When it comes to recovering lost files, the key is to do so immediately. The reason behind this is that when a file is recently deleted, what is really deleted is an alias to the data, the physical hard drive location of the file (called “sectors”) is not deleted or nulled out with blank data, but is simply marked as being available for future file usage. So long as no other data is stored there, the file still exists and can be found using a program similar to this one note, not a recommendation, I’ve never used it. The longer one waits and the more one uses the computer, the higher the chance is that the sectors have been overwritten with other data and thus you will not be able to recover parts if not all of the file. A document that was deleted months ago is in all likelihood lost beyond retrieval. However if your hard drive is sufficiently big enough and you are not using it to full capacity, there might be a chance that the data is still there. If I were in your position, I would look through reviews and testimonials to find a data recovery program similar to the one I linked and give that a shot.