very sectors your lost work occupies. So the disk is taken offline and imaged first.
If enough of the file table is intact, everything comes back named, dated and in the right folder. If not, each format is pulled from the image by the byte signature that identifies it.
We open what comes back rather than simply counting it, and cross-check the result against the files you named as priorities.
You sign off a complete list of the recovered files first; only then does the recovery fee fall due. Everything returns on fresh media, postage paid, and the job stays open until you confirm the files open at your end.
The split, briefly: a hard disk keeps deleted data intact until fresh writes cover it, which can take years. An SSD with TRIM active usually clears the cells inside seconds or minutes. One keypress, two completely different endings — so what we need to know first is the kind of drive, not the name of the file.
One decisive keypress on an office desktop wiped twelve months of accounts. We imaged the drive that same afternoon, rebuilt the file table, and the folder returned with all its filenames and dates untouched.
With a hard drive, usually — provided nothing further is written to it. With a TRIM-enabled SSD, often not, because garbage collection may have run within seconds. Honestly, it comes down to which type sits in the machine.
It bypasses the Recycle Bin, yet on a hard drive the contents remain just as they would after an ordinary delete. Keeping them was never the bin's doing.
No. Delete something on removable media and Windows treats it as gone at once, for good. The contents frequently remain on the flash itself, however, and that is where recovery happens.
Because an SSD clears out deleted blocks itself to stay quick. That process is TRIM, it ticks away in the background, and it makes this the one kind of deletion where a few hours really count.
Powering a damaged device up again costs you data. Start a case first; diagnosis is free whatever you decide.