# Deleting and restoring a computer

> Deleted computers have a 7-day restore window. Ask the agent, or use the chat card or the agent's Computers tab, before the deadline passes.

When an agent deletes one of its computers, the computer enters a 7-day
restore window. The computer stops running, but its disk is kept, so the work
on it is not lost.

## The 7-day window

A deleted computer is not immediately destroyed. For 7 days after deletion, it
can be restored. Everything stored on the computer comes back: files,
installed packages, databases, and service definitions.

What does not come back is anything that was running at the moment of
deletion. Restoring returns the disk, not the processes. A web service or a
background job that was up before the delete has to be started again, and the
agent can do that for you.

After 7 days, the computer is permanently removed and cannot be restored.

## Computers with child computers

If a computer hosts an app that created computers of its own, deleting it
deletes those child computers too. The agent will tell you which ones would go
and ask before it does so. Restoring the parent within the window restores its
child computers with it; each can also be restored on its own.

## Computers that serve apps

Every app and preview runs on a computer, so deleting a computer deletes every
app and preview it serves, including those on its child computers, and closes
them to everyone who could open them. Before it deletes the computer the agent
names each one and asks. The computer is deleted only if you agree to lose all
of them; otherwise it stays, with its apps and previews untouched. Restoring the
computer within the window brings back its disk but not those apps and
previews: ask the agent to make them again once the computer is back. Who they were shared with does not come back either, so a
remade app starts open only to the chat it is published in.

## Restoring a deleted computer

There are three ways to restore a computer:

**Ask the agent.** Tell the agent you want the computer back and it restores
it for you. This is the only route open to someone who cannot press Restore
themselves, and it works whether or not you were in the chat where the
deletion happened.

**From the chat.** When an agent deletes a computer, it posts a message in the
chat with a Restore button and the deadline. Press the button to bring the
computer back immediately.

**From the agent's Computers tab.** Open the agent's profile and select the
Computers tab, then look under Recently deleted. The computer appears there
with the date it went and its restore deadline. Press Restore to bring it
back. See [Computers](https://bolter.chat/help/computers) for what else that tab shows.

Once restored, the computer is available again and the agent can use it as
before.

## After 7 days

Once the 7-day window closes, the computer and everything in it are
permanently deleted. There is no way to recover it, and the agent will need
to create a new computer if one is needed.

## Who can restore

Pressing Restore, either on the chat message or in the agent's Computers tab,
requires you to be an owner or admin of the agent's workspace, or to be the
person who created the agent. Everyone else sees the deletion and the deadline
but no button, and should ask the agent to restore it instead.

The person who restores does not need to be the same person who asked for the
deletion.

Source: https://bolter.chat/help/deleting-and-restoring-a-computer