How to Recover Deleted Files from External Hard Drive? | 2021

External hard drives are portable storage devices that are connected to the computer to increase the storage limit. External hard drives can be used to take backup and store tons of files, photos, videos, and many more based on their storage capacity.

No matter how carefully you use your external hard drive, it can still be prone to data deletion or loss. If you are looking to recover deleted files from external hard drive. Then, here is a complete guide for you starting from how to recover deleted or missing files from external HDD to important FAQs.  

Can I Recover deleted Files from External Hard Drive?

Yes, you can recover deleted files from external hard drive. Restoring files from external hard drive is easier if you regularly take a backup of your external hard drive data in the form of an ISO image file.

This ISO backup can come in handy during the time of data loss situations like accidental or permanent deletion of files from your external hard drive, corruption or formatting of external hard drive, etc. 

If you have not taken a backup of your important external hard drive data, then you can make use of the below reliable methods.

You can make use of Remo Recover which is an advanced external hard drive recovery software. It restores deleted, lost or formatted data from any brand of external hard drive in quick steps. The Deep Scan option of this tool is effective when recovering files from corrupt or unreadable external hard drives.

Proven Methods to Recover Files from External Hard Drive

When the priority is to restore deleted or missing files from external hard drive then, fixing corruptions in external hard drive or USB flash drive may not serve the purpose. Repairing the external hard drive might make your residing data more vulnerable to permanent data loss. Below are the proven methods to restore files deleted or lost from external hard drive with ease. And also find common reasons for data loss or deletion from an external hard drive.

1. Recover Files from External Hard Drive using File History

File History is a backup feature in Windows. It allows you to go back in time to recover your previous versions of deleted or lost data for free. To restore deleted files from external hard disk using Windows file history:

1. Go to the folder or external hard drive from which your files were deleted or lost.
2. Now, Right-click and select Properties.
3. Click the Previous Versions tab and select the previous version where all your deleted or lost files are located.
4. Finally, hit the Restore button

Note: In case, if you have not activated the external hard drive on Windows File History, then you cannot recover deleted files using this method. However, by making of use Remo Recover tool, you can easily get back deleted files from external hard drive. This external hard disk recovery tool even recovers deleted files from Recycle Bin if you have emptied it. 

2. Recover Deleted Files from External Hard Drive using Remo Recover software

Remo Recover is a specially designed user-friendly tool to recover more than 300 file formats like photos, raw images, videos, documents, Office files, etc. This tool works with a read-only interface to recover files from external hard drives, SSD, USB drives, memory cards, and many more. Download this tool now!

Apart from recovering permanently deleted or missing files from the external hard drive, this tool can also recover data from formatted, corrupted, or inaccessible internal or external storage drives.

To Recover deleted Files from External Hard Drive:

Step 1: Download and install Remo Recover software on your Windows or Mac. Also, connect your external hard drive to your system to recover files from it.

Step 2: Launch the tool and select the Recover Files option to recover deleted files from external hard drive.

Note: Select the Recover Partitions option to restore data from formatted or corrupted external hard disk.

Step 3: Select the external hard drive from the available list of drives to recover deleted files from it. And click the Scan button.

Note: After the scanning process completes, the tool displays recovered files from the external hard drive in Data View and File Type View. Now, you can preview the recovered data such as photos or videos for free by just double-clicking on them 

Step 4: Select the deleted files from external hard drive that you want to recover. And click the Save button to restore them to any location of your choice.

Why choose Remo Recover tool to Restore Files Deleted from External hard drive?

• A user-friendly tool to recover more than 300 file formats like photos, raw images, videos, documents, audio files, excel sheets, Office files, PDFs, ZIP, RAR, etc. 
• Securely recovers deleted files from external hard drive without any alteration to the original content.
• Restores data not only from various brands of external hard drive such as WD My Passport, Seagate, Samsung, Adata, etc. But also recovers data from internal and various external storage devices like SD cards, pen drives, SSD, etc.
• Compatible with all the latest versions of Windows and Mac operating systems. Such as Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, etc, and macOS Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, etc.
• Supports external hard drive recovery from various file systems like exFAT, NTFS, FAT, APFS, etc.
• Offers a free preview of recovered results such as deleted or lost videos, and photos.
• The recovered results can be sorted based on date, file size, file type, etc.

Common Reasons for Files Deletion or Missing on External Hard Drive

There are various reasons that can lead to data loss from an external hard drive. It is important for you to know some common data loss or deletion scenarios from external HDD to handle them cautiously:

• Accidental deletion of files from an external hard disk.
• Lost data due to formatting external hard drive.
• Missing files due to inaccessible or corrupt external hard drive.
• Files lost or deleted while transferring from your external hard drive.  
• Interruptions while using external hard drive like system shutdown, power surge issue, etc.
• Abrupt removal of external hard drive or USB flash drive can cause data deletion or loss from it.

Frequently Asked Questions?

1. Do deleted files from external hard drive go to Windows Recycle Bin?

No, deleted files from external hard drive do not go to Windows Recycle Bin. 

If you have deleted files from the external hard drive without any backup, then it is as same as the permanent deletion of data on Windows or Mac. But, external hard drive has its own Recycle Bin which can be accessed easily.

2. How to recover deleted or missing files from external hard drive using CMD?

To recover missing files from external hard drive using cmd, follow the below free method:

1. Connect your external hard drive to your PC and type CMD in the Windows search box.
2. Right-click Command Prompt to open it as Run as administrator.
3. Type chkdsk g: /f and press Enter.

Note: Replace g with your external hard drive letter and wait for the command to complete.

1. Now, type your external hard drive letter again and press Enter.
2. Type attrib -h -r -s /s /d *.* and press Enter.

After the command prompt completes, a new folder consisting of recovered files in .chk file format is created on your external HDD. Change the .chk file format to its original file format and save them in your desired location to access your lost files from external hard disk. 

Note: CMD is used to fix external hard drive corruption along with recovering deleted files from it. But, in most cases, this method fails to successfully perform external hard drive recovery. At such times, you can make use of Remo Recover software to recover files from external hard drive.

3.  Can I know some tips to successfully recover deleted files from an external hard disk?

1. Don’t use unreliable data recovery methods or tools to recover data from external hard drive.
2. Stop using your external hard disk once you lose data from it.
3. Make use of external hard drive recovery tools like Remo Recover to securely recover deleted files from external hard disk.

Above all, don’t connect your external HDD to virus-infected devices and take a regular backup of all your important files from it. Also, verify the files before you delete or format the external hard drive.