Forum Discussion
Could someone suggest a good data recovery software for Windows 10?
Perhaps you can restore the deleted data without installing any data recovery software Widnows 10 at all. When you empty the Recycle Bin, Windows doesn't immediately erase the data. It creates hidden metadata files ($I files) that contain the original path and deletion time.
Steps:
1. Enable Show hidden files in Folder Options.
2. Navigate to:
C:\$Recycle.Bin\[Your-SID]
3. Look for files starting with $I (e.g., $I123456.pdf). These are the metadata files.
4. Use this PowerShell script to parse them:
powershell
Get-ChildItem "$env:SystemDrive\\$Recycle.Bin" -Recurse -Force -Include '$I*' | ForEach-Object {
$iPath = $_.FullName
$rPath = $iPath.Replace('\$I', '\$R')
if (Test-Path $rPath) {
[PSCustomObject]@{
OriginalName = [System.Text.Encoding]::Unicode.GetString([System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes($iPath))[28..511] -join '' -replace '\x00',''
DeletedDate = $_.LastWriteTime
RecoveryPath = $rPath
}
}
} | Format-Table