Data storage has been a big deal in the ages before hard drives. However, today’s hard drives make storing extra data such as photos outside your computer extremely easy.
Unfortunately, you can still lose data even from the hard drives. This may happen due to several reasons such as virus attack, corruption of files, and damaged hard drive. Losing data deleting files from your drive should, however, not be your last point when working with data on your computer. That is why you need to continue learning some of the best ways to recover deleted files from a hard drive and even try them out yourself.
Fortunately, there are several ways to recover deleted files from hard drives. One commonly used method is the use of backup systems.
We have prepared this article to discuss and help you understand about ways to recover data from a hard drive and what to do if you delete files on your hard drive. We give you Do It Yourself steps that require some basic understanding of your computer system. Please read and understand before you try a DIY with the methods we have shared below. But first:
Is A DIY Data Recovery on Hard Drives Good?
Trying a DIY data recovery is a good thing. Unlike professional data recovery services, testing the process yourself helps you learn how to fish back lost documents from your computer and saves you money! However, it would be best if you were more cautious not to cause more problems to your computer system or hard drive in the process of trying to recover data.
Hard Drive Recovery Overview
No matter the circumstance surrounding your data loss, you can still get your files back with various DIY methods, whether photos, audio, video, PDF files, or word.
Before choosing the best external hard drive data recovery solution, it is best to find out what causes data loss from your drive. Once you understand the cause, it is much easier to choose the best solution.
What Causes Data Loss on Hard Drives
There are many ways people lose data. Common ones include:
- Critical file system structure corruption
- Accidental file deletion or formatting
- Virus attack
- Damages or loss of partition structures
What To Do When You Lost Data from Hard Drive
1. Stop using the drive immediately
When you learn of any data loss from your hard drive, stop using it immediately. This is because if corrupted files or viruses caused the loss, there would be further damage to your files due to continued use. Also, the files may become unrecoverable. By stopping other use of the drive, it becomes much easier to recover deleted files from external hard drive.
2. Turn to a reliable data recovery solution
If you lose data from any data storage devices such as an Android phone, laptop, or hard disk, the most innovative solution is to get professional data recovery software.
How To Recover Data from Your Hard Drive Yourself
Option 1: Restore Data with Disk Drill
Step 1: Select the location
Identify and choose the hard drive where you lost the files from.
Step 2: Initiate the scan
Launch Disk Drill by CleverFiles and choose whether to perform a deep scan of the hard drive or not.
Step 3: Preview the files
View the list of files returned by the scan in the preview pane. Confirm that they are the files you lost by scrolling the list.
Step 4: Recover the files
Choose the files you need to recover and click recover to get them back.
The other software for file recovery include:
- EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard
- Recuva
- TestDisk Data Recovery
- Minitool Power
Option 2: Check the Recycle Bin
Step 1: Open recycle bin
Point the cursor on the recycle bin icon and double-click to open it. Check the files that are in the folder.
Step 2: Select the files
Choose the files to be recovered.
Step 3: restore the file
Right-click on your choices, and tap “Restore” to get them restored.” You can also perform a manual restore by holding and dragging the files then dropping them to any location.
Option 3: Recover Data from A Local Backup
Local backups make hard drive recovery more manageable and less time-consuming. Backing up data on your PC is also important. If you have an existing local backup, follow the steps below to recover your data.
Step 1: Link the backup device to your PC
Step 2: Scan for the data you have lost from the hard drive
Step 3: You can copy or drag and drop the data to your PC
Remember, you can also recover data from a cloud backup. Just go to the site where you had stored the backup information, select them, and copy or download them back to your computer.
