Does deleting files delete the files?

When you delete a file, all it does is change the first letter in the file name to a ?.

When the system sees a file like that, that means the system can reuse that disk space for other files, thus permanently destroying the previous contents of that space on the disk.

Its highly unlikely a file from 2 years ago would still be recoverable.

Sorry.. NO.

after that long.. they would be over written to many times. 'Damaged'

They are not removed from your disk... only the locater file is changed... you can use recovery programs if you haven't use your computer much since deleting them. But that long.. nope.

System Restore does not affect personal files, such as e-mail, documents, or photos, so it cannot help you restore a deleted file. If you have backups of your files, you can restore the files from a backup.

Recuva (pronounced "recover") is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses! Recuva is free for both commercial and personal use.

Simple to use interface - just click 'Scan' and choose the files you want to recover

Easy to use filter for results based on file name/type

Simple Windows like interface with List and Tree view

Can be run from a USB thumb drive

Restores all types of files, office documents, images, video, music, email, anything.

Supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5 , NTFS + EFS file systems

Restores files from removable media (SmartMedia, Secure Digital, MemoryStick, Digital cameras, Floppy disks, Jaz Disks, Sony Memory Sticks, Compact Flash cards, Smart Media Cards, Secure Digital Cards, etc.)

Restores files from external ZIP drives , Firewire and USB Hard drives

It's fast, tiny and takes seconds to run! http://www.recuva.com/

Agree wid 2008(2nd answer) but as far as i am concerned Data recovery softwares aren't that good unless it is a professional one. Coz I have used 3 data recovery softwares till date and none of them has recovered any of my files which were quite important.