How can you recover previously deleted files? How to recover a hard drive and all the information on it

There is no need to write files or install programs on the hard drive or USB flash drive that contains the information you want to recover. This is connected with the principle of deleting information, the fact is that when you click on the “delete” button, the information is not actually deleted, but only its header is erased, the file or folder itself remains, but the next time it is written to a disk or USB, it is replaced in the place where a deleted file or folder is located, new information is written, and the old information can no longer be restored.

Ways to recover a deleted file or folder.

1) Check cart

The first and simplest thing to do is check the Recycle Bin to see if there is a deleted file or folder there. To do this, click on the Recycle Bin shortcut on your desktop and if you see a file or folder there that you accidentally deleted, right-click on it and select "Restore". The data will be restored to the same location where it was before it was deleted.

If you are unlucky and you do not find the deleted file or folder in the trash, then you need to use one of the recovery programs described below

2) Use the free data recovery program Recuva.

First of all, go to the site Recuva and download the latest version of the program. Then you start the installation of the downloaded program, the installation process is very simple, the first step is to select the installation language.

Then we specify additional parameters (whether to create a shortcut on the desktop, whether to search for program updates...), you can leave them as default. Please note that if the deleted file was located on the disk where the operating system is installed (often drive C), then the Recuva program should not be installed on this disk, otherwise by installing it you may overwrite the file and it will not be possible to recover it. To select a different drive to install the program, click the button "Additionally" and specify a different installation path for the program.

After this, you will be prompted to install the Google Chrome browser; if you do not want to install, uncheck the box.

After installation, the Recuva wizard will launch to help you recover your files or folder. I strongly recommend using the wizard, as it is more understandable and convenient. Click "Next"

Selecting the type of recovered file

Select the location where the file or folder was located.

Put a tick "Enable in-depth analysis", press "Begin".

After this, the search for files will begin, this can take up to several tens of minutes, depending on many factors (computer power, disk or USB device capacity, disk speed, USB device, etc.).

After searching, you will see a list of files that can be recovered. If you want to get more detailed information about the files, you can click on the button "Go to advanced mode".

To restore a file, check the boxes next to them and click the button "Restore", then indicate where to restore the file and within a few seconds the file will be restored.

3) Using the paid program EasyRecovery.

I, like many, am for free software, but in this article I will describe file recovery using a paid program, since during my test recoveries this program saw more deleted files than Recuva (2385 files versus 2461). I would recommend using this program if the free one did not help. You will still not lose anything, since with this program you can find deleted files for free, you just need a license key to restore these found files and folders.

So, first of all, download the latest version of the program EasyRecovery (in this example I will use the Home version). Install... the process is not complicated, we agree with everything and click "Next", let me remind you that the program must be installed on a volume (disk) from which you will not restore the file or folders, since you can overwrite the file or folder being restored. After installation, run the program, the first window will appear is the licensing window, which you can skip if you click "Run as a DEMO". The first EasyRecovery window appears in front of us, click "Continue".

In the next window, select the location where the file that needs to be restored is located.

The next step is to select a recovery script. If the file or folder was simply deleted, it is recommended to select "Deleted File Recovery", if the hard drive/USB flash drive has been formatted, you must select "Formatted Media Recovery".

After this, an information window will appear in which all the specified search settings are indicated, if you have not confused anything, click "Continue".

The search for files will begin, this process may take quite a long time, depending on the volume size of the hard drive or USB device, the power of the computer, etc. After the entire disk or USB flash drive is scanned, all deleted files will appear in front of you, divided into groups depending from expansion. If you click on a file and try to open the file (Open) or save it (Save as), you will be prompted to enter a license key; without it, the file will not be restored.

I hope this step-by-step guide helped you recover your files and folders, saving a lot of time and possibly money. In the future, I recommend using backup of important files, if possible, store important files on several media or at least in different folders.

Hi all! Probably, many of you have more than once found yourself in a rather unpleasant situation when someone, or you yourself, mistakenly deleted the necessary files on your computer or laptop. In this situation, all users have the same question in their heads: “How to recover deleted files?” I’ll tell you right away that if you suddenly don’t see the file you need in the usual place, then you shouldn’t panic and get upset. Perhaps not everything is so bad and lost data can be easily recovered. And we will consider in detail how to do this.

