How to Recover Data from a Hard Drive on Windows 10

Losing data or important files due to accidental deletion or due to some hardware or software snag is something very common. Thankfully, you can recover your lost files or data easily using few simple steps. Despite that keeping, data backup is always advised by experts to prevent data loss effectively. However, it is considered that discovering data loss situation at an early stage can help you restore data instantly and accurately. The more time you take to notice more it will be difficult to recover data. Let’s discuss few simple steps to recover lost data from a hard drive on your Windows 10 system.

Recover lost files from Recycle Bin: This is the known fact to every Windows user that the first place where you can find the accidentally deleted or lost files is to search into Recycle bin. This is the simplest way possible to quickly recover lost files on your system. You can easily find your lost files here unless you haven’t clean your recycle bin. In fact, this should be the first place you should look for to recover deleted files.

To recover files from recycle bin, go to recycle bin of your system, swift through the files to find the file (s) you want to recover, right-click on the file and select restore. Remember to recycle bin has its own size limit to store deleted files, once that limit is breached it will start deleting files permanently starting from the oldest file in the recycle bin. In case, you have deleted files from recycle bin even now you can recover your lost files using best data recovery software tools.

Restore previous version: Whenever you delete any file or folder on your system it doesn’t destroy completely from your system forever. Instead, it simply gets marked as “Deleted” in system drive’s File Allocation Table (FAT) or the Master File table (MFT). It is done automatically by the system. Once system performs this action, your deleted file will remain on your system but no longer listed in the folder previously it was. Thus, the file will not be displayed to you and you can’t locate the file.

To restore your lost files, you can use “Restore Previous Version” feature on your system, which is a part of a Windows Volume Shadow Service, which creates restore points on your system to help you roll back changes effectively you have occurred. This feature allows you to recover files without the need or downloading any third-party data recovery software tools. It allows you to recover data even if you had emptied system recycle bin or removed files using Shift + Delete option. Though this function is more effective and useful when used in early stage of file deletion. You can use this feature for improved results instantly.

To use this feature, simply head to folder or location where the deleted file was once stored. Now right-click on the folder and choose “Restore previous versions” option from the drop-down list. It will open a new window containing all deleted files, wherein you can choose the file you want to recover. This simple process will help you recover files instantly saving your time and efforts.

If you can’t find the “Restore previous versions” option by right-clicking on the folder, you can access it following these steps.

• First, go to Start menu of the system and select Control Panel.
• Go to System & Security tab > select System and turn on the System Protection in the left sidebar. Here you can find all drives with its corresponding protection.
• Now choose particular drive where file exists and click on Configure.
• Click “Restore system settings and previous versions of files” option and click OK.
• Now you will be able to see the option to recover the specific file.

To recover an older version of the lost or deleted file: If you have deleted your file and emptied your Recycle bin then you can try to recover an older version of the deleted file using Windows built-in backup and restore feature. To do this, open the folder where the deleted or lost file previously exist and click on the History option. Here file history will show all the files contained in the latest or most recent backup of that folder. Click on the Previous button to locate and choose the file you wish to retrieve and then click on green Restore option to get it back. This is quick step to recover your lost data.

The backup method: A little conscientious step by user to take backup of system data on regular intervals can help you avoid data loss in case you accidentally lost your files on your system. You can try this backup in a separate library within the system hard drive, can save in an external device, flash drives or on cloud servers. You can restore your lost data from this data backup from different drives.

You can try these simple steps to take backup of your data on your system. Following these simple steps, you can prevent data loss effectively.

Summary: It happens sometimes when you accidentally delete or lost data on your system. To deal with it and to recover lost data on your hard drive you can follow few simple steps. Let’s discuss these steps here.