Does Deleting a File from a Windows SMB Share Send it to the Recycle Bin?

Nope, when you delete a file from a Windows file share, it does not go to the server's Recycle Bin. It’s deleted immediately. The best way to prevent accidental deletions is to give users the lowest necessary permissions. Ideally, a lot of users should only have read-only access to avoid issues. Setting a 'deny delete' permission can help too. And of course, always have backups in place!

It's true; if you delete a file share from your machine, it won’t go into a recycle bin at all. You might want to look into versioning or previous versions, like VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service), but you need to have this set up before files get deleted. Otherwise, those files are just gone. You can use third-party undelete tools if you act quickly, but there's no guarantee they’ll work. Best to be proactive though!

Sounds like you might need to discuss cloud storage with versioning at your organization, especially if multiple people often work on the same files. Setting up hourly VSS snapshots can help by allowing quick recoveries without needing the full backup systems. Just keep in mind that it could require some additional storage space.

To clarify, the file just gets deleted straight away! If you're worried about this happening often, consider syncing your shares on a schedule. You can easily set up a simple NAS with some spare parts and back up your files regularly, maybe even every hour. It’s not a substitute for a full backup but can be really handy for recoveries.