Windows offers basic features like a recycle bin and file history to recover files. They come in handy if you are swift, but if you accidentally delete files and only get to know about them later, you cannot do much. In this case, the only option is to recover deleted files using professional software like Disk Drill. The best part of Disk Drill is that it can recover data from any file system, including NTFS, FAT32, EXT, HFS+, and many other file systems. This post will show how to recover deleted files in Windows 11/10 using Disk Drill software.
How to Recover Deleted Files in Windows 11/10
Before we go ahead and show you, here is one fact you need to remember. When files are deleted, they are deleted from the index. There is no way to undelete files from Windows 11/0, but that doesn’t mean they are lost. Those files remain in the same place, but there is no way to find them. This basic principle is used by professional software to recover deleted files. Also, the faster you act, the brighter the chances of getting back the file. If any other data overwrites the space used by those lost files, those files will be lost forever. That’s why you should have software like this installed from day one.
1] Install Disk Drill & Enable Recovery Vault
The first thing you should do is download and install Disk Drill for Windows. During the installation, you will get an option to enable Data Protection. Make sure to enable it. Data Protection offers Recovery Vault, which keeps track of the location of files even if they are removed from the Recycle bin. Since it keeps track, recovering files becomes a lot easier. The software allows you to recover 500 MB of data for free. It can be an excellent option as anybody can test the software for file recovery.
2] Scan and Recover Deleted Files in Windows 11/10
To start the recovery process, make sure the drive is connected to the PC, especially if it’s an external drive or USB. Next, launch the software and switch to Data Recovery. It will list all the connected drives and their partitions in Tree View. While you can change it to detailed, I find it confusing. Tree view lets you explore partitions inside drives, which makes it easy to understand.
- Select the drive or partition you want to recover files.
- The right pane will show the details of the drive and allow you to select a recovery method.
- All
- Quick Scan
- Deep Scan
- Search for lost partitions (applicable for drive)
- Allocate existing data
- Undelete Protected Data.
- I suggest you let it run with the default method, but once you are through, you can always make a different choice.
- Click on the search for data to start the recovery process.
- Once the scan is complete, it will categorically display files, such as pictures, Videos, Audio, Documents, and Archives.
- As you can see in the image below, Disk Drill recovered two of the deleted files even though they were removed from the recycle bin.
- Mouse hover on any of the files and then click on the eye-like icon to see a preview of the files. If you are satisfied with the result, you can either select the entire folder or individual file to export. Here is an example of how it will look when you preview the file. Right next to it is the drive from where the file was recovered.
- While recovering the files, make sure to place them on a drive that is different from the source. During the scanning process, you will also see a Reconstructed section. It lists files that are still in the process of recovery. If you cannot wait, click “Show scan results in Explorer” to view data directly. It will only reveal files that can be recovered.
- Next, to recover files, mark them as recoverable. You can do that by checking the box next to them or right-clicking.
- When you’re done with that, click on the Recover button to start extracting the files.
Here is an impressive part of the Disk Drill recovery process. Instead of saving it on a physical drive, it creates a virtual drive and keeps all the recovery data inside it. It ensures the files do not overwrite any existing drive data in case a recovery is needed.
3] Search and Filter to find files
If your search result is enormous, we suggest using Search and Filters to find the file or sort the files for the best experience. In the recovery result, look for the View and Filters option at the top.
- View: You can see folders and files in different formats, i.e., lists, thumbnails, etc.
- Filter: Here, you can filter out files according to size. It is beneficial if the result is full of data with zero bytes.
That said, we are glad it is easy to recover deleted files in Windows 11/10 using Disk Drill. We highly recommend you take a look at their tutorial for Windows 10.
DiskDrill Extra Features
The software goes beyond file recovery. It offers data protection for drives and folders and a Backup solution. These features add to the value it already provides, making it a one-stop solution for those who worry about data loss.
Enable Data Protection for Drives
A shield icon is available next to each drive. When you click on it, it will enable data protection. I would recommend you enable it for all your drives. Once enabled, it will keep track of all the files, making recovery much more accessible. So even if you empty the recycle bin, the protection will recover deleted files from the recycle bin on Windows 11/10.
Enable Drive Backup
When you plan to use the software for the long term, I suggest you also use the Drive Backup feature. You can always use it with an existing backup solution, including Windows 10 Restore files functionality.
We hope the guide helped you understand how to recover files using DiskDrill on Windows.
