This is a common question, unfortunately.  If you’re reading this then most likely you’ve accidentally deleted some files from a flash drive.  If you haven’t already checked the recycle bin, chances are your files aren’t there either.  See, when you delete a file from a flash drive in Windows, it erases the file immediately without sending it to the recycle bin.  It would be just like using the shortcut Shift+Delete which skips the recycle bin option and permanently deletes a file from your computer.

Answer:
If you’re wondering if you can recover deleted files from a flash drive, memory card, or hard drive, then your answer is – maybe.

First you need to understand that when you tell your computer to “erase” that file, it never really erases anything.  It simply tells your operating system to ignore anything that’s written to that area of your hard disk and that it may write over it at any time it chooses.  So, keep in mind that even though your file still might be there, doing anything on your computer like moving other files around, installing new software, even simply rebooting can write information over the “ignored” files.  If that happens, you’re going to need a heck of a lot more help than this post can give you.  However, we can at least check and see if your files are still there.  To do so, we’ll need a file recovery program.  One possibility is http://www.munsoft.com/EasyFileUndelete/.  Once you download that software, it will skip right past the command telling it to ignore certain parts of the hard drive and really tell you whats there.  It’s kind of like a recycle bin on steroids.  This one even has special programming to recover photos made by Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Kodak, and many other photo cameras.  So, if you’ve accidentally deleted pictures from your flash memory card, this can be a possible solution for you also.  This also works for those that accidentally deleted files from your hard drive.

I wish you good luck!  Perhaps now would be a good time to review automated backup solutions.