As I said above, don’t panic if you suddenly don’t find the files you need. Perhaps it will be quite simple to restore them using standard tools, since not all files are deleted from the computer permanently, which means there is a high probability of finding them and returning them to disk; for this we will consider two methods, which I will describe below.

How to recover deleted files from the Recycle Bin.

This method is the simplest and most harmless. By default, all files that the user deletes from the hard drive end up in temporary storage - the Recycle Bin. Essentially, this is a special folder that stores files deleted by the user. If you have not changed Windows settings, then look for your files in the Recycle Bin.

To restore files from the Recycle Bin, all you need to do is select the ones you need. In the window, go to the “Management” tab and click on the “Restore selected objects” button.

If you want to return all the files in the recycle bin, then click the “Restore all objects” button.

Pay attention! Large files, usually movies, folders with games, disk images, are deleted without being placed in the recycle bin, since in most cases they exceed the permissible volume allocated for it. This makes recovering large files quite problematic and sometimes an impossible task.

As a rule, beginners, due to inexperience, often delete various program shortcuts from the desktop that they think they do not need. But many people don’t know that if they delete the shortcut, the program itself will still remain on your computer’s hard drive.

To restore program shortcuts, you can do the following:

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that when using the system restore tool, you will not be able to restore deleted files, programs or games, but you will be able to return program shortcuts, as well as system settings that were before the changes were made. Let's look at an example of how to perform a Windows 7 system restore and get back deleted files.

We use the system restore function.

To use the system restore function, do the following:

In most cases, System Restore is useless, but sometimes it can be used to recover deleted shortcuts and system files and folders.

How to recover deleted files using third-party programs.

As a rule, standard tools for recovering deleted files do not bring the desired result and users have to resort to the help of third-party utilities that can recover lost data.

PhotoRec – we will return deleted files.

If you don’t yet know how to recover deleted files, then a free but quite functional utility called PhotoRec will come to the rescue. Judging by the name, the program should be able to restore photos, but its functionality allows you to work with many. Also, another advantage of this utility is that it does not require installation and is distributed in an archive, which you just need to unpack and run the executable file. This allows you to run the program from external media.

You can download the program from the official website of the developer – www.cgsecurity.org

After downloading, unpack the archive to any location and run the utility. The algorithm for working with the program is as follows:

In the main window of the program, disks will be displayed in front of us that we can work with. Therefore, select the desired disk;

Pay attention! The program can work with disk images in img format.

To launch the program, click the “Search” button and wait for the scan results to complete. As a rule, you shouldn’t expect 100% results, but with the help of this utility there is a high probability of recovering lost files: photos, documents, audio recordings. If the result does not satisfy you, then let's look at another program.

How to recover deleted files using Recuva

Another free utility that can recover deleted files. You can also download it from the developers’ website – recuva.su/download.

The program has a Russian-language interface, so any user can work with it.

Pay attention! The program should be installed on a partition of the hard drive on which you do not need to restore files.

The principle of working with the program is as follows:

After the program scans, you will be shown all the detected files, which you will need to check off and click on the “Recover” button. Using this program, in most cases, photos, documents and other light files stored on the hard drive are recovered.

DMDE is a powerful file recovery tool.

Another free utility that has great potential and can very likely recover deleted files from a hard drive or flash drive. The program does not require installation, so you can always have it at hand if you carry it on a flash card or portable HDD. As usual, the utility can be downloaded from the developers’ official website - dmde.ru. Therefore, don’t waste time and download the archive with the program.

The program's interface is intuitive, but for beginners there is a detailed guide on how to recover deleted files, which I recommend that you read before starting work.

I will not describe in detail the entire process of the program in this article, since it is similar to the previous options. I can only say that the program copes with its task perfectly and can restore files even in completely hopeless situations.

Let's summarize.

Often, novice users delete data from their laptop or accidentally lose it without knowing whether it is possible to recover deleted files, including those on the desktop, and how to do it. There may be quite simple situations here, when lost documents are literally a couple of clicks away, but there may also be more serious problems, for which you have to use special applications.

