How to Recover Deleted Excel File in Windows 10?

“How do I recover a permanently deleted Excel File?”

Microsoft Excel, a handy software developed by Microsoft, features plenty of efficient and available functions like calculation and pivot tables. Excel will be utilized in daily life and work, whether a company or an individual.

Being a user, you must have encountered many problems and accidents in Excel, for example, you may have met crashed Excel, mistakenly removed the wrong files, accidentally emptied the Recycle Bin, etc.

Losing the Excel file one has spent hours and days working on is frustrating. Many users still need to learn how to recover Excel files not saved/deleted.

Don't panic. This article aims at giving methods to help users retrieve deleted Excel files in an easy way.

How to recover deleted Excel files?

Given this case, this article will give solutions; please adopt anyone according to your situation.

First of all, don’t hesitate to check the Recycle Bin and see if your removed Excel files are there.

If you found deleted files are not in the Recycle Bin, they may have been permanently deleted. But don’t worry; these methods can help you out.

> > Quick Navigation：

• Retrieve Excel files from File History Backup
• Recover files with the previous version
• Get back saved  Excel files using Windows File Recovery
• Recover deleted Excel files and keep the original formats/filenames/paths

Method 1. Retrieve Excel files from File History Backup

File History is a good feature that stores the file copies of your C: drive. It records your changes every 1 hour by default. With this, you can restore deleted saved Excel files from the history.

Step 1. Start the Control Panel, and click System and Security.

Step 2. Click File History.

Step 3. Then go to Restore personal files.

Step 4. Find your deleted Excel file, then click the Recycle icon at the bottom of this window to restore your deleted files.

This tool could also help you recover deleted Word documents.

Method 2. Recover files with the previous version

If you have enabled File History or created an available restore point, you can retrieve deleted Excel files with the previous version.

Follow this instruction to easily restore previous versions of files or folders (which contains the deleted Excel workbook), and thus you could get deleted Excel files back.

Step 1. Use the shortcut Win+E to start the File Explorer.

Step 2. Locate the folder in which you previously saved the deleted files. Right-click the folder and click Restore previous versions.

Step 3. Then select the version according to the time you need in the list, then your file will be back, save it immediately this time.

Method 3. Restore deleted Excel files using Windows File Recovery

To restore deleted saved Excel files, an official tool developed by Microsoft could be utilized - Windows File Recovery, a command-line app. It could be feasible when you don't have any backups to restore from.

Unfortunately, it's a command-line app - using this tool could be pretty difficult for ordinary users.

Please check the Windows File Recovery use guide to get detailed info. Besides, it only supports Windows 10 2004  and above. 

But no worries, if you need an easy data recovery tool, you could go straight to the next method.

First, figure out your File System. Go to This PC > right-click on the drive that contains the deleted files> click Properties.

Then decide which recovery mode to use according to your File System and data loss scenario:

File system	Scenarios	mode
NTFS	Deleted recently	Regular
NTFS	Deleted for a while	Extensive
NTFS	Formatted disk	Extensive
NTFS	Corrupted disk	Extensive
FAT and exFAT	Any	Extensive

If you need to narrow the scanning range, use these switches:

Switches	Meaning	Supported mode(s)
/n	Filter the scan range: scans for a specific file with its file name/path/type, etc.	All
/y:	Recover specific extension groups.	Signature
/k	Recovers system files.	NTFS Segment​​​​​
/u	Recovers undeleted files, for example, from the Recycle Bin.	NTFS Segment

Now follow the steps below to restore deleted Excel files via Windows File Recovery.

Notes:✎...

The place you choose to store the recovered files cannot be the same as the drive where you have lost files. 

To minimize the chance of overwriting and improve the recovery rate, please stop using your computer after file loss. 

If you meet the “Windows File Recovery there was an error parsing your command” error, please get help to fix it.

Step 1. Go to Microsoft Store > search for Windows File Recovery > click Get.

Step 2. Start Windows File Recovery, and input the recovery command. The command template goes like this:

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

For example, if you are using NTFS, and you have deleted your Excel files in C: drive for a few days, so you choose Extensive mode, and you don't know the specific name, then you could use a wildcard "*",  and you want to recover them to E: drive, then you need to input:

winfr C: E: /segment /n *.xlsx

Step 3. Then input y to continue. Then wait for the recovery process; when finished, a recovery folder will be created in the destination.

Method 4. Recover deleted Excel files and keep the original formats/filenames/paths

Would you rather try heavenly hard to use complex commands to restore a file or utilize a convenient tool to save your labor? The answer will be absolutely obvious.

To restore deleted saved Excel files easily without losing the original filenames, formats, and directories, turning to a good Windows data rescue utility will be preferable.

MyRecover, a trustworthy data rescue application specially designed for Windows users, can assist users to restore deleted or missing files within only 3 steps.

Step 1. Install and run MyRecover > select the partition where used to store the deleted Excel files > click Start Scan.

Step 2. Wait for the software to scan and list all the deleted and missing files. During the process, you could search for wanted files by inputting filenames or extensions.

Step 3. Go to Deleted files > select the Excel files you need > click Recover x files. 

In addition to internal hard drives, it can also work perfectly with external storage devices - using it, you could easily recover data from WD external hard disks.

Related Suggestions

With several methods to recover deleted Excel files in Windows 10 offered above, users can easily and quickly restore the Excel files they need. Moreover, here are some more sincere suggestions for all users to prevent future losses.

• Take advantage of the inbuilt AutoSave tool wisely. Using this tool, you could also easily recover unsaved PowerPoint files.
• Occasionally turning to the Recycle Bin may help you out.
• Save your files during your working process now and then.
• Making backup regularly is always the best bet.