Losing an important file (or several files) from an external data storage medium like an external HDD or SSD, a memory card or a USB flash drive is one of the most widespread problems a regular PC user may encounter. So, if you’ve ever faced such an issue and had no clue how to solve it or just want to be prepared in case you face it one day, keep reading.
First of all, when you discover that some files are missing from your data storage device, don’t panic. In the majority of cases, for example, if they were deleted (on purpose or by mistake) or disappeared after a hardware or software failure, it is still possible to recover them with a data recovery program (Raise Data Recovery in our case). The thing is that in spite of being inaccessible to you, the deleted or lost data might still be physically present on the device, at least, before it is replaced with new information. Therefore, most lost or deleted files remain recoverable BEFORE they are overwritten. And that is why it’s highly recommended that you stop using the device you’ve lost or deleted files from as soon as possible to prevent them from being replaced with new data.
Before you proceed to data recovery with software
That being said, under certain circumstances it is impossible to restore missing information with data recovery software, no matter how advanced or effective it is. To be more specific, please don’t try recovering files yourself with a dedicated data recovery program, when:
- your memory card / external hard drive/ USB flash drive is physically damaged;
- the operating system of the PC you attached your device to can’t detect it;
- your data storage is displayed with zero or incorrect capacity.
In the above-mentioned cases, please take your data storage medium to an electronics repair laboratory as your DIY efforts to repair it may make your case even more complicated and result in irreversible data loss.
If none of the cases listed above is yours, feel free to download the free trial version of Raise Data Recovery and follow the instructions below to get your lost or deleted files back.
How to recover deleted or lost files
Download Raise Data Recovery to the computer you’re planning to use for data recovery purposes and install it just like you install any other software.
Now attach the USB flash drive, memory card or external hard drive you’ve lost files from to that PC.
Run the program. Find your storage in the Physical disks panel and select it. If it’s not there, please try pressing the Refresh drives button at the bottom of the window.
Hit the Continue button in the bottom right corner to launch the scanning of the selected data storage device. Alternatively, you can just double-click it.
On the next screen, you’ll see two scanning options: a deep one that takes more time and a quick one that consists in a quick analysis of the existing file system. Opt for the deep scanning, if you need to restore files after a quick format or in case the file system of the device is very damaged. In other cases, the quick one will be more than enough and will save your time and system memory. Select the option you need.
Wait till the scanning is finished. The recovery results will be listed in the built-in Explorer tool.
For more convenient navigation, Raise Data Recovery groups all files by types into corresponding folders: documents, audio files, images, video files and so on. So, if you’re looking for a lost or deleted photo, for example, look for it in the Photos and pictures folder.
As an alternative, you can open the All files folder to see all your files exactly as they are organized in the actual file system (as a tree of folders).
The recovered files and folders can be easily distinguished from those currently available on the storage by a different color of their names.
Find the recovered files and folders you need to copy, tick them off and hit the Recover selected button at the bottom of the window.
Choose an internal or external data storage to save your recovered files.
Please NEVER save the recovered information to that very storage medium they have been restored from as this can provoke irreversible data loss.
With the trial version of Raise Data Recovery you can copy small files of up to 256 KB each. To save files bigger than 256 KB, you need a license.
Press the Start recovery button and wait till the program saves your data to the specified storage.
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