How to Recover Accidentally Deleted or Formatted Files

Have you ever accidentally hit the delete key and removed important stuff from your PC? Ever empty the recycle bin and wish you hadn’t? Have files on your system, camera card, hard drive, flash drive, or other external storage device that just disappeared?

There are ways to attempt to retrieve this information from your device, but first I must warn you that if these files are of absolute importance I would enlist the help from a LICENSED, PROFESSIONAL DATA RECOVERY EXPERT! Doing what I am going to describe below does pose a further risk of data loss and by reading this article you understand that you are using this AT YOUR OWN RISK and the only one who is responsible for the outcome is YOURSELF! The article below describes my own personal usage of the software and I AM NOT a professional data recovery expert!

Anyway, to continue!

There is a totally free program offered by the folks at Piriform (creators of CCleaner and Defraggler). The program is titled Recuva. You can get it at www.piriform.com. Please read the advice provided by Piriform prior to attempting recovery as that information will be updated regularly while this article may not.

To get started, download and install the program. When you run the program it will take you through a wizard where you can indicate the type of files you are trying to recover, or simply say “other” which will search for all files. From there, you are able to indicate the area the files were at on your computer, or simply say “I’m Not Sure.”

When selecting these options it is BEST to narrow it down to a directory or file type to eliminate your system from finding rubbish data that has been purged, such as images that may have been from your temporary internet files cache. It will also help to speed up the recovery by limiting the areas in which the program will look.

Now you may run a scan to attempt to recover data, if unsuccessful you can rerun a deep scan, or set for a deep scan (which will take longer, but search deeper for your files) right off the bat by going into the options menu located on the top right corner of the software. In the option menu you may also check a box that scans for non-deleted files which is intended for recovery from an accidentally formatted or damaged storage device.

It is recommended that you recover files to a separate storage device, one other than the device the files were stored on, such as an external USB storage device that is large enough to hold all of the files you are attempting to recover. The reason for this is that when files are deleted, they can still reside on the drive, however if you put more files back onto the same drive you are recovering from, they may possibly overwrite the files on this “empty” space that actually still has your data written to it.

Good luck in your effort to recover your lost files. I hope this article has shown you one possible way of attempting to recover your data. Please remember, this is an ATTEMPT, and there is no guarantee you will be able to access the files you deleted. In the future, a weekly automated backup may provide you with a better alternative to prevent the loss of data by offering a way to restore it if lost. REMEMBER! If the files you need to have recovered are critical, PLEASE SEEK THE ASSISTANCE OF A PROFESSIONAL TECHNICIAN WHO SPECIALIZES IN DATA RECOVERY!