What Actually Happened

Deleting is a bookkeeping change, not a shredder. The file's bytes stay where they were. What changes is a single line in the index that says this space is now free to use.

Shift+Delete skips the Recycle Bin and emptying the Recycle Bin does the same thing a few days later. In both cases the file itself is untouched at first. The longer the drive stays in use, the more of that free space gets reused.

What To Do In DRE Pro

1. Open DRE Pro and pick the drive the file was on under Drives And Locations. For a file that was on the desktop or in a folder, you can also pick Desktop or Select Folder.
2. Choose Quick Scan. Results start to appear while it runs.
3. Search by name, or filter by type, size and date. The results browse like File Explorer.
4. Open the file to check it. A photo shows, a document opens. Each file is marked Good, Risky or Overwritten.
5. Save it to a different drive. DRE Pro will not save back onto the drive you are recovering from.

Not There? Go Deeper

If the index entry was already reused, the name is gone but the contents may not be. A Deep Scan ignores the index and looks for files by their insides. Photos, videos, documents, mail and archives come back this way, sometimes without their original names. Sort them by type and date and the one you want is usually easy to spot.