While working with a computer system, it is a common scenario that some of the user files get deleted due to some reason or he himself deleted it accidentally or intentionally. There can be various other reasons that can cause Windows file deletions. Possible reasons could be corrupt logical structure of the hard drive, partition header corruption due to virus or malware, power surges while working with partition data, partition corruption due to hardware issues, bad sectors in hard drive, bad RAM etc.
Suppose a file/folder has been deleted from Windows 7 and Later on, the user requires getting it back then how to undelete files in Windows 7?
In this article, I am going to discuss the methods for retrieving important files from Windows 7 system.
How to undelete files in Windows 7?
If some file is missing, you might have placed it somewhere or got it deleted. Use the Windows Explorer or File Explorer search feature to search for the lost file.
Recover files from recycle bin: If haven’t deleted the files permanently, you can restore it back from Recycle Bin. If the number of deleted files in recycle bin is large you can simply search the file by name or right-click in the window, point to Sort By, and select Date Deleted to view files
What if you have deleted an item and emptied the recycle?
If you don’t find your files in the recycle bin, you can look for it at cloud storage services (such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or SkyDrive). Just log into your cloud account, go to trash and recover your files from there, if found.
Recover files from backup: If you have a recent backup, you can restore the deleted file from there.
Note: You must backup your important data on regular intervals. So that in case of data loss situations you can restore it back. You can restore data using the built-in Windows backup tools too. Windows 7’s previous versions can create virtual image of your files automatically and lets you restore them to a previous versions using System Restore functionality. In Windows 8, you are given one more recovery option i.e. ‘File History’ that isn’t available in previous versions and can be used to create exact copy of your stored data to an external storage device (external hard drive, USB, Flash drive or any similar kind of storage device).
Procedure to undelete files in Windows7 from a recent backup or previous versions is given below.
Follow the given steps to restore files from a backup:
- Go to Start > Control Panel> System and Maintenance, and then click Backup and Restore
- Select the option ’Restore my files’, and then continue with the steps followed in the wizard.
Follow the given steps to restore a deleted file or folder from previous versions:
- Go to Start and open computer
- Right click the folder/drive (e.g. C:\)that contained the deleted files/folders and click and then click restore previous versions.
- This will show you the previous versions of the deleted files. The list will contain all the saved backup data and restore points. Choose a previous version of the file/folder that should contain the deleted data. Drag the item at any desired location to get it saved.
Follow the given steps to restore a deleted file or folder to a previous state:
- Right click the file/folder. Click ‘Restore previous versions.’ To bring it back to a previous state.
- This opens the list of previous versions of the file saved on a backup (Windows backup or restore points).
- From the list, Select the desired version and click Open to view. Then after confirmation, click restore.
Note: Windows Backup doesn’t provide you this facility for viewing the previous versions. If restore button isn’t available, open and save the file at some other location instead of restoring/replacing the current version.
If all the above steps fails then how will you recover data?
If some data on your Windows drive has been lost and you cannot find it anywhere else, stop using the drive immediately and seek for an alternative to get them recovered. If you are performing operations with drive then the deleted data can be overwritten and recovery becomes more difficult.
So the first thing is shut down the computer immediately. Scan your drive using an efficient Windows data recovery software. If you could find your file in the scan results, you can recover it and save to your desired location.
Note: Before applying any data recovery tool, it’s advisable to make a copy of your drive. Better you remove the problematic hard drive from the computer and attach it as a secondary drive in some other computer. Then scan it using an efficient Windows data recovery software.
If all of the above recovery methods fail, seek some professional data recovery company. They deal with physical as well logical data corruption. Using powerful recovery methods, they provide you the recovered drive data, all you need to do is ‘pay for the services’.
Sometimes the corruption/data loss is much severe that no full data recovery is possible at all. Then sorry to say you have lost some or all of your precious data! To avoid such situations, you must always backup your data on regular intervals, also enable the File History or Windows Backup features.
