אם אין גיבוי, הקבצים שנמחקו לא תמיד חוזרים.

In Hebrew, אין is the normal way to say there is no / there are no / there isn’t / there aren’t.

So:

• אם אין גיבוי = if there is no backup
• אם לא usually means if not

A simple contrast:

• אם אין זמן = if there is no time
• אם לא תבוא = if you don’t come

So here, because Hebrew is saying that a backup does not exist, אין is the natural choice.

גיבוי means backup.

In tech contexts, it usually refers to a saved copy of data, files, or a system. So in this sentence, אין גיבוי means there is no backup copy available.

You may also see related expressions like:

• לעשות גיבוי = to make a backup
• קובץ גיבוי = backup file

הקבצים means the files. Hebrew often uses the definite article when talking about a specific group already understood from context.

Here, the sentence is referring to the files that got deleted, not just files in general. So הקבצים שנמחקו means the files that were deleted.

If you said just קבצים שנמחקו, it could still be understandable in some contexts, but הקבצים שנמחקו sounds more natural for the deleted files / the files that were deleted.

The ש is a shortened relative marker meaning that / which / who.

So:

• הקבצים שנמחקו = the files that were deleted

You can think of שנמחקו as:

• ש = that
• נמחקו = were deleted / got deleted

This structure is extremely common in Hebrew:

• הספר שקניתי = the book that I bought
• האנשים שבאו = the people who came

נמחקו is from the verb להימחק, which means to be deleted / to get erased.

That matters because the files are not doing the deleting. They are the ones affected by the action.

So:

• מחקו = they deleted
• נמחקו = they were deleted / got deleted

In this sentence, the meaning is passive or result-oriented: the files were deleted. That is why נמחקו is the correct form.

נמחקו is past tense, masculine plural.

It refers to something that already happened:

• the files that were deleted

Breakdown:

• singular masculine: נמחק
• singular feminine: נמחקה
• plural: נמחקו

Because קבצים is masculine plural, the verb matches it.

Hebrew often uses the present tense for general truths, repeated situations, or things that generally happen.

So לא תמיד חוזרים literally looks like do not always return, and that works as a general statement:

• Deleted files do not always come back

This is similar to English sentences like:

• Water boils at 100 degrees
• People don’t always change
• Deleted files don’t always return

So even though the sentence refers to a future result in each case, the present tense expresses a general rule.

לא תמיד means not always, which is the intended meaning.

• לא תמיד חוזרים = they do not always come back

If you said תמיד לא חוזרים, that would sound more like they always do not come back, which is much stronger and closer to they never come back in meaning.

So the word order matters:

• לא תמיד = not always
• תמיד לא = always not (much less natural here and changes the meaning)

The basic meaning of חוזרים is return / come back.

In this sentence, it is used in a natural, slightly idiomatic way for files:

• הקבצים ... לא תמיד חוזרים = the files do not always come back

In computer-related English, we might also say:

• cannot always be recovered
• do not always come back
• are not always recoverable

Hebrew uses חוזרים in a simple, everyday way here.

Because the subject is הקבצים = the files, which is masculine plural.

Hebrew verbs in the present tense agree with the subject in gender and number:

• הקובץ חוזר = the file returns
• הקבצים חוזרים = the files return

So חוזרים matches הקבצים.

It is mostly neutral everyday Hebrew.

It sounds natural in spoken or written language, especially in a practical or technical context. It is not especially slangy, and it is not overly formal either.

A more technical or formal version might use a verb like לשחזר (to recover / restore), but the given sentence is very understandable and natural:

• אם אין גיבוי, הקבצים שנמחקו לא תמיד חוזרים.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

Im ein gיבוי, ha-kvatzim she-nimkheku lo tamid khozrim.

A slightly smoother transliteration:

Im ein gibui, hakvatzim she-nimcheku lo tamid chozrim.

Rough breakdown:

• אם = im
• אין = ein
• גיבוי = gibui
• הקבצים = hakvatzim
• שנמחקו = she-nimcheku
• לא תמיד = lo tamid
• חוזרים = chozrim

The ח sound in חוזרים is the throaty Hebrew sound that English does not really have.

Yes. A few possible alternatives are:

• אם אין גיבוי, לא תמיד אפשר לשחזר קבצים שנמחקו.
  If there is no backup, it is not always possible to recover deleted files.

• בלי גיבוי, קבצים שנמחקו לא תמיד חוזרים.
  Without a backup, deleted files do not always come back.

• אם אין גיבוי, לא תמיד ניתן להחזיר קבצים שנמחקו.
  If there is no backup, it is not always possible to restore deleted files.

The original sentence is still natural; these are just stylistic alternatives.