External hard drives are mainly known for their speed, convenience, and easy usability. You can use these external hard drives to transfer files, store large files, maintain your backups, and perform many other tasks. However, sometimes you may encounter data loss issues on these external hard drives. These errors can occur due to various reasons such as accidental deletion, formatting errors, hardware malfunctions, etc.
Whatever is the cause for the loss of data from your External hard drive, the good news is that you can recover your lost data. There are several tools and techniques available online that you can use to restore your precious data. In this article, we will explore 3 simple steps to recover data from external hard drive.
Can I Recover Data Lost From an External Hard Drive?
Many of you must be wondering if it is possible to restore data lost or deleted from External hard drives. The only answer is Yes! Usually, when any file is deleted from the drive, it is not permanently deleted. The space it was occupying will be made available for new files. It will only be permanently overwritten when you save new files on your device. In such cases, you need a professional data recovery software to restore your lost files.
Before you dive into recovery methods to know how to recover deleted data from External hard drives, it is important to find the exact cause of the data loss issue. Some prominent reasons for data loss on an external drive are as follows:
- There may be accidental deletion of files while managing them on your device.
- Unexpected system shutdown or sudden power failure during data transfer or access may cause file corruption or deletion.
- Malicious software, like virus or malware attacks, can lead to the deletion of files or make them inaccessible.
- File system corruption occurs due to software issues or sudden disconnections, which lead to file deletion.
- Physical damage to the external hard drive, such as a malfunctioning disk or connector, can cause the deletion of files.
Quick Steps to Recover Data from External Hard Drive
Now that you are familiar with the reasons for data loss from your External hard drive, it’s time to apply recovery steps to recover deleted data. Among several methods to restore your data, let’s start with the simplest one. In this part, we will discuss how to recover lost data using a professional data recovery tool.
Stellar Data Recovery Professional is an all-in-one external hard drive recovery tool which supports recovery of your lost files on both Windows and Mac devices. The software supports recovery of files deleted due to any reason, including accidental deletion, drive formatting, virus or malware attacks, etc.
Not only external hard drives, the Stellar Data Recovery Professional tool supports the recovery of lost files from several other storage devices, like Flash Drives, Hard Drives, Memory Cards, etc. The software is mainly known for its amazing features, such as:
- The tool supports recovery of a wide range of files, including photos, videos, documents, and many more.
- It supports the recovery of lost files from various file formats, including FAT, NTFS, EFS, etc.
- The software allows a deep scan option to help you restore data by deeply scanning the storage drive.
- Stellar Data Recovery allows you to preview the recoverable files, so you can select the required files and save them back on your device.
Now, go through the following 3 simple steps to recover data from an External hard drive using the Stellar Data Recovery Professional tool:
Step 1: Launch the Stellar Data Recovery Professional tool on your device and connect the external hard drive to your PC. Select the type of file you need to recover and click Next.
Step 2: Now, from the Recover From window, select the storage location from where you need to restore your lost data. Tap the Scan button to start scanning.
Step 3: After completion of the scanning process, preview the recoverable files and select the files you want back. Click Recover to save selected files at the desired storage location.
Other Methods to Recover Deleted Data from External Hard Drives
Recovering data from external drives can be easy with the above method, i.e., recovering via professional data recovery software. But it is important to check some other alternatives so you can check and apply the method as per your specific needs. Let’s dive into these methods one-by-one:
Method 01: Recover Deleted Data Using Command Prompt
You can use the Windows Command Prompt utility to recover files deleted from the external hard drive. All you need to do is:
- Firstly, connect your external hard drive to your computer.
- Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run prompt. Type CMD and press the Enter key.
- Now, type the following command: “ATTRIB -H -R -S /S /D X:*.*” and press the Enter key (Replace X with the drive letter of your external hard drive).
Once the command is successfully executed, restart the computer and connect your external hard drive to check if you can access lost data.
Method 02: Show Hidden Files on External Hard Drive
Sometimes, you might have hidden files on your external hard drive to protect your confidential data. In such cases, you can go through the following steps to recover hidden files on the external drive:
- Press the Windows + E keys to run File Explorer. Click View to open File Explorer options.
- Select the “Show hidden files, folders, and drives” option located under Advanced settings and click Apply.
- Then, click the OK button after which the hidden files will appear on the external hard drive.
Wrapping Up
Having data loss on an External hard drive can be a terrible situation. But when you encounter such issues, go with the above-mentioned 3 simple steps to recover data from an External hard drive. In this article, you can see all the simple and easy ways to restore lost files from the hard drive, especially via the Stellar Data Recovery Professional tool. It can recover your lost data from any internal or external storage drive in just three simple clicks.