Hard drives also are prone to mechanical failures as well as logical errors. This could result in data loss or even prevent you from accessing the data. Data recovery is simple in the event of unintentional deletion or minor logical errors. However, if the drive has suffered physical damage, data recovery can be difficult and must be handled by a professional. This article will look at how to recover deleted or inaccessible data from a hard drive in Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.
Recover Data From Hard Disk on Windows
On Windows, there are many third-party apps available to restore the data from the hard disk. However, in this article, we will recommend some native Windows tools that can be used to do the same.
Restore Data from the Recycle Bin
If you have deleted a file from the Hard disk, it is possible that it has been sent to the Recycle Bin. You can bring back the files by restoring them from the recycle bin in that case.
Recover Data from File History
A Windows recovery tool named the File History Utility comes to use while recovering deleted files. However, to use this feature, users must have set a backup of the data.
Recover Hidden Files
The files on your hard drive might be hidden for different reasons, such as maintaining system integrity, virus and malware infection, system issues, or other causes. This may cause you not to be able to access the files. If your files in the hard drive have suddenly disappeared, then you can use the attrib command to remove their hidden status and recover the files.
Using the Windows File Recovery tool
There is a Windows recovery tool named the File History Utility that comes to use while recovering deleted files. However, to use this feature, users must have set a backup of their data. Here’s how to use this command. To recover the documents from the C: drive and to a recovery, drive D: use this command. Winfr C: D: /regular /n \Users<username>\Documents\ To recover the documents with extension .pdf from the C: drive to the recovery drive D:, use the command this way,Winfr C: D: /extensive /n *.pdf
Repair Disk With CHKDSK
The hard drive may sometimes have some logical errors and thus, users may not access the data inside the drive. In such instances, running CHKDSK scans can help you fix the issues with it and recover the data inside. Here’s how to use this drive repair utility l to recover the data.
Recover from the Cloud Storage
If the data on your hard drive is backed up on the cloud storage, you can recover the lost data back to your local device. Even if deleted, the synced files on the drive can remain in the cloud storage’s recycle bin for some time.
Recover Data From Hard Drive on Mac
If you haven’t cleaned up the Trash bin after the data was deleted, you can go and recover your data from the bin. To do so, open the trash icon and locate the deleted file. Right-click on the file and select Put back. To recover the data from the hard drive on Mac, you must use the backup and restore utility known as the Time Machine. If you have backed up the data from the hard disk using the Time machine, you can retrieve it easily using these steps.
Recover Data From Hard Drive on Linux
On Linux, there are multiple data recovery utilities you can use. Foremost is one of the most convenient applications among those, which lets you choose and restore different file types. Here’s how to use this application.
Visit a Data Recovery Professional
If your hard drive has met some kind of physical damage, all the methods suggested in this article might not work. In such instances, visiting a recovery professional and retrieving the data is ideal. Damage in the read/write heads or the actuator arms of the hard drive can be fixed, and data can be recovered from it. However, if the platters in the mechanical drives have incurred damage, the restoration process becomes more difficult.
