Accidentally Deleted Important Documents Or Precious Files? Here

We’ve all been there. Distracted, you may have accidentally deleted an important file or photo, and somehow it skipped the recycle bin so it couldn’t be promptly recovered. Or perhaps the files were on an external hard drive or USB-C flash drive, which now won’t show up in Windows. Whatever the reason for the missing files, it’s essential not to panic. With the right software package, you stand a pretty good chance of recovery. We’ll show you the most popular tools, and outline which situation is best to use them in.

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Things you need before you get started

It’s best if you can remove the drive first, so the data doesn’t get overwritten

When dealing with missing or mistakenly deleted files, turn the power off on the device before you take any more steps. That’s because, unless you already reformatted the drive, the data is still there, and we want to preserve that. Leaving the computer on means there’s always a chance that the data can be overwritten, which ends any hope of recovery. Here are some things you might want to have handy.

• External drive enclosure: If the computer has a storage drive that’s removable, that makes data recovery easier. That’s because you can take it out of one computer, put it into an external enclosure, and plug it into a second computer in read-only mode. That gives the best chance for recovery overall.
• Enough free space on another drive: While you might be able to recover only the files you want, sometimes you need to make a full copy of the drive during the recovery process. If so, you’ll need enough storage space on the computer you’re running the recovery on.
• Look for other backups: If the files, documents, or photos were in a cloud storage folder, log into the service on the web and check the Recycle or Trash folders there, as the missing files might still be online, even if they are gone from your computer’s drive or trash bin.

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Recover files with Recuva

Recuva is one of the most recognizable names in data recovery, as it’s been around for years and comes from Piriform, the company that also offers CCleaner. It’s a free download, and you don’t necessarily need to pay for the Professional version if you don’t want to, as it only adds automatic app updates and virtual hard drive support. The best thing about this program isn’t even the impressive performance of the data recovery, but that it has a handy wizard that holds your hand through every step of the process. That’s very reassuring when you’re panicking about an important file that was just deleted by accident, and gives you a sense of security while you scan for files.

I recommend selecting the deep scanning option when presented with the choice, as it does a better job of finding deleted files to recover. When it finishes scanning, it will show a list of deleted files, but it will also tell you if the file is recoverable or not. That makes your job easier when selecting which files to move into a folder on another storage drive. I’ve had mixed results using Recuva personally, but it’s a quick and easy first step towards recovering deleted files.

Recover files with TestDisk

While most file recovery programs focus on restoring individual files, TestDisk can restore entire partitions, whether they’re missing or corrupted. This should recover all of your data from an otherwise unreadable drive, as the data should be there unless something else has overwritten the sectors. If you connect your data drive to another computer and get a message about “The drive is not formatted, do you want to format it now?” just say no, and run TestDisk first to see if it can recover the drive structure.

I’ve had good success using this app with USB flash drives and external drives that lost their file structure. Just be warned, as it’s scanning your drive byte by byte, the process can take a very long time to complete, especially on larger capacity drives.

Recover files with PhotoRec

PhotoRec is developed by the same company that makes TestDisk, and you get both programs in the same archive file downloaded from CG Security. Instead of scanning the drive for reformatted partitions or corrupted file systems, PhotoRec was created to recover media files deleted from SD cards and other removable media types. While setting up the scanning process, you’ll be asked where to save any recovered files. It’s advisable to use a different storage drive than the one you’re scanning, as we don’t want to write anything back to the drive that the deleted files are on.

While it was created to find JPG files, it can now recover a large range of file types, from ISOs to iTunes files and more. The one thing to keep in mind is that while the program might recover the deleted files, it won’t recover the filenames. The recovery folder will have JPG files with f and a string of numbers as the filenames. If you opt to recover any potentially broken files, they will start with a b instead. Once the process is over, you can rename the newly recovered files as you wish.

Now that your files are (hopefully) recovered, it’s time to plan a backup solution

While accidentally deleting a few files or photos can usually be reversed, it’s a warning shot of what could happen if your storage drive completely fails. Even the most reliable drives have a lifespan and are vulnerable. Once you’ve recovered the deleted files, think about investing in a home NAS to store your essential files in a second, error-corrected location to minimize the risk of losing everything. That way, the next time files accidentally get deleted, you’ll have a backup and won’t have to go through the lengthy process of data recovery.