Member Avatar for lewashby

A while ago I had a file on my windows desktop with a lot of my email accounts that I use for very specific purposes like online forums or shopping, and each one's password. I don't know what on earth has happened but I can't find that file anywhere. I did a whole "*.txt" search on the C: but I still didn't find it and I don't remember ever deleting it. What's a good program I could use to recover files and specifcally .txt files? Thanks.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by vasdrakken

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If that desktop text file contained passwords, treat it as potentially exposed and act immediately: change the highest-value credentials first (email, password manager, banking), enable two-factor authentication where available, and sign out other sessions. Stop using the PC right away — every write can overwrite recoverable data.

A short, safe checklist to try before running any recovery tool:

  1. Check the Recycle Bin and any cloud-sync provider web interfaces (trash/version history) for the Desktop folder.
  2. Look under other user profiles and the Public desktop path (for example, C:\Users\<other account>\Desktop and C:\Users\Public\Desktop). If you ever reinstalled Windows, inspect C:\Windows.old\Users\<oldaccount>\Desktop.
  3. Turn on “show hidden files” and search for common text encodings (.txt, .log, .csv) and common alternate names—the file may have been renamed or saved with a different extension.

If deletion seems likely: follow the low-risk recovery workflow. As and suggested, avoid writing to the affected volume. Create a sector-level image of the disk (save that image to a separate drive) and run any recovery/file‑carving on the image instead of the original. Mount or open the image read-only and recover matches to a different physical drive. Check Volume Shadow Copies / “Previous Versions” and any File History backups before attempting carving, since those can yield intact copies.

Finally, as noted, sync conflicts or using a different Windows user can hide or overwrite files. Even if you recover the file, assume those passwords are compromised and rotate them. Move password material into an encrypted password manager and enable automated backups (File History or cloud versioning) so a single missing .txt won’t cause this again. If the file is critical and these steps feel risky, consider a professional recovery service.

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Member Avatar for rproffitt

Let's cover two scenarios.

  1. The file is just misplaced.
    In this scenario I think Everything would be my choice to find the misplaced file by it's partial name.
    )

  2. The file was deleted. If so it's very important to stop using this drive.
    Place the drive in another PC and see if RECUVA can find it.
Member Avatar for Reverend Jim

And if you can't remove the drive and have to run a recovery program, run it from some other media like a USB stick.

commented: Thanks for adding this option. +0
Member Avatar for vasdrakken

might have been when open office and one drive where fighting over the doc extension and they would both try to over write the files at the same time. If an askii text file is opened by two programs and they rewrite the bite stream back at the same time no more document. I switched to unicode years ago and most of those were trashed as well, but software like recuva that reads the bits on the drive may be able to recover any bits that have not been over written but have it search the drive for not knowing where the files are. Make sure the programs are running off a different drive on the same sata controller, and that you have another drive about ten times as large on a fast sata or usb 3 or later type of connection. It is going to dump thousand of files that are likely not the file you are looking for. If you re-installed and the file was on the desktop of one user and you did not log back in as that user prior to windows ten those files get deleted when you try to look at them with a different user cid. depending on the situation the file is likely long gone but if you use recuva you likely have to buy it to get full usage and the file may not still be there, so only try to recover the file if you are willing to spend the money on the non destructive software or a full blown xray of the disk.

commented: Mostly nonsense. -3
commented: For the xray especially. -3
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