Your computer is full of important files, and sometimes you lose some of them. Whether by accident, or because of a system crash, for example. Fortunately, if you want to recover deleted files, there are several options. In this article we will discuss Recuva, a free program that will hopefully help you out.
Once you delete a file, Windows will flag it, remove the reference to the file and allow it to be overwritten by new files. This doesn’t mean it will happen right away. This principle is used by a recovery program: it looks for files that are still intact.
When accidentally deleting a file, it is therefore important to perform as few operations as possible with the hard disk. This reduces the chance that the file will be overwritten with other data and that recovery will become more difficult.
Before you dig deeper, check the Recycle Bin. The file may have ended up there. If you don’t see it here, Recuva may still offer a solution.
Tip: Also view this course Backup restore, which contains many more tips for recovering files.
Download and set up Recuva
Recuva is basically free, but if you need more functionality, it is worth considering the paid version. You pay about 20 euros for this and get extra options, such as support for virtual disks.
Download Recuva here. The wizard will start the first time after installation. Its use is not mandatory, but in practice the wizard can come in handy when recovering lost files.
click on Next. The wizard asks what kind of files you are trying to recover. The default option is All Files selected: Recuva will then display all found files.
For a more specific restore action, you can specify which files should be shown. Choose between Pictures, Music, Documents, Video and Emails. A strange duck in the bite is the option Compressed. That option comes in handy when you’re looking for lost compressed files, such as zip files.
For a good result it is important to point Recuva in the right direction. In the next window, the wizard asks where the missing files were originally located. Is the location unknown? Then choose I’m not sure. This searches the entire disk.
Often these are files in specific locations, such as the Documents folder. In that case, choose In My Documents. Have you accidentally emptied the recycle bin and lost the files? Then choose In the Recycle Bin.
Finally, there are two specific options: In a specific location and On a CD/DVD. The first option allows you to specify a specific location, for example a private folder where the missing file was originally located. click on Next to start the check.
Find files
After the check, an overview window with search results appears. The screen is made up of several columns. In the first column you can read the file name of the recovered files, while the second column indicates the original path. The third column indicates when the file in question was last modified. You will also find a column in which the file size is indicated.
The columns state and Comment are of great importance. Bee state you can read what the status and therefore the quality of the file are. If shown here Excellent, this means that there is a good chance that you will be able to recover the file unscathed. Find the status here very poor or Poor, the file may be partially recoverable.
At the status unrecoverable the file cannot be recovered. The column Comment indicates what happened to the file. Here you can read whether the file has already been overwritten with other data and has therefore become unusable. Or you see that the file is still completely intact and the chance of recovery is therefore considerable.
By the way, you can see the health of a file at a glance by checking the color of the traffic light icon preceding the file: red is unrecoverable, orange is partially recoverable, and green is likely recoverable.
Unfortunately, a program like Recuva does not give a full guarantee on being able to retrieve your files. If the scanning does not give the desired result, you can use an extra guideline, in the form of the Deep Scan.
In the last window of the wizard, check the option Enable Deep Scan. This ensures even more precise control. This way of scanning is only used when explicitly switching on, because: count on about an hour of scanning time.
Restore files
Place check marks next to the files you want to recover. Are you satisfied with the selection? Confirm with a click on recover. A new window will appear, in which you indicate the desired destination folder. Preferably specify a folder that is located on another drive.
Tip: use an external USB stick. This increases the chance that the file will be successfully recovered and at the same time reduces the chance that even more files will be overwritten and can be recovered less well. click on OK.
In addition to the relatively simple wizard, Recuva also has an advanced mode. In the wizard screen, click Switch to advanced mode. In the left part of the window you will find an overview of all found files. Use the menu at the top left to switch between the different locations, for example between different partitions or hard drives.
Via the button next to it – scan – determine what is checked. For example, files are checked by default, but you can use the option Scan Contents also search for specific content, for example the content of a text from a Notepad document.
click on Scan Contents and add Search String what content you are looking for. Bee File Mask you can optionally specify a file type (for example if you only want to search for txt files), but in practice you choose *.*. This way, all files are examined and there is little chance that files will be overlooked.
extra options
The advanced overview window contains a number of tabs on the right. on the tab preview you will find a preview of the selected file. This is useful to verify that it is actually the file you want to recover, before you start the actual recovery. The second tab – Info – displays the core data of the file. on the tab header read your technical information about the file. Via the button Options At the top right of the window you can access additional settings.
Open the tab Actions. Furthermore, in the same section you will find the possibility to search for files that have not been deleted before, but are still lost. This is the case, for example, if the hard disk is damaged and the reference to the file is lost. Activate the option Scan for non-deleted files.
Do you want to restore entire folders instead of individual files and thereby restore the original folder structure? Then you choose Restore folder structure. on the tab Advanced determine whether Recuva’s main recovery options are allowed to be added to the right-click menu and to the recycle bin menu.
Finally, the tab Drives interesting. Here you determine which locations should be shown by default during the restore process. For example, do you never use external drives? Uncheck Show removable drives, so that these stations are not included in the check.
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