How to Recover Recently Deleted Excel Files in Windows 7, 8, 10, 11?

Where are recently deleted Excel files?

Have you run into a similar problem of deleting Excel files? Or have you struggled to recover deleted Excel files? If you need, please continue reading to solve your issues.

How to recover a recently deleted Excel file?

How to recover recently deleted Excel files? If you accidentally deleted Excel files, you can restore them with ease. However, if you’ve emptied the Recycle Bin like the above user, it’s necessary for you to recover deleted Excel files with backups or data recovery software.

Way 1. Undo Delete to recover accidentally deleted Excel files

After accidental deletion, you can press the “Ctrl + Z” press to execute the Undo Delete command immediately. Then you can recover the accidentally deleted Excel files to the previously saved path.

You can also recover accidentally deleted Excel files from the Recycle Bin like the second method.

Way 2. Recover accidentally deleted Excel files from the Recycle Bin

As long as you haven’t performed any permanent deletion, it’s easy to recover recently deleted Excel files from the Recycle Bin with the following two steps.

Step 1. Double-click the Recycle Bin to open it.

Step 2. Locate your targeted Excel files by browsing all the deleted items or searching them in the search box. Then “Restore” them to the original location.

Way 3. Recover deleted Excel files from Backup and Restore

As the name suggests, a prepared backup is a necessity to restore files. And it can help you recover folders while organizing files you accidentally deleted.

You don’t need to be concerned about the Windows OS because Backup and Restore debuted in the Win7 operating system.  

Step 1. Open “Control Panel” by typing it in the search bar. Then go to System and Security, and select the “Backup and Restore (Windows 7)” option.

Step 2. Click the “Restore my files” button.

Step 3. In this case, please select the “Browse for files” option to locate the Excel files you want.

You can set a new saved path as you like or you can restore it to the original location.

Way 4. Recover deleted Excel files with File History

Win8 users might be more accustomed to creating backups with File History released in the Windows 8.0 operating system. After enabling this feature, you can restore the deleted, lost, or damaged original files from backups.  

Notes:✎...

Ensure you’ve opened Control Panel > System and Security to activate your File History. After that, you can restore the previous versions of Excel files to recover the overwritten Excel files if you need.   

Backup files in Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos, Desktop folders, and Offline OneDrive files saved on the computer.

File History allows you to store backups in the external hard drive or cloud drive as you like.  

Step 1. Open Control Panel and click the “System and Security” button.

Step 2. When it comes to File History, please select the “Restore your files with File History” option.

Step 3. Click the “Restore personal files” button.

Step 4. “Restore” your selected Excel files to the previously saved path.

If you prefer the change the saved path, you can right-click on “Restore” and select the “Restore to” option to save them.

Way 5. Recover deleted Excel files via Windows File Recovery

If you haven’t developed good habits of making regular backups, you can use recovery software like Windows File Recovery to recover deleted/lost Excel files in Win 10/11.

Released by Microsoft in 2020, Windows File Recovery focuses on recovering lost files from your HDD, USB, SD cards, and other local storage devices.

It’s avoidable for you to use CMD to recover files because this command-line software interacts with users through command lines rather than an intuitive GUI (graphical user interface).   

Notes:✎...

Free Windows File Recovery only can work with Windows 10 and above.

Recover the lost Word documents, Excel, PPT, ZIP, PDF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, etc.

Fill in the following basic command format with your needed mode and switches.

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

The source drive (where to save your desired Excel files before deletion) is not the same as the destination drive (where to save your recovered Excel files).

Two basic (Regular, Extensive) modes and two advanced (Segment, Signature) modes can support four (NTFS, exFAT, FAT,   and ReFS) file systems.

The first three steps help you select the mode and switches you need.

Step 1. Click “This PC” and right-click on your selected source drive. Then select the “Properties” option to figure out its file system.

Or you can refer to the following form to figure out the file system of your source drive.

Step 2. Select a recommended mode based on the file system of your source drive and data loss scenarios. If you’re not sure, you can start with the Regular mode.

Step 3. Choose some common switches from the following form.

Step 4. “Get” Windows File Recovery from the Microsoft Store and install it on your PC. Then “Open” it.

Step 5. Let’s perform how to recover recently deleted Excel files from the C drive (the source drive) to the E drive (the destination drive).

If you don’t know the specific filename of your needed Excel files, you can enter the wildcard “*”. Then you can copy “winfr C: E: /segment /n *. xlsx” in the command prompt window.

Step 6. Press “y” to begin the recovery process. After that, go to your destination place to check your retrieved Excel files. Or you can press “Ctrl + C” to stop the process.

Way 6. Recover deleted Excel files via data recovery software

Are you wondering how to recover a recently deleted Excel file easier? With an intuitive GUI (graphical user interface), you can recover deleted Excel files with ease.

MyRecover fills in this gap. Moreover, it is more compatible with Windows OS.

Step 1. Run the software on your PC. Then hover the mouse over the partition including the Excel files you want to restore and click Scan.

Step 2. Search or wait to view all the deleted and other missing files.

Step 3. Go to the Deleted files/Other missing files folder, and click “Recover x files” to get your selected Excel files back. Please remember to store them in a new location.

In conclusion

How to recover recently deleted Excel files? This detailed post shares six methods with you to recover accidentally/permanently deleted Excel files. In the final analysis, MyRecover could be the best choice for you.

As you can see, regular backups are the best hedge against data loss. So why don’t you act now to make backups using Windows features or freeware, AOMEI Backupper?