How to Recover Deleted Files from Network Shares

You may have discovered--and too late--that while you can recover some deleted files from the Windows Recycle Bin on local machines, you cannot recover deleted files (accidentally or otherwise) from network drive shared folders. If you delete a file from a network share, it is gone. If you look in the Recycle Bin, it won’t be there.

This happens because Windows is organized so that deleted files can be captured by the Windows Recycle bin on local drives only. If a user deletes a file on a server from a network shared folder, it isn’t being deleted from the local machine, so the Recycle Bin does not capture it. This is also true of files deleted from attached or removable drives, and files deleted from applications or the Command Prompt. Only files deleted from File Explorer on a machine’s local drive will be saved by the Recycle Bin.

With some types of software, you might be able to recover an earlier saved version of a file deleted from a network shared folder, which would give you the version prior to the deletion. Failing this, the only other way to recover a file deleted from a network share (without a third-party solution—see below) is to have your system administrator retrieve an earlier saved version of the file from the most recent backup. This will only work if:

b) You can recall the file name so that the system administrator can find it

c) You can recall with some accuracy the time and date when the file was saved.

This method is, of course, extremely time consuming for the sys admin—and for you, too, if you have to wait. Even if the previous version can be retrieved, any work done on the file since the last save is lost forever.

Fortunately, there is a very easy and cost-effective solution to this perpetual issue: Undelete® Instant Data Recovery software from Condusiv.