How to Recover Lost Data from Hard Drive or Memory Card?
If you have lost your data then follow the instructions below for how to recover data if the hard drive is getting detected, first try checking the health condition of hard drive by using a software tool called “Crystal Disk Info“, by this software you can check the health parameters whether it is Good, Caution or Bad. If the health parameter shows good then the hard drive health condition is good for further use, Hence in such cases you cannot use free data recovery software’s for the recovery. If the health condition shows Caution or Bad, then the hard drive life as come to an end and you need to consult professional data recovery company.
If your data is lost in hard drive, pen drive, sd card or memory card due to system crash, or accidental deletion then you can download a free professional data recovery software such as:
– Recuva
– PhotoRec
– Test Disk
Follow the instructions given below for the data recovery. You can try such software for the data recovery and scan the complete hard drive or memory card. It recovers your photos, videos, audio files, documents etc. But it may not support or may not give you the actual folder names or file names as the data is stored. You can contact us for getting the actual data with original files and folder architecture without missing any files.
How to use Recuva Software to Recover Deleted Files:
- Download, install and run the program on your computer. A welcome screen will appear. Click “Next” to proceed.
- It will ask you which kind of files you are trying to recover? Check any one of the given options. Ex:- Pictures, Music, Documents, Video, Compressed, Emails and other formats.
- Select the location where you want to retrieve the files from. If you want to look into any specific location on your computer, then click on “Browse” button select the folder & click on “Start” button. Don’t select deep scan option until you fail on your first attempt to recover the file. Note that “Deep Scan” could take over an hour depending upon the size of your hard disk.
How to Use Photorec Software to Recover the Data:
- First, download install, and launch PhotoRec on your computer. Run the program as administrator.
- Use Up/Down arrow keys to choose the disk you wish to work with and then press Enter.
- Now there will be three options to choose from i.e. Search, Options, and File Opt. For data recovery select Search to proceed.
- Next, you must select a Partition of the hard drive which you wish to scan for deleted files. The information of the file system will be required. Choose Other unless the file system is ext2, ext3, or ext4.
- Once you have selected the partition, you have two options to choose from i.e. Free and Whole. Choose the Free option if you wish to recover your deleted files or Select the whole options if the file system is corrupted.
- The next step is to choose the folder/directory where your files were located before deletion. Use Up/Down arrow keys to navigate to the folder of your choice.
- Once you have selected the folder, the restoring process will begin. Wait for it to complete.
- Now see the outcome of the restoring process. You should also scan the recovered files with your antivirus/anti-malware program as PhotoRec might have restored some Trojans.
How to Use Test Disk Software to Recover the Data:
1. Install the TestDisk utility.
2. Run testdisk and create a new testdisk.log file.
3. Select your recovery drive.
4. Select Partition Table Type of your Selected Drive.
5. Select the ‘Advanced’ option for file recovery.
6. Select the drive partition where you lost the file.
7. Browse to the directory from where you lost the file.
8. Copy the deleted file to be restored.
9. Specify the location where the found file will be restored.
10. Copy/restore the file to the selected location.
When you select a file and delete it, the system just hides the data by removing that particular file link and marks the space as “free for use”. Generally people think that once the data is deleted it is permanently gone but its not. Adding data will take hours of time but deletion happens only in seconds, the actual data is still available in the same hard drive or memory card. Due to a virus / malware infection the hard drive will not be accessible and asks for formatting can be recovered too.
Improper partitioning of the hard drive. Deletion of hard drive system files or folders, drivers, or OS corruption.
