How to Restore Files with Disk Drill for Windows

How many times did you feel the need to have an undo button when you empty the Recycle Bin in your Windows laptop? It's extremely easy to delete a file or a bunch of them accidentally. But it's really disappointing to realize you actually needed them for work or memories. Fortunately, Disk Drill is free and was created exactly for deleted files recovery.
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Disk Drill for Windows is the right app to restore deleted files when your Recycle Bin has already been emptied (just now or long ago) and you have no backups of your data. With multiple algorithms you have a very powerful set of file recovery tools to help you in almost any data loss situation.

To increase your chances to recover your lost files in Windows, we recommend disconnecting the storage device with the lost data the very moment you realized your data was deleted. Also, it's always better not to be booted from the drive your deleted files reside on. Make sure your hard drive with the lost data is secured in an external case, and don't try to use it until you are ready to start the file recovery process.

#1 When nothing else helps, get Disk Drill!

When you find out the shadow copies of the deleted files were never created by your Windows OS, and Windows backups weren't set up properly, download Disk Drill to restore your deleted files and give it a try. You can even restore files when deleted from the Recycle Bin, as Windows works that way: deleted files are not physically removed, but just marked as deleted. You may not see them in Windows Explorer, but they may still be present on your hard drive. Until these deleted files are overwritten by other data, you have a good chance to recover them.

With powerful Quick and Deep Scans, Lost Partition Search, Catalog Rebuild and other file recovery algorithms, you are in very good hands and have all the chances to get your data back within minutes and completely free (up to 100MB).
  • 1Download Disk Drill for Windows
  • 2Complete the installation process
  • 3Launch Disk Drill

#2 Restore deleted files

When you are in, Disk Drill lists all available drives in your system. Locate the one with the lost data. Proceed by using the major unified "Recover" button. Wait for the scan to complete, as it usually takes a few minutes, depending on how large your target drive is. Disk Drill is usually running its several available algorithms to restore deleted files. Based on the type of drive scanned the availability of some scanning methods may vary. Restore deleted files

#3 Data scan completed

Once scanning is complete, filter, sort, review the recoverable files. Sometimes it's just easier to recover everything and do the review once you are sure all scavengable data is secured. Data scan completed
Hard drive data recovery software for everyone
However it's up to you: Disk Drill provides all the required tools to inspect the found data.

Unlike any other file restoration software

Disk Drill is a great app that can restore deleted pictures, and sometimes even those pictures you could not preview in the app. But it's even better when you start using its Recovery Vault data protection and restoration mechanism. It works transparently and invisibly at the same time: Disk Drill runs in the background, tracks your deleted data, marks it in a specific way, and in case you need to recover it in the future, Disk Drill has you covered.
Protect Your Files on Windows

#4 Restore deleted pictures and files

Once you click the "Recover" button again, the files you selected for recovery will be restored to the specified destination folder. Once again, we recommend using an extra drive for secure file restoration. Still, Disk Drill won't restrict you from recovering to the same drive.
USB flash drive recovery hints and tips
Be reasonable, the more you can do to ensure higher recovery rate, the better quality of the recovered files, folders, pictures and videos, and everything else you can get. Restore deleted pictures and files

This is how deep scanning works

If your deleted files were pushed out of the file tables stack, Quick Scan won't pick them up. This is when Disk Drill enables the extra power, Deep Scan. This file signature based algorithm is capable of reconstructing deleted files according to their digital structure. It's amazing how many lost file formats get back to life thanks to Disk Drill and its Deep Scan. Disk Drill features more than 200 file formats in the database, new ones are added with every new update, and the software is completely open to any custom formats you may need recovered.
Learn more about supported file types

Restore deleted files on Windows

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Everything you need to restore deleted files
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  • REQUIREMENTS
    Windows XP+, 16MB disk space
  • AVERAGE USER RANK
    4.5 by 467 users
  • NEWEST RELEASE
    Version 2.0.0.285, released on 12/05/2016
    View release notes

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Read Disk Drill reviews by our fans

  • Martin Brinkmann
    Disk Drill is a handy recovery software for Windows. It is easy to use and ships with two additional features, partition recovery and protections, that set it apart from the majority of data recovery programs.
  • softpedia.com
    «Disk Drill is a practical and intuitive utility that can successfully assist you in regaining access to lost or damaged files from a variety of disk or file system types, making it quite worthy for considering, should you be in the market for such a tool.» by Marina Dan