Quick Guide: How to Get Old Videos and Pictures Back on PC

How do I recover permanently deleted videos?

People have always liked to record important and interesting events in the form of videos, especially now, more and more matters are presented in the form of videos, including video conferences, slideshow videos, video tutorials, and so on. So there's a lot of important information covered in the video. Users who store videos on their computers have the potential to lose them for various reasons.

Once you lose a video, you may lose more than a precious memory, but also seriously related to the loss of company data. However, getting back old videos is still a very difficult problem for most people, don't worry, no matter what reason you lost the video on your computer, this article provides several effective ways to solve how to retrieve old videos.

How to get old videos back: 6 proven ways

There are many reasons for video loss, if you are not sure how the video disappeared, we recommend that you first check on the hard drive to see if the files are still there. If it is indeed lost, then try the methods mentioned in the text to recover deleted data. Read below 6 ways to learn how to get old pictures and videos back.

Way 1. Show hidden pictures and videos

If your videos are hidden, then you may mistakenly think that they have been deleted, in which case you can recover them, please follow the steps below to find the hidden files.

Step 1. Click the Start button on your PC, open the Control Panel, and select Appearance and Personalization.

Step 2. Find the File Explorer Options from the interface and click the Show hidden files and folders button.

Step 3. Click Hidden files and folders under the View tab and select Show hidden files, folders, and drives from the drop-down menu. And you need to uncheck Hide protected operating system files. Then see if there are any videos of yours on your hard drive.

Way 2. Search for your PC

You can also try retrieving your computer, as your videos may have been put in a different folder but have been forgotten. You just need to find the data by searching for the file name.

Click the Search icon next to the Start button and type the name of the lost video in the search box. Find out if there's a video or photo you need from the search results.

Way 3. Check the hard drive

If your videos are lost due to file system corruption, then you need to check the hard drive. You can check your hard drive and then fix file system errors to get back old videos through the guide below.

Step 1. Click on the This PC icon from the desktop and right-click on the hard drive you need to check and select the Properties option.

Step 2. Click the Check button under the Tools tab and then click Scan drive for disk error checking.

During this scanning process, file system errors will be fixed. Once the hard drive check is complete, you need to restart the computer and then check if the lost videos are back.

If you can't find the photos and videos you need on your PC, they may have been deleted or lost due to unexpected circumstances. You can check the Recycle Bin first, and if the Recycle Bin hasn't been emptied yet, you may have a chance to recover deleted files from the Recycle Bin. If the video isn't in the way, keep learning how to get old deleted videos back.

Way 4. Get permanently deleted videos back on from a backup

If you have used Windows' Backup and Restore feature, then you can recover your permanently deleted data from available backups, read on and learn how to find old videos you deleted.

Step 1. Navigate to Control Panel and click System and Security > Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

Step 2. On the next screen, click the Restore my files button under the Restore section.

Step 3. Click on the Browse for files in the pop-up interface, select the old video you need from the list, and click Next to continue.

Step 4. Check the In the following location option and select the destination to save the recovered files, click Restore to confirm.

Way 5. Restore old deleted videos via Previous Versions

It doesn't matter if you didn't have the habit of backing up your data using the Backup and Restore tool before, you can also use the Previous Versions feature to try to restore a file or folder to a previous version, so that those files that were edited, modified, damaged, and deleted have a chance to be restored.

Step 1. Open File Explorer on your computer and navigate to the folder where the lost video was stored.

Step 2. Right-click the folder, select the Properties option, click the Previous Versions tab in the taskbar, select the version of the folder you want to restore to from the list, and click Restore to confirm.

Way 6. Recover permanently deleted videos with data recovery software

Even if none of the above methods work, there is no need to worry, when losing important data, seeking the help of a professional data recovery tool is one way to be efficient. Many users do not have the habit of backing up, and an excellent data recovery tool can help users get back files lost in any case.

We highly recommend that you use MyRecover, a professional data recovery software for everyone. It has an intuitive interface that allows users to retrieve their computers with a simple few clicks and easily recover their permanently lost data.

Supports restoring all data to its original format, location, and quality.

Supports recovery of over 200 file formats, including common image formats.

With super fast scanning speed, efficient scanning of deleted or lost files.

Capable of recovering data from any situation, including formatted hard drives.

For Windows 11/10/8/7 SP1 and servers.

Step 1. Download MyRecover to your desktop and launch the program. Hover the mouse over the drive saved deleted files before, and click Scan to scan.

Step 2. You can select files after the scan is over, and the time it takes to scan is determined by the size of the data contained on the selected disk, so you can also select the files during the scan.

Step 3. Click on the Deleted files option on the left, select the video you are looking for and click Recover x files in the bottom right corner to restore your lost data.

Final words

This post provides 6 ways on how to get old videos back. You'd better find out if the video is still saved on your computer through the first 3 methods, and if it is really lost, the last three methods can help you recover the disappeared files. For users who do not have backup habits, MyRecover is the best data recovery option, which can easily help users recover data lost in all unexpected situations.