7 Proven Ways to Recover Deleted Files from External Hard Drive

External hard drives are mainly used to store personal data such as photos, videos, music, and documents, or to create copies of files, allowing you to access data at any device. However, the more data you store on an external hard drive, the more likely you are to lose it.

If you are in this situation, don't panic and it's possible to recover deleted files from external hard drive. This article will introduce you to the possible reasons behind data loss and several effective methods with step-by-step guides. 

Possible reasons for data loss from external hard drive

Why do I lose data on my external hard drive? Here are some common reasons:

No matter what the reason is, as long as you choose the correct and effective methods, you can recover deleted files from external hard drive easily.

7 options to recover deleted files from external hard drive 

The files deleted on external hard drive will be permanently deleted instead of moving to the Recycle Bin. Here, I have provided 7 external hard drive data recovery ways to recover deleted files from Seagate/WD/SanDisk/Samsung external hard drives.

▶ Option 1. Recover deleted files from external hard drive using software

Suppose you accidentally delete your files or format an external hard drive, using the data recovery freeware FastRecovery will be one of the best methods if you are using Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, and Windows Server. It even works to recover permanently deleted files.

• Recover deleted or lost files with a high success rate and rapid scanning speed.
• Recover files from external hard drive for free up to 500MB in total.
• Recover lost Word document, Excel file, PDF, PPT, photos, movies, etc and more than 1000 file types, without losing quality.
• Automatically start quick or deep scanning to find as many of your files as possible.
• Organize and display data by Type (default) or Path, providing options to sort, search, filter, and preview files. 

Now, download and launch FastRecovery for external hard drive data recovery. Be sure to connect your external hard drive first. 

Step 1. Select your loss scenario

Open FastRecovery after installing, then click Deleted Files Recovery for fast recovery. You can also choose a more suitable alternative. All of them can help you retrieve data without causing any damage.

Step 2. Locate your external hard drive

Find the external drive where the deleted files are stored and click Scan.

Step 3. Scan for deleted files

It will scan the drive with Quick Scan. You don't need to wait much. Scan time mainly depends on disk size and health, especially regarding bad sectors or file system corruption.

Step 4. Locate files quickly

Wait for the process to complete. The software is designed to organize and display data by Type (default) or Path, offering options to sort, search, filter, and preview files, thus making it easier to locate files.

👉Under the Type section: 

• Specify the data type and click the arrow next to type, size, date modified, etc., to sort files. 
• To locate files quickly, type the file name or extension in the search box.
• Or use the filter feature, similar to the Type category, allowing you to further specify the size of files, from less than 512 KB to 1GB above.
• Once found, double-click the files to preview. 

👉 Under the Path section: Directly navigate to the original location where you saved deleted files. Sort files if needed.

Step 5. Recover deleted files from external hard drive

Select the files you want to recover and click Recover. Please choose a new location to save the restored files. Otherwise, the deleted data may be overwritten.

▶ Option 2. Recover deleted files from Windows backup

If you create a file backup with Backup and Restore, you can choose to restore deleted files from external hard drive. It will include all the files and changes if you enable its scheduled backup feature.  

Step 1. Navigate to Control Panel > System and Security and select Backup and Restore (Windows 7). Click on Restore my files to selectively recover permanently deleted files.

Or You can also choose Restore all users’ files to get all deleted files back.

Step 2. Search for your deleted files or use the Browse for files or Browse for folders option to find it. Then, click Next.

★ Note: The Browse for files option will list all the deleted files while Browse for Folders lists folders containing deleted files.

Step 3. Choose the original or new location to save files in the backup and click Restore to recover deleted files from external hard drive.

▶ Option 3. Retrieve deleted files from external hard drive using CMD

You can also recover deleted files from external hard drive using the CHKDSK and Attrib command. It helps to deal with data loss due to virus attacks and file attributes loss, or recover hidden files.

Step 1. Plug in your external hard drive into your computer. Open Command Prompt as an administrator.

Step 2. Input chkdsk G: /f  and pres Enter. Please replace G: with the drive letter of your external hard drive

 Step 3. Type Y if you are asked to run chkdsk at the next system restart. 

