In the modern world, many people work on the computer daily and keep very crucial documents there. The hard drive significantly aids the safe storage of personal files and computer programs.
While working on the computer, however, there are many chances that files get deleted wrongfully for one reason or another. Even when you intend to delete some of the files that you no longer use, it is ubiquitous that you delete essential files together with them, accidentally!
Accidentally deleting files from your drive should, however, not be your last point when working with data on your computer. You can still recover data from a hard drive. We have prepared this article to help you understand what to do if you delete important files on your hard drive. The methods outlined here will help you recover important files back to their original locations.
Can Deleted Files Be Recovered?
It is common for people to doubt. However, just as we already mentioned, there are many ways to recover deleted files on your PC. We will describe some of these methods below.
Situations Under Which Files Can Be Deleted From The Hard Drive
If you use your PC quite often, here are some of the everyday situations that can cause deletion of files from the hard drive:
- Virus or malware
- Accidental deletion
- Reformatting
- Power failure
- Corrupt hard drive
- Scratched platters
No matter the circumstance, however, you can still recover your files in different ways. Whether you deleted photos, audio, video, PDF files, word, or any other file formats, you can recover them. Read the section below to learn more.
What To Do If You Deleted Important Files On Your Hard Drive
Option 1: Restore The Files With Disk Drill
Disk Drill by CleverFiles is one of the best hard drive recovery tools that you can use to recover deleted files quickly. The software has a high scan speed and a very high recovery rate and supports numerous file formats and devices, including external hard drive recovery. You can also use it to recover files on an external device, desktop, crashed computer, and recycle bin. Follow the steps below.
Step 1: Select the location
Select the hard drive where the files were lost from.
Step 2: Initiate the scan
Launch the software and start the scanning process. Choose whether you want to perform an all-around scan or deep scan to initiate the file recovery process.
Step 3: Preview the files
Preview the files found by the scan to confirm that they are the correct files you had deleted from the hard drive.
Step 4: Recover the files
Once you confirm the files, select the files you intend to recover and click recover to get them back.
Option 2: Check The Recycle Bin
Apart from the data recovery software, if the files were deleted by the command “Delete,” you can easily retrieve them by restoring them from the recycle bin. Here’s what to do:
Step 1: Open recycle bin
Open the recycle bin and check the available files.
Step 2: Select the files
Now select the files you intend to recover.
Step 3: restore the file
Right-click on the files and get them restored by clicking “Restore.” Also, you can perform the restore manually by dragging the files and dropping them at their original location.
Option 3: Recover The Files From A Local Backup
If you accidentally deleted files from a hard drive, you can recover data lost from hard drive from a local backup. Backing up data on an external device is essential as it can easily save you from a compromising situation.
Step 1: Connect the backup device to the computer
Step 2: Search for the deleted files and folders
Step 3: Copy or drag and drop the deleted files to the computer
You can also recover the files from the cloud back up, get to the site where the backup information is stored, select the files, and copy or download them back to your computer.
Option 4: Check The Previous File Versions
When working on a document and an unexpected incident occurs, such as a sudden shutdown, the window saves the previous version of the files. Similarly, if any of your files get deleted, you can recover data to recover their previous versions. Here’s what to do:
Step 1: Locate the folder
Check out the folder where you stored the files before you deleted them.
Step 2: Select “Restore Previous Versions”
Right-click on the folder and tap “Restore previous versions.”
Step 3: Select the version
Now select the latest version from the list of available previous versions and restore.
