Files In Recycle Bin Disappeared XP

Using XP I have long stored files in the recycle bin and never deleted these certain ones and all the sudden today for some reason my recycle bin is just empty. How can I get these files back? I never deleted them! I tried a reboot but it was still "empty" when it should not be empty. Please help!

 

take a look at this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYbNukMgGS0

hope this helps

 

The recycle bin is not a storage for files that you wish to keep.rolleyes

If you want to keep some files on the desktop and not in their folder in My Documents etc, then make a new folder on the desktop and drag them there.

 

They were files temporarily stored there, I should have said. I was going to manually delete them when I was ready. I was not expecting them to magically disappear out of the recycle bin because that has never happened to me in a lot of years.

 

The missing point from my original post is that WHY would they just disappear? I NEVER deleted them. They were sitting pretty in the recycle bin FOR A LONG TIME and then magically they just disappear?

 

I tried this program but it really did not find the files from the recycle bin, it looked like a few from the recycle bin but not all. I never deleted the files though which is what is so troubling to me. I never had this problem before ever.

 

Try Recuva it is pretty good. You want to copy your files to a different drive then they are currently on so a USB flash drive would be best.

So, ideally download Recuva on a different computer put the zip file on a USB flash, unzip it. Connect the flash to your computer run the program form inside the folder on the flash drive and then copy the files you find to the USB flash drive.
Once you have a copy, you can put them back on the hard drive of your computer.

Screenshots: http://www.piriform.com/recuva/screenshots

 

Am I wrong in thinking these files can be "quick fix" "recovered"? Or if they are really there? Or if they ACTUALLY got deleted even though I never deleted them manually out of there? (How does it just clear itself?) I mean I am still so puzzled about this occurrence. Nothing like this has happened to me in so many years of using the computer and different hard drives and installs of XP.

 

I can't think of a quick fix off the top of my head.

When a file is moved to the recycle bin it is given a new name and moved but remains on disc. When the recycle bin is emptied the reference to the new name is erased which frees that space to be used by new files. The deleted file remains on disc but is in peril of being overwritten at any time because XP has marked that space as empty.

I can't say why the bin is empty. Perhaps you used a cleanup program that included emptying the recycle bin?

 

I did absolutely nothing at all, that is why this is so vexing.

 

I don't know what to say other than you should probably try to recover your files before using that computer as running a computer constantly writes to disk.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320031

You may have had the SHIFT key pressed when you tried to "Save" them to the Recycle Bin.