Step 4. Type attrib -h -r -s /s /d G:*.*. and press Enter. Please replace G: with the drive letter of your external hard drive

▶ Option 4. Recover deleted files using Windows File Recovery

Microsoft’s Windows File Recovery is a command-line utility to help you recover deleted or lost files from external hard disks for free. It requires you to learn the syntax, recover mode, and switches. 

For more details, you can check: how to use Windows File Recovery.

Step 1. Download and install Windows File Recovery from the Microsoft Store. Then, open it.

Step 2. Open CMD and run as administrator. Enter commands based on the following format and example:

winfr source-drive: destination-drive: [/mode] [/switches]

To recover deleted pdf files from F: drive (the external hard drive) to D: drive, then the command will be like:

winfr F: D: /regular /n *.pdf

You can try Windows File Recovery, but it may not retrieve your deleted files every time. You may also encounter different errors during the file recovery process, such as, “Winfr.exe is not recognized as an internal or external command”, “WinFR requires admin privileges to run”, etc.

▶ Option 5. Fix corrupted files on external hard drive

System File Checker(SFC)is a utility in Microsoft Windows that allows users to scan the disk and repair missing or corrupted system files.

Step 1. Be sure your external hard disk is detected. Open CMD with administrator priority.

Step 2. Type DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealthand press Enter.

Step 3. Type sfc /scannow and press Enter.

Step 4. Type exit and press Enter to close this window.

▶ Option 6. Recover lost/deleted partition on external hard drive 

If the partitions in your external hard drive are disappeared due to accident deletion or unknown reasons, the simplest method is try partition recovery to save the partitions and files together.

Step 1. Go to Recover > Partition Recovery on the main interface. When you get into the partition recovery wizard, select a disk that you want to recover. Click Next.

Step 2. Select Fast Search. It is recommended that you select this option the first time as it is faster than Full Search. If you are unable to recover the lost partition using Fast Search then I recommend you try the Full Search option.

Step 3. Select the lost partition and click Proceed.

Step 4. Click Finish to exit this window after you see the congratulations message.

Option 7. Recover files from external hard drive not detected

If your external hard drive is not recognized, the first thing is to make it available on your PC or Windows Explorer. The following are some useful methods you can try:

• Check the connection and cables. If the connection is loose, reconnect it. If the cable looks worn, replace it. Also, you can try a different cable.
• Try a different USB port or computer.
• Check and update disk drivers in Device Manager.

Input “devmgmt.msc” in the search box and press Enter to open Device Manager. Then, locate and right-click the external hard drive, and select Uninstall device. After that, restart your PC and plug in the external hard drive, it will install the necessary drivers.

• Format a corrupt or RAW disk to make it recognized (if necessary).

Bonus to protect files on external hard drive

You may not want to lose any data on external hard drive in case you need it oneday. You can take some measure to protect them.

Try Some Simple Solutions

Know signs of problems with external hard drive

Problems like accidentally deleted files from external hard drive can be easily noticed, but some of them are insignificant at first and slowly it can become worse or even cause a big problem. Here are some signs that your disk is experiencing problems:

If you are experiencing one or more signs above, it’s suggested to create a disk backup containing all the data on it.

Create a copy of files automatically

In addition, you can choose to create a set-and-forget schedule file backup which is the best practice to protect files.

Step 1. Download and install Windows backup software - AOMEI Backupper Standard. Then, click Backup > Disk Backup to backup entire disk and data on it.

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Step 2. Set the Task Name to distinguish the backup task from each other. Click Add Disk to choose the external hard disk.

Step 3. Select a location to store all the data on your external disk. You can create a disk-to-disk backup, or backup to a USB flash drive, network drive, NAS device, cloud drive, etc.

Step 4. Click Schedule Backup and enable Daily, Weekly, and Monthly to backup disk automatically. Thus, you will not lose any change made on the disk.

Step 5. Click Start Backup to carry out disk backup and wait until the operation is complete. Click Finish to exit the interface.

Conclusion

This post mainly introduces how to recover deleted files from external hard drive for free on Windows 7, 8, 10, and 11. Thus, you can find a suitable solution no matter whether you accidentally deleted your files, formatted the disk, or the files are lost or corrupted due to other reasons.

Instead of recovering files, it’s suggested to prevent data loss beforehand. There are many methods to help you and the best way is to backup files on your external hard drive using a free backup software like AOMEI Backupper Standard.

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