External hard drives are portable storage devices that are connected to the computer to increase the storage limit. These external hard drives are capable of storing tons of files, photos, videos, and many more based on their storage capacity.

For many users, an external hard drive is a means to backup or save important files due to its flexibility. No matter how carefully you use your external hard drive it can still be prone to data deletion or loss.

If you looking to recover deleted files from external hard drive, then, here is a complete guide on how to recover deleted or missing files from an external hard drive safely.

Recover Deleted Files from External Hard Drive | 2 Reliable methods

When the priority is to restore deleted or missing files from external hard drive then, fixing corruptions in external hard drive, or any other external storage drives like SSD or USB drive may not serve the purpose. Repairing the external hard drive might make your residing data more vulnerable. 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.

Method 1: Recover files from external hard drive using Backup

Restoring deleted files from an external hard drive is always easier if you have a habit of taking a regular backup of your external hard drive data in the form of an ISO image file.

This ISO backup on a USB drive or external hard drive can come in really handy during the time of data loss situations like accidental deletion of files from your external hard drive, permanent deletion of important files, or external hard drive corruption. If you have taken a backup of your important external hard drive data on a USB drive, then you can easily make use of it.

But 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. However, if you have accidentally deleted files from your Windows computer then, you can perform Recycle bin recovery. But, here the only way to restore files deleted from external hard disk is to make use of professional data recovery software like Remo Recover.

Method 2: Recover files from external hard drive using Remo Recover software

Utilize Remo Recover software which is a specially designed tool to recover more than 300 file formats like photos, raw-images, videos, documents, Office files, etc. from external hard drive, SSD, memory card, USB drive, etc. Apart from recovering 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.

How to Recover Deleted Files from External Hard Drive using Remo Recover Software?

Step 1: Download and install Remo Recover software on your Windows or Mac and connect the external hard drive to it from which you want to recover deleted or lost files. 

Step 2: Launch Remo External Hard Drive Recovery software and select the Recover Files option.

(Note: You can also select the Recover Partitions option if you want to restore data from formatted or severely corrupted external hard disk.)

Step 3: Select the external hard drive from which you want to recover deleted files and click the Scan button to start recovering deleted data from the external hard disk.

Note: After the recovering process completes, the Remo Recover displays your lost or deleted files from the external hard drive in Data view and File Type View.

Step 4: Now, you can preview the recovered files from external hard drive for free by double-clicking on them and select the deleted files from external hard drive that you want to recover, and click the Save to restore them to any location of your choice.

Common Reasons for Files Deletion or Missing on External Hard Drive

As the external hard drive recovery process directly depends on the causes of the data loss scenario, it is also important to understand the following reasons for data deletion from the external hard drive.

• Accidental deletion of files from an external hard disk.
• Lost data due to formatting external hard drive.
• Missing files due to inaccessible or severely corrupt external hard drive.
• Files lost or deleted while transferring from your external hard drive to the computer.
• 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.

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, etc. from the external hard drive.
• Safely restores data from formatted, corrupted, or unreadable internal and external storage devices like external hard drive, SD card, pen drive, SSD, etc. 
• Compatible with all the latest versions of Windows and Mac operating systems including Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, etc, and macOS like Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, etc.
• Easily recovers deleted or missing files from various external hard disk file systems like EXFAT, NTFS, FAT-32, etc.
• Offers a free preview of deleted or lost videos, photos, etc. 

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. However, an external hard drive has its own Recycle Bin.

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

To recover permanently deleted 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.
4. Now, type your external hard drive letter again and press Enter.
5. Type attrib -h -r -s /s /d *.* and press Enter.

After command prompt is completed, a new folder consisting of recovered files in .chk format on your external HDD is created. Now, change the .chk file format to its original file format and save them in your desired location.

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

3. How to recover files from external hard drive using File History?

To restore deleted files from external hard disk without software or 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 the deleted files from it will not be recovered using this method. However, by using Remo External Hard Drive Recovery tool, you can easily get back deleted files from it.