Where Do Restored Files Go from Recycle Bin? Reveal the Truth Now

About Windows Recycle Bin

The Windows Recycle Bin is extremely important for almost every Windows user, especially you delete a file using the "Delete" key or right-click and click "Delete". It usually isn’t permanently removed—it’s moved to the Recycle Bin instead. The Recycle Bin acts as a safety net for these deleted files.

When a user deletes a file (non-permanently), Windows does not immediately erase the file data. It merely removes the original path of the file and moves the file to the disk's $Recycle.Bin folder. The original information of the file (such as name, path, deletion time, etc.) is all stored in the $Recycle.Bin folder.

The Recycle Bin only temporarily stores these deleted files until they are restored, the Recycle Bin is emptied, or the stored files exceed the available space of the Recycle Bin (in which case older files will be permanently deleted). This protective mechanism makes recovering files quick and convenient. So, what happens when you hit "Restore" on a file inside the Recycle Bin?

Where do Restored Files Go from Recycle Bin Windows 11

Once you click "Restore" on a file in the Recycle Bin, Windows sends the file back to its original location before deletion. For example, if you deleted a file from your desktop and restore it from Recycle Bin, it will be restored to the desktop.

If you’re unsure of the original location, just open Recycle Bin. Under the "Original Location" column, you can see the original path of each deleted file. If the original path of the file has been deleted, the Recycle Bin will automatically rebuild the original folder structure and then restore the file to this path.

How to Find the Deleted Files not in Recycle Bin

When you delete files on your computer and the deleted files not in Recycle Bin, where do these deleted files go? And how can you find them? Generally, there are a few scenarios where a deleted file might not appear in the Recycle Bin:

• "Shift + Delete" was Used: This bypasses the Recycle Bin entirely and permanently deletes the file.
• The File was Too Large: Files larger than the Bin’s capacity may be deleted permanently.
• Recycle Bin was Emptied: Either manually or automatically due to space limits.
• The File was on an External Drive or Network Location: These often skip the Recycle Bin by default.

When you can’t find your file in the Recycle Bin, don’t panic just yet. The reassuring fact is there are still ways to recover it. Next, we'll offer you two professional data recovery tools to recover the deleted files ont in Recycle Bin—a command-line tool and a GUI, so both advanced users and novice users can find a tool that satisfies them.

✅Windows File Recovery (Command-line Tool)

Windows File Recovery is a command-line utility provided by Microsoft for recovering permanently deleted files on Windows 10 and Windows 11. It is ideal for recovering deleted files from local storage devices, including internal hard drives and external hard drives.

Step 1. Download and install Windows File Recovery on your computer from the official Microsoft channel.

Step 2. Open Windows File Recovery and run it as administrator.

Step 3. Type the following command "Winfr F: E: /regular" and press "Enter". Replace the drive letters "F" (the source drive letter" and "E" (the destination drive letter) with your actual drive letters.

If you want to recover a specific file, file type, or folder, you just need to add a filtering command after the basic command. For example, if you want to recover all photos in the hard drive, enter the following command "Winfr H: D: /extensive /n *.png".

When the recovery process is finished, press "y" to access and check the recovered files in the destination folder.

✅Retrieve Deleted Files with MyRecover (GUI Software)

Windows File Recovery is indeed a effective data recovery tool, but it also has some limitations. For example, it can only be used on Windows 10 and 11, and it is not very friendly for non-professional users. That’s where MyRecover comes into play.

The original design intention of MyRecover is to enable every user to recover data independently even novice users. Therefore, it adopts a user-friendly graphical user interface, allowing even non-professional users to recover data simply by clicking icons. MyRecover can not only recover permanently deleted data, but also support data recovery from USB flash drives, hard drives of various brands, camera memory cards, and  internal hard drive of game consoles.

Step 1. Download and install MyRecover on your computer from a secure channel, avoid installing it on the drive with lost files.

Step 2. Select the drive where the deleted files were stored to scan for lost files and click "Scan".

Step 3. Choose the files you wish to recover from the recoverable lists and click "Recover".

Step 4. Select a safe location (not the original one) to save the recovered files.

Once the recovery process is completed, the message "Files have been recovered successfully" will pop out. You can check them by clicking the destination folder.

FAQs:

1. Where do restored files go from the Recycle Bin on OneDrive?

Similar to the Windows Recycle Bin, when you restore files from the Recycle Bin in OneDrive, they go back to their original location in your OneDrive folder structure.

2. How to recover permanently deleted files from recycle bin?

Permanently deleted files will bypass the Recycle Bin and disappear from the computer directly, so they cannot be retrieved from the Recycle Bin. However, professional data recovery software like Windows Files Recovery and MyRecover can recover permanently deleted files.

3. Where do permanently deleted files go?

Permanently deleted files don’t go to a specific location in the traditional sense. Instead, their entry in the file system table is removed, and the storage space they occupied is marked as "available for reuse".

Conclusion

Understanding the Recycle Bin’s role in Windows can save you from unnecessary data loss. Files recovered from the Recycle Bin will return to their original locations. As for those files that do not appear in the Recycle Bin, they may have been permanently deleted.

Professional data recovery software like MyRecover can recover them. MyRecover is applicable to a wide range of data loss scenarios and can protect your data security at all times. Its Professional edition also allows users to recover data from unbootable computers and provides a file preview function.