When you put a file into the recycle bin it doesn't actually move anywhere. It's simply labelled as 'unwanted'. Similarly, when you delete it from the recycle bin it still doesn't actually go anywhere. It's just given a label which says that it can be over-written when your PC needs some space on your hard drive.
So, if you get there fast enough, you can remove that label and recover the file. However almost every thing you do on your computer involves some hard drive activity, so you're constantly decreasing the chances of recovering the file.
A free program like the excellent PC Inspector can remove the 'available to over-write' label and recover the file for you. However simply downloading and installing the program risks over-writing the file which you want to recover! So (unless you've already got two drives or partitions available to you) you're meant to remove your hard drive and then install it as a second drive on a different computer (where that computer already has PC Inspector installed on its primary drive). But, if you're prepared to take a risk, you could still try downloading PC Inspector directly to your own computer (while crossing your fingers that it doesn't delete what you're after) and running it from there:
http://www.pcinspecto...efault.htm?language=1
Chris