Data Recovery is a process to recover accidentally deleted or formatted files from your computer including common storage devices such as external or internal hard drive, USB, CD/DVD, memory card etc. Such files can be restored if proper actions are taken immediately or as soon as possible.
Data recovery software is indeed a great way to have your deleted files back, though it may require you to invest money and time. Recovery software can make use of sophisticated algorithm to deeply scan files that is mark as deleted or lost in MBR and treat them carefully to recover exactly as they were deleted.
However, we’ll discuss about some manual ways to recover your lost or deleted files without using such recovery software. It’s strongly advised to not to save or overwrite any more data on the problem storage device as it’ll make your attempts failed of recovering lost or deleted data.
Restore deleted files (Manual method)
Accidental deletion of files and folders- Perhaps, you’re cleaning your system by deleted unnecessary and junk files to free up some hard disk space. However, accidentally you may have deleted an important files or folders that you badly needed. Unluckily, you can’t file those files in the recycle bin as you’ve chosen to delete it permanently by pressing ‘shift + delete’.
Resolution: In some cases, you should see your computer recycle bin folder to see if the deleted files are there. You can right click on it and choose ‘Restore’ to save them back to their original destination. However, if you can’t found files what you’re looking for, try following the steps mentioned below:
a. Right click on folder containing your files deleted previously.
b. Choose ‘Properties’ and go to ‘Previous versions tab’.
c. This will list all the previous version of files existed previously (Before deletion). Select file which you want to restore and click on ‘Restore’ button to restore those files back to your system.
Data recovery software is indeed a great way to have your deleted files back, though it may require you to invest money and time. Recovery software can make use of sophisticated algorithm to deeply scan files that is mark as deleted or lost in MBR and treat them carefully to recover exactly as they were deleted.
However, we’ll discuss about some manual ways to recover your lost or deleted files without using such recovery software. It’s strongly advised to not to save or overwrite any more data on the problem storage device as it’ll make your attempts failed of recovering lost or deleted data.
Restore deleted files (Manual method)
Accidental deletion of files and folders- Perhaps, you’re cleaning your system by deleted unnecessary and junk files to free up some hard disk space. However, accidentally you may have deleted an important files or folders that you badly needed. Unluckily, you can’t file those files in the recycle bin as you’ve chosen to delete it permanently by pressing ‘shift + delete’.
Resolution: In some cases, you should see your computer recycle bin folder to see if the deleted files are there. You can right click on it and choose ‘Restore’ to save them back to their original destination. However, if you can’t found files what you’re looking for, try following the steps mentioned below:
a. Right click on folder containing your files deleted previously.
b. Choose ‘Properties’ and go to ‘Previous versions tab’.
c. This will list all the previous version of files existed previously (Before deletion). Select file which you want to restore and click on ‘Restore’ button to restore those files back to your system.
What if the files were deleted from the Desktop folder?
For example, if you have deleted files from the desktop folder named ‘XYZ’. Try creating a new folder with exactly the same name i.e. ‘XYZ’. Moving further, right click on the same and go to its ‘Properties’. Under ‘previous version’ tab, you should see all the deleted files located under the folder. Simply, choose any or all the files you want and hit on restore button.
However, make the system protection is set to turned on. Follow the steps below to check and make sure the system protection is ON:
For example, if you have deleted files from the desktop folder named ‘XYZ’. Try creating a new folder with exactly the same name i.e. ‘XYZ’. Moving further, right click on the same and go to its ‘Properties’. Under ‘previous version’ tab, you should see all the deleted files located under the folder. Simply, choose any or all the files you want and hit on restore button.
However, make the system protection is set to turned on. Follow the steps below to check and make sure the system protection is ON:
- Right click on ‘My Computer’ and select ‘Manage’.
- Navigate to ‘System Protection’ tab and see if the protection is set to ‘On’ or ‘Off’. To turn the protection ‘On’ for drive ‘D’ (See the image below), click on the drive and select ‘Configure’.
- Under ‘Restore Settings’ section, select the radio button stating ‘Turn on System Protection’ and set the ‘Disk Space Usage’ as per your convenient.
- Click on ‘Apply’ to make changes take effect.
Other type of deletion that can’t be addressed manually
Partition Format- If you’ve accidentally formatted or deleted an entire partition, you might be in trouble as you can’t be able to restore them manually. Instead, you should seek for professional and efficient partition undelete software that can scans and recover data from formatted or deleted partition.
Below are some common type of partition problem occurs in Windows OS:
2) File system damages - This kind of failure occurs due to hardware failure or registry corruption. Sometime logical damage is also caused by software failure. However, most modern file system has a high level of protection against file system.
3) Partition Corruption due to virus attack- This kind of corruption arises due to unknown malware or other type of threats that may leave partition inaccessible and all the data stored.
Conclusion
Data deleted from computer will keep residing on the memory till it’s not overwritten by some other data. In most cases, we simply delete any files that were no longer needed and can be restored from the recycle bin folder. If you can make use of manual tricks of restoring deleted files, you might not need to invest money on purchasing data recovery software.
However, if situations isn’t in your favor, choose efficient data recovery software might be your last resort. It’ll help you in recovering data from severely damaged or corrupt partitions as well as ensures you that it’ll be completely accessible and 100% working as before.