Recovering from the Recycle Bin

All files after deletion while maintaining the standard computer settings fall into the so-called. Recycle Bin is a special folder on the desktop, by opening which you can easily restore any deleted information by highlighting the desired object and selecting the appropriate item in the menu. But files can be deleted permanently without being placed in the trash.

Inexperienced users often accidentally delete application shortcuts and documents from the desktop, believing that if they are gone, then the rest of the program has also been deleted entirely. In this case, many people do not know how to recover deleted files. This is very easy to do, even if the basket is empty. There are two options:

Roll back the system to the nearest restore point;
Find the program in the main menu of the Start button and drag the desired shortcuts to the desktop.

The second option is preferable, but if lost programs and documents have disappeared from the list of the main menu on the computer and you do not remember the directory in which they were installed, you will have to use the first.

If you are deciding how to recover a deleted folder from your desktop, and the erroneous action was performed recently, then you probably won’t even have to go to the Recycle Bin. Deletion can be canceled by simultaneously pressing hot Ctrl and Z.

Using a restore point

It is important to understand that rolling back to a previous restore point will not return the program, documents and files if they were deleted. In this way, only erased shortcuts on the desktop can be returned to their place. Here's how it's done using Windows 8 as an example:

A window will open in which, by default, you will be asked to restore to the most recent checkpoint. If necessary, you can specify any other existing restore point.

We use third-party applications

If data and documents from the laptop’s hard drive are completely deleted and cannot be returned using standard OS tools, you will have to use special utilities to recover deleted files. It is important to remember the main rule that increases the chances of successful data recovery - do not write anything to the disk partition that you will be working with later.

Recuva is a simple free utility

The most famous and simple application with which you can recover deleted files is . When installing, select the partition of the disk on which there is no data to be recovered. The principle of operation of Recuva and other similar utilities is approximately the same:

After the scan is completed, the recovery wizard will display on your desktop a list of all the lost documents that it was able to detect. Those that are marked with a green circle can be restored by the utility without any loss.. If the icon color is red, then this file most likely cannot be returned - a recording has already been made over it and most of the data and information about the file are completely lost.

All that remains is to select the files (you can use the corresponding function to search for specific photos and documents), select the directory to save and click “Recover”.

PhotoRec is another functional free utility

The name of the program should not be misleading. The utility recovers not only photos, but also most other types of files. Its advantage is that there is no need for installation - it can be downloaded from the office. site in the form of an archive, unpacked, after which you can work with it. This is an important property for such applications - the program can be immediately downloaded to a flash drive and worked with it.

The scheme for returning long-lost information is as follows:

After launching PhotoRec, the main window immediately opens, in which the drive is selected in the top drop-down menu - you will have to work with it during data recovery. The program also works with img format images created in other applications.
Below in the window there is a list in which you can select a full disk scan or individual sections.
Below, you can set the file type to scan by clicking File Format. If you skip this step, the program will try to recover all accidentally deleted data that it can detect.
You can specify a folder to save the recovered information by clicking the Browse button. In addition, in the File System type menu you will need to select a file system. If you are working in a Windows environment, check the second box. Ext 2-4 system is the standard for Linux.

Let's compare the considered applications

For novice users, the PhotoRec program is no less suitable than the above-described Recuva. It is more powerful - it often extracts data from the computer better, but it still has one unpleasant feature. Free PhotoRec does not allow you to view the found files after scanning and select something specific from them. This must be taken into account when working with large hard drives - if you do not specify in advance which files are to be restored, everything will be saved.

Above we discussed the simplest free applications for retrieving accidentally deleted information on the desktop or lost documents after formatting flash drives, hard drives and other media.

It is important that PhotoRec, unlike Recuva, is also a cross-platform utility, i.e., it can work in any operating environment.

Quite often, PC users are faced with an unpleasant situation when they need to recover deleted files from their hard drive that were erased by mistake or accident. The system marks such data as “zero”, after which other information can be written on top of it. If you write other data and the user fills up the free disk space, the original files will be lost forever.

Therefore, today we will tell you how to recover data from a hard drive or flash drive and whether it is possible not to lose it forever!

