How To Retrieve Lost Files From Your Hard Drive [Windows]

Learning how to retrieve lost files and to retrieve deleted files are just two very basic skills you will eventually have to obtain if you’ve been using a computer for any amount of time. I’m sure you have been caught in a situation where you accidentally deleted a file that you really needed. I’ve hit the Delete button more than once and a split second later, fully regretted that decision. True, you could just go to the Recycle Bin and recover the mis-deleted file but sometimes you use the Shift key when you delete something making it a bit more permanent. But how permanent is it, really?

When something is deleted, thankfully, it is not actually gone. The imprint of the file is still on your hard drive until it is written over. There are tools that can help retrieve deleted files for you. In this article, you’ll find three such tool to chose from. Try each of them and see which does the best job for you.

How To Retrieve Lost Files – Tool #1. Recuva

Recuva is a simple tool that should help you recovery lost files (when you’re unsure whether you’ve deleted them) or simply retrieve deleted files. It’s also featured on our list of the best Windows software. Recuva is compatible with many modern versions of Windows:

• Windows 7 (Starter, Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, 64-bit)*
• Windows 2008 Server (all versions)
• Windows Vista (Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, 64-bit)
• Windows XP (Home, Professional, Tablet Edition, Media Centre Edition, 64-bit)
• Windows 2003 Server
• Windows 2000

By stating that Recuva helps you recover lost files or retrieve deleted files is quite meaningless so here are a couple of examples of what it can do for you:

• Undelete files on your computer
• Recover lost files from formatted or damaged disks
• Retrieve deleted emails (full support for Microsoft Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, or Windows Live Mail)
• Recover deleted iPod music
• Restore unsaved Word documents
• Securely delete files you want to erase forever

There’s also a portable version of Recuva which might be a good idea. Perhaps you can install Recuva on a USB thumb drive so the installation doesn’t write over the very file you are looking for.

Recuva scans your hard drive for all deleted files and returns the results along with a preview (if possible). You can then easily select the files that you’d like to recover.

Recuva is a relatively simple tool to use even though it has so many options and uses. It’s free, so download it now.

How To Retrieve Lost Files – Tool #2. MiniTool Power Data Recovery

Another full featured file solution to help you retrieve deleted files is MiniTool Power Data Recovery.

This free tool is also compatible with many Windows versions:

• Windows 7 (32 & 64 bit)
• Windows Vista (32 & 64 bit)
• Windows XP (32 & 64 bit)
• Windows 2000 Professional
• Windows Server 2008 (32 & 64 bit) *
• Windows Server 2003 (32 & 64 bit) *
• Windows 2000 Server Family *

The last three Windows versions require a commercial license for it to work which will put you back $119 for one computer. Lucky for us, the free version works just fine with other versions of Windows (compare the different licenses they offer). MiniTool Power Data Recovery offers these tools or uses:

• Retrieve deleted files and folders
• Retrieve lost data from damaged partition
• Retrieve lost data from inaccessible hard drive
• Retrieve lost data after re-partition
• Retrieve lost data from a crashed hard drive
• Retrieve lost data after an MBR corruption
• Retrieve lost data after reinstalling windows
• Retrieve lost data from formatted partition with original path and filename
• Recover photos from memory card
• Recover music and video from iPod
• Retrieve lost data from quick formatted CD/DVD disk
• Retrieve lost data from an unfinalized DVD disk
• Retrieve lost files from scratched or defective CD and DVD disk
• Retrieve lost data from Windows Dynamic Disk Volume

As you can see, this tool covers a lot of bases. It’s a little more complicated to use but if you need to deal with such issues as partitions, this may be the tool you need.

The tool scans your all of your drives for deleted files in a single click.

It shows you the progress while you wait for the scanning process to complete.

And as it’s complete, you’ll be able to retrieve your lost files by selecting and saving them in a specified location.

How To Retrieve Lost Files – Tool #3. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is one of the most renowned data retrieval application for Windows. The free version is able to scan and recover up to 1 GB of data so we’d recommend getting the regular version for $69.95. Fortunately, all TheDailyBuggle newsletter subscribers can get it for free!

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard works similarly to the tools mentioned above and it is able to recover lost files that resulted from damaged partitions, accidental file recover, formatted hard drives, etc.

It works on hardware RAID arrays, hard drives, USB drives, SD and other memory cards. Overall, it’s probably the most versatile recovery app for Windows.

As you can tell for these three tools, just because you think a file may be lost, it doesn’t mean you can’t find it again. These tools can help you retrieve lost files from deletion, partitions, disk drives, even missing emails. Remember the one overwhelming tip given by most of these products companies: try to install the data recovery application on another disk drive to increase your changes of retrieving your lost files. Otherwise, it can be written over.

These are only three of the many tools out there to recover deleted files and they’re only for Windows. What tools do you use for finding lost or deleted files? Share with us in the comments.