PC FAQs & Answers

Everyone has accidently deleted a file they would later need. With Win3.X you would have to go to DOS and use the undelete utility UNDELETE.EXE to recover it. UNDELETE was available from version 5.0 to 6.22. With WIN95 you would simply go to Recycle Bin to recover it.

There are two different ways to delete a file. One is DOS and the other is WIN95. When you delete a file in DOS it really doesn't delete it. Instead, it replaces the first character of the file with a question mark.

DOS is designed to hide filenames beginning with a question mark. The reason DOS reports more free disk space after you delete a file is because the operating system no longer protects the file from being overwritten.

This is why, if you've used UNDELETE or some other utility to recover a deleted file, you are required to type in the first character of the file. With DOS the space the deleted file occupied is immediately available. So, as long as the area the file occupied is not over-written a total recovery is possible.

With WIN95 it is completely different. First, Windows95 moves the deleted file to a special directory named RECYCLED, then it records vital information about the file (such as its original name and location) in a hidden file called INFO within the RECYCLED directory.

The end result is the now deleted file occupies more space. However, there is a way to overcome this problem. Locate the Recycle Bin Icon and right click on it. Next choose Properties and adjust the slide from the default 10% to 5%. Ten percent may not sound like much but it would be 200 meg. wasted space on a 2 gig drive.

By default, the Recycle Bin lists files alphabetically. However, when looking for an accidentally deleted file, it's more convenient to look at the files you've most recently deleted. To do so, double-click the Date Deleted column header. When you do, your latest deletions will appear at the top of the list.