What not to do and what is better to do:

Under no circumstances should you install programs or save files to the disk on which the deleted files were located - this will increase the chances of their successful recovery.
For further work, it is recommended to use an external drive.

You can turn to specialists to extract data, but their work is usually too expensive. Doing the restoration yourself is also quite possible. In order not to encounter this problem, read about what may indicate that.

Programs for recovering deleted files

R.Saver

There are special programs for recovering deleted files, the best of them is R.Saver. For the most part, these programs are suitable not only for working with computer disks, but also for external media. You can download the program to recover deleted files using the button below

There is a possibility that the information will only be partially restored, but you will have to come to terms with this. To get the best results from the program, you should install it on an external drive, run it from there and follow the instructions.

Free, but very effective, R.Saver can:

recover deleted files from a flash drive or disk;
reconstruct damaged file systems;
return data after formatting;
recover deleted files using signatures.

At the end there will be a list of other programs for recovering deleted files from your computer.

We will check how R.Saver recovers files after standard deletion from storage media. To do this, let's take an ordinary USB flash drive with the NTFS file system, create a separate folder on it, save several different documents into it, and then delete them.

In the main program window, call up the context menu and select “Search for lost data.”

In the next window, click “No”, since we deleted the data manually and not by formatting.

We wait until the scanning process is completed.

After scanning, we will see the deleted folder, and inside it – our documents.

Determine the save location, click “Select”.

That's all.

Recuva

One of the most promising products. The program is free, Russified and does not cause any difficulties in learning.

Recuva will find deleted files from your computer or external media and immediately resuscitate them. After downloading and installing it on your computer or external drive, you should do the following:

After starting the recovery wizard, mark all the data that should be restored;
Mark the section or folder where the lost data was;
After this, scanning of the marked folders and searching for deleted files begins. The in-depth scanning function will take longer, but show better results;
Recuva will then retrieve the lost data from your hard drive or external storage device. For external media, the sequence of actions will be the same as for a hard drive;
The program highlights all found data in different colors. Green - which were completely removed, yellow - which were partially restored, red - which remained deleted with the loss of all information.

At the final stage, you need to mark the folder where all the files will be saved.

R-Studio

Paid, but professional program. In demo mode, it allows you to recover documents no larger than 256 KB in size. It will return all data accidentally lost or missing after formatting or a virus attack from the hard drive or from removable media. The list of supported versions includes all popular versions of Windows.

A practical interface and advanced functionality with additional features will delight the most demanding users. How to recover deleted files using R-Studio - the algorithm of actions after downloading will be as follows:

In the main R-Studio window, you need to select the disk/partition from which recovery will be performed and click “Scan”.

After scanning, you need to click “Show disk contents”, mark everything that can be recovered, and then click “Recover those marked...”

The program will be able to bring back to life not only individual documents, but also entire partitions on the hard drive.

Starus File Recovery

The program will find and return missing data to your computer or external storage device in a short time. It is shareware.

Before starting the search, you will need to install Starus File Recovery and start scanning from the place where the data was deleted.
After recovery, when the user is shown a message about the successful operation, the program will offer a preview function for sorting.
Mark the files you need and where to save them. You can write data to a CD, flash drive, virtual image, or (if there is a large amount of information) send it via FTP connection.

Have a great day!

We often encounter important documents or files being accidentally deleted. In some cases they are indeed lost forever, but sometimes they can be restored. I will tell you how to do this and how it is more convenient to perform restoration in this material.

What are the specifics of storing files on a hard drive?

Speaking about the technology of storing files on a hard drive, you should know that a file is physically an area on the hard drive that is magnetized in a certain way. And if a file has been deleted, all the information on it is not reset - only the data about the file from the allocation table is erased, which allows you to exclude it from the directory list. Therefore, as long as nothing is written over the deleted information, it can be restored. To do this, you need to run the appropriate program, which scans lists of files not according to the allocation table, but directly according to the sectors of the hard drive.

Is Windows capable of recovering accidentally deleted files?

