Recover Deleted Files With Microsoft’s New Free Windows App
If you accidentally delete a file, hope is not lost. However, assuming you can’t just drag it back out of the Windows Recycle Bin – this is especially true if you, like me, tend to use the more permanent Shift + Delete by default instead of just ‘delete’ – you’ll have to roll up your sleeves and try more complex technique.
File recovery apps have been around for a long time and there are many great free options that you can use. Microsoft has added another one, and I recommend adding it to your toolbox in case you ever need it. It’s called Windows File Recovery and is available as a free download from the Microsoft Store right now.
Before you pick it up and start recovering, let’s get down to the basics. The best thing you can do for a more successful file recovery is to use such an application at the moment when you accidentally deleted something. Do not shut down or restart your computer. Don’t say “ah, I’ll do it tomorrow.” The more time elapses after accidental deletion – days, weeks, months – the less likely it is that you will be able to recover data if in the meantime you were using the specified system (and its hard or solid state drive). File recovery tools can save the day, but their possibilities are not endless.
With that aside: when you launch Windows File Recovery, it doesn’t show up with the pretty GUI application you might have expected. Instead, you get the command line:
There are many options that you can enter for the various switches. But, if you are only interested in the basics, then something like this:
winfr C: E: /n \Users\<username>\Documents\QuarterlyStatement.docx
will restore the specified file from the C: drive (QuarterlyStatement.docx) to the E: drive. Yes, the source and destination disks must be different for file recovery to work, so you need to plug in a USB drive to perform recovery if your system doesn’t already have two separate disks.
Similarly, you can also try to restore the entire contents of the folder:
winfr C: E: /n \Users\<username>\Documents\
Using this command will allow you to restore the entire Documents folder on the C: drive to the E: drive.
You may have noticed that there are actually three different file recovery modes built into the Microsoft tool: default, segment, and signature. There are several reasons why you might want to use one over the other, depending on your file recovery scenario. For example, if you are using a non-NTFS file system (such as FAT or exFAT), you will only be able to use the signature mode.
As Microsoft explains :
I haven’t tried Microsoft’s tool to restore anything yet – and I haven’t had horrible accidental deletions lately – but I would recommend using the order Microsoft recommended for this. Signature mode, as far as I understand, can take a significant amount of time, depending on the size of your disk. Start with the simpler mode so you don’t waste time, and then move on to a more thorough scan if the “recovery” doesn’t do what you hoped for.