How to Recover Lost Files on Windows 10?

“Help! Can lost files be recovered?”

Windows users must not be strange to the types of files, like media files, office files, compressed files, etc., including jpg/png/pdf/docx/xlsx/mov/mp3/mp4/zip files and so on.

Among these types, there are files that users have been working on for weeks or months. Those files are so important that no users could afford to lose them.

Some users may get their files deleted by “Shift+Del”, permanently deleted in the Recycle Bin, then they will be eager to seek methods to recover permanently deleted files.

Or even get files deleted or lost because of a corrupted/formatted disk.

Now, this tutorial is aimed at solving the question: How to recover lost files on Windows 10. Several feasible methods will be covered.

How to recover lost files on Windows 10?

To recover lost or deleted files, multiple options are available. Some are quite easy to carry out, while some are a little bit demanding.

Beforehand: check if files are in the Recycle Bin

Before you try to get your files back using some tools or software, the very first option will be to check the Recycle Bin.

Notes:✎...

Files that are larger than 8998 MB will be directly removed when you delete them, you cannot recover them from the Recycle Bin.

Go to Recycle Bin > locate the file you have deleted > right-click the files you need > click Restore.

Then the recovered files will go back to the place where they were stored.

Method 1. Recover lost or deleted files using File History

If you find that your deleted files not in the Recycle Bin, maybe you need to recover permanently deleted files. You could still retrieve them if you are equipped with a backup.

File History is an in-built tool of Windows. You could utilize this tool to recover files from a backup made before.

Step 1. Go to Control Panel > System and Security.

Step 2. Click File History.

Step 3. Select Restore personal files. Make sure your File History is on.

Step 4. Select all the files you need to recover > click the Recycle icon.

Method 2. Recover lost files on Windows 10 via Windows File Recovery

How to recover lost files on windows 10 if you have never turned on the File History feature? Perhaps you need to find another way. Microsoft has developed a command-line app – Windows File Recovery, which could be of some help.

It can restore multiple types of files, including jpg/png/pdf/docx/xlsx/mov/mp3/mp4/zip, etc. If you need a more detailed guide on how to use Windows File Recovery, please get help.

To use this utility, some notions are to be figured out.

File System: how your computer Operating System stores and retrieves the data.

Source drive: the place where files are lost/deleted.

Target drive: the place where you choose to store the recovered files.

Recovery mode: general: Regular & Extensive; advanced: Segment & Signature.

Switches: parameters to target the folders and file types.

The beforehand will be to check the File System of your disk and decide on a recovery mode according to the File System and how you have lost your files, then decide on the switches.

To check your file system, go to This PC > right-click on the drive that has lost files > Properties.

Recovery modes:

Switches:

Now, follow the steps to recover lost files on windows 10.

Notes:✎...

The target drive cannot be the same as the source drive. 

If you don’t specify the recovery mode, Regular mode will be utilized in default. 

Please replace the real username and folder name with those characters in the command. 

If Windows failed to create destination folder, please get help. 

Step 1. Get Windows File Recovery in Microsoft Store > run it.

Step 2. Input the command:

winfr source-drive: destination-drive: [/mode] [/switches]

For instance, if you want to recover some just-deleted photos in a folder under C: drive to D: drive, then you could input:

winfr C: D: /n Users\username\foldername\ *. jpg

Step 3. Then press y to continue, and wait for the recovery. When finished, you could check the files in a recovery folder in the destination.

Method 3. How to recover lost files on Windows 10 easily?

To recover lost or deleted files using commands is pretty a tough and dangerous task for most users, to be honest.

In fact, it can be said that Windows File Recovery is not a tool designed for ordinary users without any IT expertise.

For those who don’t have command-related knowledge and don’t dare the risk of making further damage to the data, using a good Windows data recovery tool will be much wiser.

MyRecover is your second-to-none choice. Using this tool, you could recover lost or deleted files from all devices: HDD/SSD/USB/memory card, etc.

Not only that, you will get a deep impression of it due to its efficient features.

Retrieve deleted data and keep its format, filename, and path. 

Scan and restore over 200 types of data within several minutes. 

Support data recovery from healthy and formatted hard disks. 

Compatible with Windows 11/10/8/7 SP1/Server.

It is an efficient and easy tool with an intuitive graphical user interface that can help you recover lost or deleted files in Windows 10 and later.

With this tool, several types of files are recoverable. you could also recover files from formatted hard disks using it.

Notes:✎...

Source drive and target drive could not be the same. Please save your recovered files in another safe place.

Now follow the steps to recover lost files windows 10 in a breeze.

Step 1. Launch MyRecover > hover the mouse over the drive, and click Scan.

Step 2. Filter the files by modified date, size, path, etc., to search for your wanted files.

Step 3. Select the data you need > Recover x files.

What's more, it can facilitate users to recover data from other devices like SD cards, and USB; for example, you could use it to perform SD card data recovery.

To sum up

If you are wondering how to recover lost files on Windows 10 and later, you could first go to Recycle Bin, then check the File History; if these methods don’t work, utilizing Windows File Recovery is an option.

But if you want to recover lost or deleted files effortlessly, AOMEI Data Recovery is your best choice.

Precautions are also important: back up your files and data before losing them again. Utilizing a good backup tool is a good choice - AOMEI Backupper could help you out.