Minutes ago I deleted one older SAVE game which is a DAT file. I may have deleted a newer same file from the same folder location but I think the older deleted file may still be there. For example with Data Rescue PC that I have for recovering files, I see this:

http://i.imgur.com/6PBUVvR.png

these DAT and bak files I think the file I need is there, they are all deleted from the same location.

My question is, can I see those deleted files in other than this program? If I enable hidden and system files to be seen, I can't locate these files, I just wanted to find these files in other tool without having to scan a whole HDD just for this folder and these files which may take hours, I know the file is one of them and I can'r restrict it to recover just from this recycle bin.

Ok I can actually go to e.g

E:\$RECYCLE.BIN\S-1-5-21-881211688-2890446613-55247675-1001

but it's empty. any way to see the files in there?

Use any free file recovery program like Recuva or PC Inspector - http://www.pcinspector.de/Default.htm?language=1
https://www.piriform.com/recuva

+1 for Recuva

Just rescued 6 months worth of photos from my corrupt phone memory card.

Fun...

I remember when my GF formatted the camera card... i immediately raw copied the entire card to my computer (64Mb or 256Mb). Then like 2 years later i came across a video describing free software to recover all my files... All the files are 544.. Just a guess but that's probably the file permissions, r-xr--r--

If you can restore the dat files, restore them all and figure it out later, if that would corrupt it then see if you can copy them to an external like a thumbdrive. Once they have no risk of being damaged you can manually open them up in say notepad++, there might be hints as to what the file is. Perhaps the size is a hint too. Date will likely be worthless..

Beyond recovering them all and then trying them out one by one, i don't know how else to offer suggestions...

Ok I have to ask:

I have SSD with windows 8.1, I have a 2nd that is HDD where I delete the DAT files (81KB) from. When you delete the file from your e.g E: partition that's from the HDD, it is send to Windows Recycle bin, when I delete it there? I don't know if you delete a file from HDD whether it goes to the SSD's recycle bin where the OS is, and from there should you look for it on the SSD or the HDD?

You need to look for it in its original location.

So if you deleted it from the E drive then you need to set Recuva (or whatever you use) to scan the E drive for deleted files to recover.

Thanks, I use Data rescue PC3, it is better to select the partition where I deleted them.. but then do I look in

$RECYCLE.BIN folder or where? Would files be renamed? I saw some .DAT files but only one is from today and they are 500 bytes, or do I look in the 'Found' folders.

Btw I came across files I don't wanna see in the recovery program with their filenames, do you also know a program that can delete files found in hidden folders like 'Found'?

Recover them to a usb pendrive and next rename the file you think is the right one and copy it to the original folder.

These files aren't hidden and aren't taking up space. They are in the free space on your hard drive and could get copied over by other files at any time. That said when a file is deleted, it's space is just deallocated and it's file link is removed, but the files remain in that space until something else comes along and is copied over them.

That's a confusing question... But i know what you're meaning.

For efficiency the data boundary stays even across hard drives no matter where you delete from. In the recycle bin you can specify how much space the device sets aside for deleted items; The recycle bin itself is just a container.

In cases where that is not recognized (ie thumb drives or cards using Fat16/Fat32) then it is probably permanently deleted as it will usually tell you before letting you delete it. Also when you are preparing to delete a file if you hold down shift then it bypasses moving it to the recycle bin too...

So no, the file is not moved to the recycle bin on your main drive. (Unless Win8 changed this? I doubt it...)