Recover Lost Data From Hard Drive
Robert
Your Windows PC uses a hard drive to store and retrieve data. A hard drive is an electro-mechanical storage device that stores data in sectors and blocks on a rotating platter surfaced with magnetic material, and the data is retrieved randomly through a read-write magnetic head.
When you delete a file on your computer, the Windows operating system doesn't remove the file from the hard drive by writing random 0s and 1s on the storage sector or block. Instead, to speed up computing, the OS simply updates the hard drive's file system and marks the pointer to the storage area containing the file as free. Any new file can overwrite the free storage area. So, after data loss, you must stop using the drive immediately to avoid any overwriting on the deallocated storage space. You may resume hard drive usage after performing data recovery.
Recycle Bin stores the records of your deleted files temporarily. So, when you delete a file on your PC by using the Delete key, you can immediately press the Control + Z key combination to undo the operation. If you've deleted your file earlier, then you can't undo it. In such a case, open the Recycle Bin to look for deleted file/s. When you find your file/s, right-click on it, and select Restore to return the file/s to original locations.
This method won't work in case you've used the Shift + Delete key combination, emptied your Recycle Bin, or deleted a file from an external hard drive, as the file's record is not saved in the Recycle Bin and is removed immediately. Then a backup or a data recovery software can help retrieve your deleted data from a hard drive.
Applications such as Microsoft Outlook stores deleted emails on your hard drive in the Deleted Items folder. If you've deleted an email message accidentally on Outlook, immediately press the Control + Z keys to undo the deletion. Or else, go to the Deleted Items folder from the left pane of Outlook and drag and drop the message to the Inbox folder.
If the message is also deleted from the Deleted Items folder, then open the Deleted Items folder, and in the Home tab, click Recover Deleted Items from Server. Select the required email message and click OK to get back the deleted message on the Deleted Items folder.
When you have backed up your PC hard drive before data loss by using File History, you can use the File History backup drive to restore your deleted files. For an external hard drive, File History won't work. In such a case, a clone of the external hard drive, a backup of important files to yet another external hard drive, or a data recovery software can help retrieve your lost data from the external hard drive.
If you have synced your important folders on your PC hard drive to OneDrive, the proprietary cloud storage drive from Microsoft, you can use your OneDrive account to access your synced data from anywhere, anytime by using the Internet.
A professional data recovery software like Stellar Data Recovery Professional can help you retrieve data from your internal or external hard drive that is subjected to deletion, formatting, corruption, or software failure. The steps are as follows:
*The demo version of Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Windows allows unlimited free drive scans and file previews. But to save your recoverable files, you need to activate the software. The best part is the software offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so activate it with full confidence.
To recover data from the hard drive of an unbootable computer, extract the storage device and then connect it to another working computer as an external drive. If the data is accessible, copy all your files to another external storage medium. If the drive is inaccessible, use the recommended software to scan and recover your data.
Data recovery service is useful in case of failure of a hard drive due to any physical data loss situations. If your hard drive has undergone physical damage, then don't try any unreliable data recovery method. Instead, go for the best data recovery service with the following attributes:
Retrieve your lost or deleted data from a hard drive (internal or external) on your Windows 10 computer by looking for your deleted files in Recycle Bin, the application's built-in recovery feature, File History backup, or OneDrive, whatever is applicable in your case.
If none of the above methods work, use Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Windows to retrieve data from your PC or external hard drive. The DIY software is compatible with Windows 10 and supports NTFS, exFAT, and FAT file systems. For physical data loss situations, use a trustworthy data recovery service.
Knowing how to recover data from a hard drive is a skill you'll hopefully never have to use. But if you accidentally delete some critical files, or suddenly discover the drive they're on isn't working correctly, you'll be glad you know how.
In this step-by-step guide we'll show you a few reliable ways to try and recover those deleted files from your hard drive, on both Windows and Mac PCs. You have a much better chance of being able to recover missing files on a hard disk drive (HDD) than on a solid-state drive (SSD), since physical HDDs don't automatically overwrite data as soon as you delete it.
If the hard drive recovery methods outlined in this article don't work for you, it's probably time to consider taking your drive to a data recovery expert like DriveSavers. While such third-party assistance can be costly, sometimes it's the only way to recover your data.
Without further ado, here's some hard disk data recovery strategies you can use to try and reclaim your lost or deleted data! We also have a guide on how to fix an external hard drive that's not showing up that you may want to consult if you're trying to pull files off an external drive that your PC can't detect.
Note that you need to make sure your PC's hard drive is selected in the left-hand sidebar. Your hard drive(s) are usually listed under the "This PC" menu, and if you have multiple drives you'll want to run a search on each one!
If your laptop or desktop PC has a hard drive that seems to be having problems, either because you're seeing strange error messages, you're experiencing crashes or Blue Screens of Death in Windows that you think are drive-related, or you can simply no longer boot the machine, there's a chance your hard drive is corrupted or failing. You need to act fast if you want to save or recover data from it.
Importantly, before you start, minimize how much you use the PC or write data to the hard drive. By that I mean stop everything except your data recovery effort, and ideally read this guide on a separate PC or phone. If your PC and/or hard drive is failing, you want to minimize your usage to maximize your odds of getting your critical data off before it dies. Then follow these steps.
1. If you can still boot the laptop/desktop and can access the data you want to preserve, try to copy it over to an external drive or a cloud backup service. If you're not sure which to choose, check out our guide to cloud storage vs external hard disk drives. If using another external drive, make sure to read our guide on how to clone a hard drive. Prioritize the most important data first, as you don't know how long your drive will last if it's on its last legs.
2. If you can't boot your PC or the drive your data is on can't be accessed (say, because of a data corruption error), you still have a chance of recovering the data --but you'll need to remove the drive and place it into either another PC or an external drive enclosure.
If you have a laptop, you may not be able to remove the drive without professional assistance. Consult your laptop's manual or reach out to the manufacturer to see if there's an easy way to remove the drive from the laptop (many of the best Windows laptops are designed to make removing the storage drive or memory relatively straightforward, but not all). If there isn't, you'll need to take it to a qualified repair service or try and get it repaired by the manufacturer.
3. If you're able to successfully remove the drive, place it into another PC and see if you can access the drive to pull the data off that way. If that doesn't work (or you don't have a second PC handy), consider investing in a USB hard drive enclosure. These are external devices designed to let you slot a drive into them and read/extract the data on another PC via USB.
To find the right enclosure for your needs, you need to figure out the physical size of your faulty hard drive (hard disk drives are often 2.5 - 3.5 inches wide, while SSDs are smaller and require special enclosures) and what connector it uses to communicate with your PC. You should be able to get this information either directly off the drive itself (it's often printed somewhere) or from the drive manufacturer. Many modern hard disk drives connect via SATA, and some SSDs do as well, but many also connect via PCIe. You need to make sure the enclosure you buy will both fit your drive and be able to connect to it, so make sure you have the right model before you click buy!
4. If you still can't access the data you're after with the drive hooked up to another PC via an external enclosure, you're running out of reasonable ways to retrieve it. Your next best bet is probably to take the drive to a qualified data recovery specialist and see if they can help. Dedicated data recovery experts often have the tools and experience to recover more data from a dead drive than you might expect, so don't give up hope!
Macs have a fantastic backup utility called Time Machine that makes it easy to regularly back up the files on your hard drive(s). If you've been using Time Machine already, you can likely find the deleted data you're looking for by restoring an older Time Machine backup.
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