[3 Solutions] How to Recover Excel File After Crash with Ease

Has your computer or Excel program crashed too? If you are like the user in the case and want to know how to recover Excel file after crash, please continue reading the rest of this article to get 3 free and effective recovery methods to recover Excel file.

How to recover Excel file after crash: 3 solutions

How to restore Excel file after crash? There are 3 different solutions here and we will introduce steps of them in detail and you can refer to them according to your needs.

Solution 1. Recover Excel file from backup

When it comes to how to recover files from Excel after crash, backup is quite helpful for your recovery task. File History is a Windows built-in backup tool, which will create backups of your files automatically once you enable it on your PC. If the backup of your file is prepared, you can try this method following the steps below to solve how to recover Excel file after crash:

1. Go to Control Panel and choose System and Security.

2. On this page, choose File History.

3. Next, click on Restore personal files on the left menu.

4. You can find your Excel file here, choose it and press the green Recycle button to recover it.

⇒ Tip: Regular backups can make your recovery task much easier if you encounter a crash on PC. A professional backup tool like AOMEI Backupper can protect your files better.

Solution 2. Recover Excel file via Windows File Recovery

How to recover Excel file on Windows? If you are not in the habit of backing up your files, then you can try some professional file recovery software like Windows File Recovery provided by Microsoft for Windows 10 2004 and later versions.

But this is a command-line tool, which is not easy for ordinary users to operate. Some basic information about it is necessary for you before using it to solve how to recover excel file after crash.

To begin with, you need to know the file system of your PC. Just go to This PC and right-click on your storage device to choose Properties, then you can figure out your File system.

Then you can choose a mode according to your File system and data loss Scenarios.

The basic command line syntax is winfr source-drive: destination-drive: [/mode] [/switches]. If you do not know the meaning of switches, you can refer to the table below:

Now, you can recover your Excel file using Windows File Recovery.

1. Go to the Microsoft Store and search for Windows File Recovery. Then click Get to download and install it on your PC.

2. Then, find it in the Windows menu, and click Run as administrator.

3. Then you can input the proper command line and tap Enter.

For example, if you are using NTFS file system, and want to recover Excel file from C drive to E drive, you can input the command input winfr C: E: /segment /n *.xlsx. 

4. Then type Y to continue. Just wait for the recovery task to finish. And it will create a new recovery folder in the destination.

Solution 3. Recover Excel file with best data recovery tool

If you haven't created backups of your Excel files and find the command line tools too difficult to work with, this next method may be best for you - MyRecover. This is a professional data recovery tool provided for Windows 11/10/8/7 and Windows Server.

Compared with a command-line tool, MyRecover is easier to use with a clear graphical user interface. And it just needs 3 steps to recover lost files quickly.

What’s more, MyRecover will never change the filename, format, and path of your file. And it supports many main file systems including NTFS/exFAT/FAT32/ReFS in Windows.

If you wanna know how to recover Excel file deleted in crashes, click on the Download Software button to download and install it on your PC. Then follow the 3-step guideline to recover your Excel file easily.

1. On the main page, hover the mouse over the drive saved deleted files before, and click Scan to scan.

2. After Quick Scan/Deep Scan automatically, you can see your deleted files and other missing files on the page.

3. Select a new location to store your recovered Excel files. After that, click on the Recover X files button to recover your Excel files quickly.

Tips: Recover Excel file not saved

If you were unlucky enough not to have saved your Excel file before your computer crashed, then here are two methods that may help you.

Way 1. Recover unsaved Excel file in Recent

You can recover unsaved Excel file in Recent Workbooks. Here are the easy steps to recover Excel file not saved:

1. In Excel workbook, go to the File section.

2. Click Open > Recent. Then click on Recover Unsaved Workbooks here.

Way 2. Recover unsaved Excel file via AutoSave settings

Another way is to use AutoSave and AutoRecover features in Excel. You can follow the steps below:

1. Likewise, go to the File section.

2. Go to Info > click Manage Workbook. Then you can see the previous version of your Excel file, and you can choose one version to save it.

Final thoughts

That’s all about how to recover Excel file after crash. Reading here, we believe you have found the most suitable method for your Excel file. Once you find your Excel file is lost, please try recovering it as soon as possible. So an easy tool may be more efficient like MyRecover. Besides, it is advisable for you to make automatic backups of your files in daily life. In this way, you will not lose your important data when you encounter system crashes and you can recover lost data more easily. AOMEI Backupper is a nice choice for you.