Did you accidentally delete some important files? Don't worry, this article will show you how to restore permanently deleted files in Windows 8/8.1.
It's easy to accidentally delete a file you want, and it's very easy. You may have accidentally over-selected a file or two, or you may have happened to hit the delete button at the wrong moment. But there's no need to panic. Deleting a file does not mean that the file is gone forever. In this article, we will cover 4 tested ways to recover deleted files in Windows 8/8.1.
If you are wondering how to recover deleted files in Windows 8, we have good news - there are 4 methods available for you. It doesn't matter if you deleted them by mistake or emptied the Recycle Bin. Even if you press Shift-Delete to bypass the Recycle Bin, you can also recover permanently deleted files.
You'll be happy to know that even if you've made changes to a file and want to access a previous version, you can do so with Window's File History Rollback feature. Read on and we will show you how to restore permanently deleted files in Windows 8/8.1.
Please refer to the 4 effective methods provided here to recover deleted files on Windows 8 for free, including Recycle Bin, File History, third-party data recovery software, and Windows File Recovery.
If you accidentally delete a file or just change your mind about deleting it, the first place you should go is to the Recycle Bin. This handy location is a temporary repository for deleted files and gives you a chance to recover files you decide to keep.
You can find the Recycle Bin on your desktop, or if you can't see the icon, you can open Explorer to find it. Double-click the desktop icon to open the Recycle Bin, or open Explorer from the taskbar or Start screen and click the Recycle Bin icon in the left navigation pane.
Locate the target file to be recovered, right-click on it, and select “Recover” from the menu that appears.
The Recycle Bin isn't the only option available in Windows 8 for recovering deleted files, there's also a useful feature called File History (which replaced the Previous Versions feature in earlier versions of Windows).
While it's not foolproof (and will only work if you manually enable it), it gives you a second chance to recover files you've deleted or that you forgot to save.
Without backups, how to recover deleted files from Recycle Bin after emptying? At the moment, you’d better use a third-party tool because data recovery tools can exempt you from complex backups and provide the biggest data recovery potential for you.
Here comes a highly-praised data recovery tool, MyRecover. Its established reputation rests on its powerful features and user-friendliness design.
β₯Functionality:
β₯User-friendliness:
Step 1. After running the tool, hover the mouse over the drive, and click Scan.
Step 2. Search or wait to see all the deleted and other missing files after scanning.
Step 3. Go to the Deleted files/Other missing files folder, and select your desired files. Then click the “Recover x files” button and save the restored files in a new location.
If you want to recover deleted files from Recycle Bin without software, you could try Microsoft’s official command-line app to restore data permanently emptied from Recycle Bin by using command prompts.
Microsoft released a command-line utility-Windows File Recovery in 2020 to help users recover deleted or lost files even emptied from Recycle Bin. It only supports Windows 10 2004 and later. However, it doesn't have a user graphic interface., which means you need to input specific CMD to recover deleted files.
There are four different modes to use Windows File Recovery correctly: Regular, Extensive, Segment, and Signature. If you want to recover the files deleted from Recycle Bin, you need to recall the previously saved location and then use the command. The following is the basic command format of Windows File Recovery.
winfr source-drive: destination-drive: [/mode] [/switches]
Step 1. Type “Microsoft Store” in the search box and open it. And then find “Windows File Recovery” and click “Get”.
Step 2. After installing Windows File Recovery on your computer, type Windows File Recovery in the search box and select “Run as administrator”.
*View the solutions of “WinFR requires admin privileges to run.”
Step 3. Right-click the drive that saved the deleted files and select “Properties” to check the file system.
|
File system |
Scenarios |
Recommended mode |
|
NTFS |
Deleted recently |
Regular |
|
NTFS |
Deleted a while ago |
Extensive |
|
NTFS |
After formatting a disk |
Extensive |
|
NTFS |
A corrupted disk |
Extensive |
|
FAT and exFAT |
Any |
Extensive |
Step 4. There are some common switches to use. You can check them and their description in the following chart. To find more switches in the Windows File Recovery tutorial.
|
Parameter / switch |
Description |
Supported mode(s) |
|
/n |
Scans for a specific file by using a file name, file path, file type, or wildcards. For example:
|
|
|
/y: |
Recover specific extension groups, comma separated |
Signature |
|
/p: |
Saves a log file of the recovery operation in a different location than the default location on the recovery drive (for example, D:\logfile). |
All |
|
/segment |
Segment mode, recovery option for NTFS drives using file record segments |
Segment |
|
/signature |
Signature mode, recovery option for all file system types using file headers |
Signature |
Step 5. For example, if you want to recover a zip file but don’t know the detailed name from C: drive to E: drive, you could input the following command:
winfr C: E: /regular /n \C:\Recycler\*.zip
*View the solutions of "Winfr.exe is not recognized as an internal or external command".
This tutorial focuses on how to restore permanently deleted files in Windows 8. You’d better look through the above three methods before making a wiser decision to find lost files in Windows 8 computers. Besides, there’re some relevant tips for you.
In computing, the Windows operating system will remove the deleted photos from the file category and designate the storage of the deleted/lost photos as free space. Are you wondering where do permanently deleted photos go? Before overwriting, these permanently deleted photos are still on your computers. However, as you store newly taken pictures in the free space, your permanently deleted photos will be overwritten. After that, if you need to recover old deleted photos, you have no choice but to ask for help from backups or tools. This solution is also available for cell phones like iPhones.
You can begin with recovering hidden files from USB using CMD if your needed files are not deleted. If you can ensure your needed files are in a deletion state, you can utilize Windows File Recovery to recover them. At the moment, you’re supposed to recover the deleted files using CMD because there’s no GUI for this command-line software. Likewise, MyRecover is another more efficient option for you.
Please think twice before deletion. Don’t empty your Recycle Bin from time to time. Regular backups are the best hedge against data loss. So why not use Windows features or free backup software, AOMEI Backupper to make backups?