Most of the people, if not all, have mistakenly deleted files. Actually, in most cases, you can make up the loss. Here are basically 5 methods to help you restore deleted files in Windows 10/8/7 for free. You may know one or 2, but you are definitely going to learn something new.
Method 1: Restore Files from Recycle Bin
When pressing the Delete Key or drag something to the Recycle Bin, the deleted files may be just moved to Recycle Bin, so you can easily recover them. To restore deleted files from Recycle Bin, follow the steps below:
Step 1. Open Recycle Bin. If you don’t have a Recycle Bin icon on Desktop, you can also search it from the Start menu.
Step 2. To quickly locate the deleted files that you want to restore, enter the keyword of file names to filter files. You can sort the deleted files by Date Deleted, Item Type, Name etc.
Step 3. You can press and hold Ctrl key and click to select multiple files from Recycle Bin. If you are sure that you have found all the files that you want to restore, then right click on the selected files and select Restore. Then the deleted files will be restored to their original location.
If you have some files that you want to install not in the Recycle Bin, then I suggest you use the Cut option to paste the files to an external hard drive because when writing files to your hard drive there are chances that the sectors where your deleted files located will be overwritten.
If the deleted files can’t be found in Recycle Bin, which means the files are deleted permanently but don’t worry. You can recover the permanently deleted files on Windows using other methods, so keep reading.
Method 2: Restore Files to the Previous Version
In Windows 7/8, the System Protection feature is enabled by default. If I remember correctly, it is also enabled on some of the Windows 10 builds. If you haven’t disabled it, it will create restore points when needed. Windows will create a volume backup that contains shadow copies when it takes a restore point.
Therefore, you probably have many shadow copies created on your PC that can be used to restore files, which you may not aware of. The simplest way to use this feature to restore files is through Previous Version feature.
Step 1. Find the parent folder that contains the files you want to restore.
Step 2. Right click on the parent folder and select Properties.
Step 3. Under the Previous Version tab, you should be able to see the available previous versions that you can choose to restore.
It is also not recommended to restore files to the original location, because if it fails you may have less chance to restore lost files using the next method. If you have enabled File History, the file protected with File History will also be available in the Previous Versions. A good backup habit is always helpful in situations like this.
Method 3: Undelete Files with Shadow Explorer
If you cannot remember or cannot find the parent folder, then you can download a free tool, Shadow Explorer to make the steps easier. You can refer to the steps below to see how it works.
Step 1. After installation of Shadow Explorer, select the volume and date to restore the files. In my case, it is D: drive.
Step 2. As you can see from the screenshot, all the files at the selected time are listed. You can right click on the file you want to restore and select Export.
Step 3. As mentioned, select another location to receive the file and then click OK. Then the file will be restored.
Method 4: Restore Deleted Files from Backup
If you have made a backup in Windows using Windows built-in Backup and Restore in the past, you can recover any of the deleted files easily. Follow the steps below to restore it.
Step 1. Click Start menu. Navigate to Windows System > Control Panel > System and Security\Backup and Restore. 
Step 2. Click Backup and Restore. You will see the Restore my files option in Restore section if you have any backup available
Step 3. Click Restore my files and follow the wizard to restore your files.
Method 5: Recover Files with Data Recovery Software
If the previous 4 methods all fail to work, there is still hope to recover permanently deleted files in Windows by using data recovery software like Recuva. As mentioned, writing data to your current hard drive will lessen your chances of restoring all your deleted files, so you should download the portable version of Recuva and run it from a removable drive like a USB drive.
When you open the portable version of Recuva, you can specify the file type and location to scan. The more specific you are, the more likely you can restore deleted files. If you let Recuva scan the whole hard drive, it will take much longer time and less likely to detects the files that you want to recover.
When the scan is complete, it will display all the items that can be recovered. From there, you can check the items that you want to recover. I am going to remind you again. Select another location to restore the files in case it overwrite the deleted files.
Conclusion
You can never be more careful about data recovery, so follow the steps carefully. I hope you can use one of these 5 methods to restore your deleted files. If none of them works, you can only hand your hard drive to data recovery services. It is going to be costly but it will be your last chance of saving your data at that point.