How to Recover Deleted Videos from a Flash Drive | 4 Proven Ways

A USB drive or pen drive is the most commonly used removable storage component, which is connected to a system or other device via USB (Universal Serial Bus) mode. Portable, easy-to-use, and platform-independent, these devices store videos, photos, audios, documents, and more.

Sometimes, as mentioned in the above scenario, you may accidentally delete video files from your flash drive. Also, files are easily lost due to various other reasons such as drive formatting, system crash/error, malware infection, hardware failure, etc.

How to recover deleted videos from a flash drive when you accidentally deleted videos or photos? Today, this guide will give you 4 effective ways to get back deleted videos or other files.

Can file deleted from flash drive be recovered?

Where do deleted files from flash drive go? Can data be recovered from a flash drive? Usually, when you delete a file from your computer, it is moved to the Recycle Bin, where you can quickly restore it. But files on a USB flash drive aren't part of your system, so when you delete them, they won't be moved to the Recycle Bin.

In fact, the files still physically exist on the flash drive, but the file management system removes them from its index and makes it appear that the space previously occupied by the files is empty. The file continues to exist on the flash drive until a new file overwrites it.

So if you've recently lost files from your flash drive, there's a good chance you'll be able to recover them.

Pro-tip: To increase the chances of recovering accidentally deleted or lost files from a USB drive, do not use it and perform flash drive deleted files recovery as soon as possible.

How to recover deleted videos from a flash drive with software

The lost or deleted videos from USB devices can be easily retrieved back with the aid of powerful file recovery tool like MyRecover. With this tool, you don’t need to be a computer expert to successfully recover deleted USB files. It provides an intuitive and user-friendly interface that simplifies the process, so users with limited computer skills can recover files on their own.

Moreover, you can recover deleted or lost videos of various file formats like MPEG/MPG/MP4, MOV, AVI/NAVI, ASF, WMV, RM/RMX, FLV/F4V QSV, etc, in different data loss situations. In other words, you can easily restore permanently deleted videos from computer with their original content.

More features about MyRecover:
🔥 Supports recovery of 200+ types of data. It can quickly recover almost all types of data, including videos, images, documents, movies, music, archive, webpages, email, and more.
🔊 Perfectly compatible with Windows system. It is compatible with NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, ReFS in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7 and Server.
🐢 Applicable to all-inclusive data loss situations. No matter how you lost data from USB drive, pen drive or other storage devices, such as accidental deletion, disk formatting, system crash, virus attack, etc., it can offer you help.

Now, download it for free and learn how to recover deleted files from USB flash drive on Windows 7/8/10/11 in three steps.

Step 1. Open MyRecover on your computer > connect your USB drive > hover the mouse over the drive and click Scan to scan.

Step 2. During the process, you can directly recover the videos files it detected, you can search for the specific file you lost in the search box in the upper right corner and click Filter to select relative files.

(Tip: You can also find the lost or delete files based on their Type, Data Modified and Size.)

Step 3. Select the videos you want to get back and click Recover x files.

How to retrieve deleted videos from flash drive without software

If you don’t want to download any third-party software, there are three common ways to retrieve deleted files from USB without software.

Solution 1. How to recover deleted videos from a flash drive using CMD

The first method is to use CMD, which allows you to access lost video files from a USB flash drive. If photo or video files are missing from the USB flash drive, they may be hidden. You can use command prompt/CMD to unhide files and access them.

Steps to recover USB flash drive files using CMD:

Step 1. Connect your USB flash drive to computer > in the Start menu, type cmd > press Enter.

Step 2. In the command prompt window, type in: chkdsk H: /f > hit the Enter key. (Replace H with the drive letter of the USB drive).

Step 3. Now, type Y > press Enter to proceed > type H and press Enter.

Step 4. Finally, type ATTRIB -H -R -S /S /D H:*.* > hit the Enter. Wait for the process to be completed.

If successful, you will find the files in a new folder on the USB drive. You may need to change file extensions to make them available to your application.

Solution 2. Recover deleted videos Windows 10 using Previous Versions

Present in all recent versions of Windows operating systems (including Windows 7, 8 and 10), the Recover Previous Versions feature can recover deleted files without any third-party tools, but it only works if you enabled it before you delete the files.

To recover deleted videos from a USB flash drive:

Step 1. Connect the USB flash drive to your computer > Press Windows + E to open Windows Explorer > click This PC > select the USB drive where your data was deleted.

Step 2. Right-click on folder > select Properties or Restore previous versions.

Step 3. Select the previous version you need > click Restore.

Solution 3. Restore deleted files from USB flash drive from Backup and Restore

Windows 7 users can use this backup tool to recover deleted USB files. But this only works if Windows Backup is enabled on your system. If you already have a backup, follow the steps below to recover deleted media files using Backup and Restore:

Step 1. Type Control Panel in the search bar > open it.

Step 2. Click System and Security > Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

Step 3. Under the Restore tab > click Restore my files.

Step 4. Select Browse for files or Browse for folders to see the content of the backup > choose a location to save the backup.

Quick Tip: If you're searching for photos or videos, type the file type in the Search box. For example, to find backed up MP4 files, type MP4 in the search box. Or you can also search by location. For example, to search a USB drive for MP4 files, type G:\Users\\MP4 in the search box.

Closing words

That’s all for how to recover deleted videos from a flash drive with or without software. As you can see, data recovery software, such as MyRecover, offers the best chance of a successful recovery.

Losing data is never a pleasant experience. Taking proper methods to protect your data can minimize the risk of a data loss situation, but there is no foolproof way to keep your valuable files safe.

Therefore, it is recommended to develop the habit of backing up USB flash drive regularly.