The Recycle Bin has saved many an accidently deleted file for being lost forever. You know the score; you delete something, find out you actually need it, then go to the Recycle Bin and recover it. Easy as pie.
Well, maybe. Unfortunately, most people rely on the Recycle Bin too much. Here are just three reasons you shouldn’t place your trust in it.
- Some Drives Don’t Use the Recycle Bin
Not all files even use the Recycle Bin. These include removable flash drives, disks, and any drives that you connect to across a network. When you hit delete on a file or folder held in such a location, it is permanently deleted instead of held in the Recycle Bin. It can be an easy mistake to make, especially in larger offices that rely heavily on collaboration. If files are not stored in the Recycle Bin, you’ll generally need a third-party program for any hope of recovery.
- Files Can Be Too Large
Something most people don’t understand about the Recycle Bin is that it only takes files and folders of a certain size. In most cases, the default Recycle Bin will be set to take files up to 10% of the size of your overall quota. If you try to delete a large folder or file, you could end up deleting it permanently. It’s rare for files and folders to reach such a size – thing is, they’re usually the most important ones.
- Using the Windows Command Prompt Bypasses the Recycle Bin
Some people delete files and folders using the Windows Command Prompt. When you do this, files are deleted right away instead of being sent to the Recycle Bin. All you need to do is hold down the Shift key when you delete a file – this tells Windows File Explorer to bypass the Recycle Bin. Okay, you might not do this yourself, but one of your employees might, and it is your data they are going to be handling.
