6 Methods: How to Recover Files from External Hard Drive

Possible Causes behind Data Loss from External Hard Drive

External hard drives are essential for storing backups, work files, media libraries, and sensitive data. They offer portability, large storage capacity, and a secure way to keep data separate from your main computer. However, unlike internal drives, they are more prone to disconnections, physical damage, and accidental file loss—making data recovery a common need. The common reasons why your important files disappear from the external hard drive include:

• Accidental Deletion: delete files by mistake using “delete” button or “delete+shift” combination.
• File System Errors: eject the external drive improperly or power failure occurs during write operations. Either can corrupt the drive’s file system and cause data loss. Thus, errors like "Drive not recognized" or "You need to format the disk" may appear.

• Virus or Malware Attacks: Ransomware or viruses can encrypt, hide, or delete files without warning.
• Formatting or Partition Loss: Accidental formatting or cleaning disk using DiskPart command erases all data, though recovery is often possible.
• Partition table corruption: This can make files seem "lost" even if they still exist. In other words, they become inaccessible because the "map" to locate them gets damage.
• Physical Damage: Dropping the drive, water damage, or faulty USB ports can make data inaccessible.
• Connection Issues: A broken USB cable or failing drive enclosure may prevent detection.

If you’ve lost files due to any of these above reasons, check our guide on how to recover files from external hard drive in different situations.

How to Recover Files from External Hard Drive: 7 Methods

Losing files from an external hard drive can be stressful—whether due to accidental deletion, corruption, or formatting. Fortunately, in most cases, your data can still be recovered if you act quickly. Below, we outline 6 proven methods to restore lost files from an external hard drive, ranging from simple fixes to professional recovery tools.

Method 1: Check the Recycle Bin (For Simply Deleted Files)

If you simply pressed "Delete," files may still be in the Recycle Binand you can restore files from external hard drive from Recycle Bin.

Step 1. Open the Recycle Bin on your desktop.

Step 2. Search for and locate your missing files.

Step 3. Right-click and select "Restore" to recover them.

⚠ Note: Files deleted using Shift + Delete or from an external drive often bypass the Recycle Bin.

Method 2: Use File History (If Windows BackupEnabled)

If you enabled File History or Backup and Restore, you can retrieve previous versions.

Step 1. Press Win + S, type "Restore your files with File History".

Step 2. Select Open from the search results.

Step 3. Then you will see all backups created by File History. Choose the right folder and files. Then click on “Restore”button at the bottom.

Method 3: Try CHKDSK (For Corrupted External Drives)

If your drive shows errors like "Drive not recognized" or “You need to format the disk”due to file system errors or partition corruption. CHKDSK can fix file system issuesand recover files from external hard drive not detected or recognized.

Step 1. Press Win + S, type "Command Prompt". Right click "Command Prompt" and choose "Run as administrator".

Step 2. Type the command "chkdsk g: /f /r".

(Replace g with your actual external hard drive letter.)

Step 3. Press Enter and wait for the scan to complete.

Method 4: Show Hidden Files (If Files Are Invisible)

Sometimes, files are hidden due to malware or system errors.In this case, you can try showing hidden files or drives to check if the data can be visible again.

Step 1. Open File Explorer and go to your external drive.

Step 2. Click View > Options > Change folder and search options.

Step 3. In the pop-out window, switch to the “View”tab and select "Show hidden files, folders, and drives."

Step 4. Click "Apply" and check for missing files.

Method 5: Apply Winfr Command(Permanently Deleted or Formatted)

If you use delete+shift keys to remove files from external hard drive, or mistakenly format the drive, the files will bypass the Windows Recycle Bin. While this makes recovery more challenging, it's certainly not impossible. In such cases, Microsoft offers a free solution worth trying first: Windows File Recovery, which helps recover files from external hard drive after formatting or permanently deletion.

Step 1. Download the tool from Microsoft Store (it's free) and install it onto your computer.

Step 2. Run Command Prompt as administrator (refer to method 3).

Step 3. Then type the command (winfr H: D:\test /extensive) and press on Enter.

• H: is the source drive where you want to recover files.
• D: is the destination drive where you will save the recovered files.
• \test: is the specific folder of the destination drive.
• Extensive: one of the winfr search mode to scan the source drive more thoroughly for lost files.

Based on your situation, replace the source and destination drive to recover files from external hard drive.

Method 6: Turn to Professional Data Recovery Software(Cover All Data Loss Scenarios)

Based on the above analysis, we can conclude that different causes of data loss require specific solutions. Manually trying each method until successfully recovering files from an external hard drive would be inefficient and time-consuming. Therefore, is there a comprehensive solution that can effectively retrieve data across various data loss scenarios?

Yes, there is such powerful data recovery software that can cover almost all data loss scenarios. That is MyRecover. It can easily recover files from external hard drive no matter its files get lost for file system errors, deletion, format, system crash, virus attack and more.

★Key Features:

Quickly recover files deleted by mistake, including Shift+DEL deletions.

Restore permanently deleted files from an emptied Recycle Bin.

Recover Formatted Hard Drive Retrieve data from formatted drives before it's overwritten.

Recover files lost due to virus infections on hard drives.

Scan and restore data lost after a system crash.

Recover files from deleted, lost or missing partitions.

Other scenarios like power-offs.

Steps to Recover Files from External Hard Drive

Step 1. Download and install MyRecover Free Edition. (For more advanced features such as unlimited data recovery quota, preview before recovery, recover files from non-bootable computer, please try Professional or Technician Edition).

Step 2. Open the software, select the drive and click “Scan”. If your external hard drive is not displayed in the main interface due to file system error, drive corruption, partition deletion or lost, please use “Partition Lost Recovery”option in the “Advanced Recovery”section.

Step 3. For simple file deletion, it will start a quick scan by default. In other complex situation, it will perform a deep scan. Of course, you can manually choose “Deep Scan” if necessary.

Step 4. Once the scanning process is done, browse through all recoverable files. Tick what you want to recover and click on “Recover”.

Step 5. Choose a safe location (different from the original external hard drive to avoid data overwritten) to save the recovered files.

Then wait for the process to complete.

Conclusion

So, you might lose important files from your external hard drive for various reasons. You can check the above proven methods one by one, all of which can realize external hard drive file recovery without formatting, or directly use the MyRecover to recover files from external hard drive easily. It can not only help recover common documents like txt, doc/docx, xls/xlsx/csv/bdf, pdf/pdp, ppt/pptx/odp, etc, but also help restore various types of images, videos, audios, archives, etc.