An external hard drive is mainly known for its high speed, cost, and compact size. But ever wondered what if your important files or valuable photos/videos get deleted from your external hard drives? Many users have experienced issues like accidental deletion, corrupted/crashed hard drives, etc. Data loss from an external hard drive can be a frustrating issue and needs to be considered at the earliest.
Luckily, there are various tools and techniques available online that you can try to recover deleted files from your External hard drive. Here, in this comprehensive guide, we will walk you through the steps for easy and successful data recovery. Before you panic, take a deep breath and follow these 3 simple steps to recover data from External hard drive.
What Causes Deletion of Data from External Hard Drive?
Data loss from external hard drives can occur due to many reasons, including both human errors and technical issues. It is very important to understand the exact cause of the deletion of data in order to prevent such incidents and to take appropriate precautions. Some common reasons for the deletion of data from an external hard drive are listed below:
- Accidental Deletion: One of the most common reasons for the deletion of data from any storage device, including an external drive is accidental deletion. You may delete files or folders while organizing, cleaning, or performing other file management tasks.
- Formatting: Formatting an external hard drive deletes all its stored data. To avoid such instances, create a proper backup of your important files in any other storage locations.
- File System Corruption: There may be file system errors on the external hard drive which affect its files and make them inaccessible or even delete them. Such issues mainly occur due to improper ejection, power failures, or other technical issues.
- Partition Deletion or Corruption: Mistakenly/Intentional deletion or corruption of a drive partition can cause data loss issues on your external hard drives. This often happens during disk management or installation of a new OS on your device.
- Virus and Malware: Malicious software can infect the drive and then corrupt or delete files stored on an external hard drive.
Recover Data Deleted From External Hard Drive Using Professional Data Recovery Tool
Before you dive into manual methods to recover lost files, let’s discuss 3 simple steps to recover data from an External hard drive. You can use professional data recovery software, like Stellar Data Recovery Professional to recover your lost or deleted files with ease. The software supports the recovery of files deleted due to various scenarios such as formatting and accidental deletion. With the help of this all-in-one recovery software, you can easily restore your lost data even from crashed or damaged external hard drives.
The Stellar Data Recovery Professional tool offers many features which make it best for your data recovery. These features mainly include:
- It supports the recovery of deleted files of multiple types, including photos, videos, documents, and many more.
- Not only external hard drive recovery, the software supports recovery of files deleted from any other internal or external storage devices, such as SD cards, USBs, Digital Camera, etc.
- The recovery software supports various hard drive file systems, such as exFAT, FAT32, NTFS, HFS+, APFS, EXT4, etc.
- The software allows you to preview the recoverable files before saving them on your device, thus saving its storage space.
Quick Steps to Recover Deleted Files Using Stellar Data Recovery Professional
Now that you are familiar with the features of the Stellar Data Recovery Professional tool, it’s time to learn how to recover data from External Hard Drive using it. So, here are the 3 simple steps that you need to follow to get your deleted files back using this professional data recovery software:
Step 1: Firstly, you need to download and install the Stellar Data Recovery Professional tool on a PC or Mac. And then connect your external hard drive to that computer. Now launch the software, select the type of file you need to recover and click Next.
Step 2: Select the storage location from where you need to recover your lost files and tap the Scan button. Now wait till the scanning process is completed.
Step 3: Once the scanning process is complete, you can preview the recoverable files. Select the type of files you need to recover and click on the Recover button to save recovered data.
That’s it! In the above 3 simple steps to recover data from an External hard drive, you can get your deleted files back.
Other Alternatives for External Hard Drive Recovery on Windows
There are several other methods as well that you can try to restore your lost or deleted files from External hard drives. For this, just go through the following methods:
Method 01: Run the CHKDSK Utility
Windows CHKDSK utility feature allows you to scan and repair your External hard drives in a few simple clicks. Follow the below-given steps to recover data from External hard drives using the CHKDSK utility:
- Tap the start menu on Windows PC and type cmd. Now, right-click on Command Prompt, then select Run as Administrator.
- Now, type the command chkdsk g: /f (Replace the letter g with the external drive letter) and press the Enter key.
- Wait till the CHKDSK scanning process gets completed. The time to complete scanning depends on the size of the external HDD.
- After completion of the scanning process, reboot the computer and check if the drive is functional again or not.
Method 02: Recover Data Using Windows File Recovery
Microsoft offers an official Windows File Recovery utility tool that you can use to recover deleted office/media/compressed files from internal/external hard drives. To recover your deleted data from External hard drive using this method, you need to:
- To start this recovery method, check out your File System first. For this, go to This PC, right-click on the external drive from where your file was deleted and click Properties.
- Now, go to the Microsoft Store, search for Windows File Recovery and tap the Get button.
- After successful installation of the software, launch it and input the following recovery command:
- winfr source-drive: destination-drive: [/mode] [/switches] (Here, source drive and destination drive are the storage location from where you need to recover your files, i.e., your External hard drive letter and destination drive letter)
- After completion of the recovery process, a recovery folder will be created at the destination which contains all the recovered files.
Method 03: Change Drive Letter
Sometimes, changing the drive letter of your external hard drives can help you to recover data from it. All you need is to assign a new drive letter to your hard drive. For this:
- Right-click on Start from the bottom-left corner, then select Disk Management.
- Now, right-click on the partition of your external hard drive and tap the “Change Drive Letter and Paths” option.
- Tap Change and if there is no drive letter, click the Add button.
- Select a new drive letter from the drop-down next to Assign the following drive letter and click the OK button twice.
How do I Recover Files From an External Hard Drive in Mac?
If you are a Mac user, then you can use the Time Machine backup utility to recover data from an External hard drive. Go through the following Mac data recovery steps to restore your lost files with ease:
- Firstly, connect your External hard drive to your Mac.
- Open the Finder window and go to the folder location where you want to recover files.
- Click the Launchpad icon, find Time Machine and click “Enter Time Machine” to access snapshots.
- Use the up and down arrows to find the files you need to restore.
- Click the Restore button and wait till the restoration process is completed. After that, check your recoverable files at the previous location.
Tips to Prevent Future Data Loss Issues
To avoid the deletion of files from your External hard drive, keep the following preventive measures in mind:
- Make a habit of regularly backing up your drive to multiple locations.
- Safely eject your hard drive from your system to avoid corruption.
- Install and use reliable antivirus software on your device to prevent data loss due to malicious programs.
- Be cautious while transferring files to or from an external hard drive.
Conclusion
Recovering data from an external hard drive can be a challenging task, but the above-mentioned methods can help you to recover your lost files easily. Remember to act quickly, stop using the drive, and choose appropriate professional data recovery software to handle such data loss issues. Additionally, make a habit of creating proper backups of your important files to prevent future data loss. Data recovery is not guaranteed, but the above 3 simple steps to recover data from an External hard drive using the Stellar Data Recovery Professional tool can help you restore your valuable data in a few simple clicks.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What should I do if I accidentally delete important files from my external hard drive?
You can use backup or data recovery software to scan and recover the deleted files. Make sure you don’t overwrite new data to the drive for smooth and quick recovery.
How can I create backup of my external hard drive to prevent data loss?
Connect your external hard drive to your computer and try creating a backup of important files on it. Otherwise, use cloud storage locations like Google Cloud or iCloud to create the backup.
How long does the data recovery process usually take?
The time required to recover data from an External hard drive varies based on the data size, the method used, and the extent of data loss. The time for the data recovery process ranges from a few minutes to several hours.