The Windows operating system provides a two-step file deletion system that has already become familiar to us - the so-called Recycle Bin. All unnecessary files are placed in it, and as the basket fills up (that is, approaches its capacity limit), the oldest files are deleted. And in order to ensure the ability to recover deleted files in Windows, it is necessary to increase the size of the recycle bin, which is especially important if the computer is equipped with a sufficiently capacious hard drive. If you don't have enough free space, you can simply empty the Recycle Bin by removing all files from it or, for example, only the largest ones.

If useful information has already been deleted from the Recycle Bin, then to restore it you need to use an additional utility. However, it should be remembered that any program must first be written to disk. Therefore, it is better to either play it safe in advance and stock up on special software for data recovery, or, if we are talking about really valuable information, remove the hard drive and recreate the files on it by connecting it to another computer. This will avoid the risk of overwriting files when trying to restore them.

Which third-party programs allow you to recover files?

The universal program Magic Uneraser allows you to work with deleted files in the same way as with existing ones on the disk. Using it, you can recover data on a hard drive or flash card by simply connecting it to your computer. A utility built into the Windows shell will prompt you to analyze the disk for the presence of deleted files. After scanning, both existing and deleted files will be visible in Windows Explorer, and you will be able to examine the list of blocks available for recovery and even preview the data to be recovered. If they turn out to be what you were looking for, they can be immediately returned to any directory on the disk.

Magic Uneraser also performs a "deep analysis" of deleted files, which allows you to find even files that are partially damaged by repeated writing. When you select this option, a special folder called “Deep Analysis” will appear on the disk, where the preserved parts of file names, sorted by extension, will be placed. The content can also be viewed using standard Windows tools. The program's functionality also helps to find files lost due to recent disk formatting - this process takes a lot of time, but is capable of extracting all potentially useful data from the hard drive. In the same way, files are recovered from deleted disk partitions. The price of Magic Uneraser depends on the type of license and ranges from 1000 to 6000 rubles.

Serious file recovery tools are available in comprehensive computer optimization software packages such as Symantec Norton Utilites. The Norton Unerase system is included with other software. The entire family of Norton Utilites is built firmly into the operating system, so the user can easily run any diagnostic utility, disk defragmenter, or registry cleaner. The same thing happens with Norton Unerase - in any folder in the context menu you can scan files for deleted files by selecting items to be restored from the list. Norton Unerase recovers both partially saved and lost data during formatting.

A special feature of this solution is the creation of a special secure Norton Recycle Bin, into which files go instead of the standard Windows Recycle Bin. Norton Recycle Bin ensures that deleted files are retained for as long as possible by optimizing disk write processes so that the most important types of documents are retained for as long as possible. Additionally, Norton Utilites allows you to recover accidentally deleted email messages for some email clients. The cost of the Norton Utilities kit is 1,500 rubles. per PC, which is very affordable, considering the number of software products included in the kit.

MunSoft offers discrete products for recovering various types of data. In particular, the MunSoft Easy File Undelete utility is offered directly for files. It can work with NTFS, FAT and FAT32 file systems, simply restoring data in user-selected directories. An additional advantage of this program is its compactness - the distribution kit has a volume of 8.1 MB.

For photographers and designers, a special program is offered that restores exclusively digital images, eliminating the need to look for them among other deleted data. MunSoft Easy Digital Photo Recovery is a compact utility (4.6 MB) that can analyze a disk or selected folders for deleted photos. Before recovery, you can view the contents of the images in a format convenient for you (slideshows or thumbnails), which makes the program quite convenient for solving your problems.

You can recover MS Outlook and Outlook Express email messages using the separate software product MunSoft EasyMail Recovery. The comprehensive MunSoft EasyOffice Recovery system allows you to recover not only email messages, but also other Microsoft Office documents, even if they are partially damaged. However, you can purchase a complete package of MunSoft Data Recovery Suite data recovery software for RUB 3,000. for the organization. The convenience of this approach is that you get the opportunity to recover any data, including data lost after formatting, but at the same time you launch a specific utility, depending on the type of information being recovered.

However, you can always give preference to a free program such as PC Inspector File Recovery. It interacts with NTFS and FAT file systems, simply displaying a list of deleted files in the corresponding directories. By and large, such a utility allows you to find any files that can be recovered, it just requires an accurate understanding of what was deleted and where the file was located. When working with PC Inspector File Recovery, it is recommended to save the recovered files on another drive, since they may take the place of the information you need if the recovery is not yet complete and you continue to search for lost files.

