How to Recover Lost Documents on Laptop [2024 Guide]

How do I find files that disappeared/lost?

Working on a file all day or all week but finally finding it disappeared and lost are painful and frustrating to every user. Fortunately, it totally can be found and retrieved. If you are in this kind of trouble, then have a look at this post and then you can know how to restore lost files on laptop.

Five ways to recover lost files on laptop

Here in this part, 5 ways how to recover lost documents on laptop will be illustrated to you. Keep reading and take them into practice.

Way 1. Quickest and easiest way to recover lost document on laptop

Using professional and user-friendly software, like MyRecover that is dedicated to recovering deleted or missing data is the fastest and easiest approach to recovering lost documents on a laptop. With it, you may easily recover deleted files with only a few clicks, making the process simple enough for even a computer novice to handle. In addition, you could benefit from the following benefits:

• Your documents can be restored by AOMEI Data Recovery at a high speed and degree of security.
• From Windows 7 to Windows 11 and Windows Server, it supports all supported Windows versions.
• Docx, xlsx, ppt, jpg, png, pdf, MOV, mp3, mp4, zip, deleted videos can be recovered. 

Step 1. Run MyRecover and select the location where your documents get deleted. 

Step 2. Hover the mouse over the drive saved deleted files before, and click Scan.

Step 3. Wait for a while to complete the scanning process, all the deleted data will be found and listed in the Scanned files list, select the data you want to recover and click the Recover X files option to retrieve your data.

Way 2. Check in the Recycle Bin

The possibility that you deleted your document accidentally cannot be neglected. Under the circumstance, you can go to the Recycle Bin to check whether your documents are in there. And you can do as follows to recover the documents from the Recycle Bin.

Note: It also needs to mention that it’s not possible to find your documents from Recycle Bin if the documents are deleted with the shortcut Shift + Delete or you empty your Recycle Bin.

Step 1. Double-click on the Recycle Bin icon from the desktop. Or you can search for “recycle bin” in the address bar from File Explorer to open the Recycle Bin folder.

Step 2. Locate the documents that needed to be recovered and right-click on them.

Step 3. Choose the Restore option to restore the lost document.

Way 3. Restore to the previous version

If the files are still missing, you can also choose to restore to the previous version. Before the operation, make sure you've activated File History or set up a Windows system restore point, otherwise, the recovery in this way cannot be achieved.

Step 1. Open Windows File Explorer, click This Computer and select the drive where your data was deleted.

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

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

Way 4. Get back lost document via Windows File Recovery

If you still didn’t find your lost document by using the above ways, then you could use a tool, Windows File Recovery, which is developed by Microsoft and can help you recover your deleted document and retrieve your lost files.

Notes:✎...

• The tool is only working with Windows 10 versions 2004 and later.
• It might not recover all the documents.

 There are 2 basic modes in this program: Regular Mode and Basic Mode.

Step 1. Download and install Windows File Recovery from Microsoft Store.

Step 2. Check the File System of disks, right-click on the source drive saving your lost documents before the deletion. Then click “Properties”. 

Step 3. When the installation and the check are completed, search “cmd” in the search box and then click on “Run as administrator” to open it.

Step 4. The basic command format for data recovery on Windows File Recovery is winfr source-drive: destination-drive: [/mode] [/switches]

Step 5. Run a search in regular mode. Suppose your deleted documents is called “FileRecovery”, and you want to recover the specific document from C: drive to E: drive, then you could run the following command (replace “users” with your username on PC):

winfr C: E: /n \Users\Documents\ FileRecovery.docx

Step 6. After that, input “Y” when you are asking to view the files.

Step 7. Now go to the “E” Drive to see your deleted documents.

Note: If you don’t want to be restricted by the complicated command line or be afraid not all your documents come back, you could use WinfrGUI to fully invoke Windows File Recovery to restore deleted files.

Way 5. Show hidden files

Sometimes, the reason why you can’t find your file is that the documents are hidden in some way. And you can operate this way to view hidden files.

Step 1. Please press Win + E to open Windows File Explorer.

Step 2. Click View on the toolbar, then tap Options to open Folder Options.

Step 3. At the View tab, check the checkbox before the Show hidden files, folders, and drives at the Advanced settings, click Apply, and OK.

Step 4. Then try searching for your files again and check whether they are recovered or not.

Conclusion

Here in this post, we list the ways how to recover lost documents on laptop in Windows 10, 11, 8 and 7. If the Windows built-in feature cannot help you get back the files, then MyRecover would give you a nice answer.