Conclusion

It often happens that important data is deleted due to user error, operating system failure, or a false positive from an antivirus program. Sometimes the equipment itself fails, and you have to restore files from a partially inoperative hard drive. The above programs are capable of forcing things and recreating important information if possible. However, if you work with business-critical data (customer information, financial documents), it is advisable to use preventive measures, for example, the use of backup systems. In this case, the lost data can always be restored from the backup storage.

Source http://www.it-world.ru/

Is it possible to recover deleted files?

Unfortunately, today there are dozens of different ways through which information can disappear from your computer. Accidentally deleted files, an emptied Windows Recycle Bin, a formatted flash drive, or a damaged hard drive are just some of the possible causes. Fortunately, information is usually not lost forever. New generation programs analyze any storage media and can restore all deleted files. If you don't know how to recover deleted files, Magic Uneraser will help you.

On the left is a list of disks located on your computer, as well as devices connected to it. To recover deleted files from a flash drive, connect it to your computer, after which it will appear in this list. Select the drive that contains the deleted files. On the program panel, click the "Analysis" button. Magic Uneraser will begin to analyze the selected disk, displaying its contents. This procedure will take some time.
You can stop the file recovery process by clicking the "Stop" button, but we recommend waiting until the program finishes the operation after analyzing the entire disk.

After analysis, the program will display a list of folders located on the selected disk. By selecting the required folder on the left, you can view its contents on the right side. Thus, the program provides the ability to view the contents of the disk in the same way as in standard Windows Explorer. In addition to existing ones, deleted files and folders will be displayed. They will be marked with a special red cross, making it much easier for you to recover deleted files.
Use the "Search" option to find the required file. For convenience, use the "Filter" option to see only deleted files. Use the right pane to recover the necessary files. If the "View" option is active, then when you select a file, its contents will be immediately shown.

On the right side, select the files or folders you want to restore, and click the "Recover" button in the panel. A file recovery window will appear. You can select the folder where you want to restore deleted files. The program allows you to not only save recovered files to a hard or removable drive, but also burn them to CD/DVD, and upload them via FTP.

Use the "Deep analysis" option if you were unable to find the required files when analyzing the disk. The program will add a "Deep Analysis" folder, where it will add the found files, sorting them by extension.
You can stop recovering data from the disk by clicking the "Stop" button.
Also use the Deep Analysis feature if you are interested recovering files after formatting hard or removable drives.

View files before recovery

The Preview option allows you to preview the content before how to recover deleted files. The preview panel is on the right, it has two tabs: "Hex" and "Preview". The first tab ("Hex") displays the file contents in hexadecimal (like a Hex editor), and has three columns: address, hexadecimal, ASCII. The second tab ("View") allows you to view the contents of the document in the form you are familiar with (either a photo, or an MS Office document, or a text document, etc.).

How to recover files from deleted drives?

The program allows you to recover files from deleted drives. To do this, click the "Find disks" button.

Specify the hard drive on which you want to find the deleted partition. Specify the search area and the type of file systems you are looking for. All found partitions will be added to the list of disks. Now you can work with deleted disks as with existing ones.

All file recovery options

Sometimes (only when working with the FAT file system) the program may mistakenly determine the beginning of the file (the first sector of its contents), several options arise. Other programs simply take the first option, with the result that, for example, instead of the desired photo, the program restores a completely different one. Magic Uneraser offers all the options, allowing you to manually select the beginning of the file. There are two ways to see the file start selection window. If the "Preview" option is active, then when such a file is selected, a button for selecting the beginning of the file appears in the preview panel. A selection window also appears when such a file is restored.
On the left side of the file start selection window, you are offered options for the first sector of the file. By selecting values on the left, you can view the contents of the file on the right side of the window.
The "Save all" button allows you to restore a deleted file in all the proposed options, and if the file is called, for example, "My file.txt", then it will be saved as "My file1.txt", "My file2.txt", " My file is 3.txt" etc.
If you select the "Do not display in this session" option by clicking "Save All", the program will no longer display the file start selection window, applying this option to all such files.