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Free Data Recovery: How to Retrieve Lost Files from Your Hard Drive [2024]

Wondershare Recoverit Authors

Jan 15, 2024 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions

Can You Recover Files from a Corrupted Hard Drive?

A hard drive can suddenly stop working, and you might not have made sufficient preparations for such a situation, particularly if files stored on it are lost without any backup. But can delete or lost files be recovered from a failed hard drive? If your hard drive has been corrupted logically, then congratulations! You can find a specific answer to this question in this post. Keep reading to learn how to recover files from your hard drive for free.

Part 1. What's Hard Drive Recovery Cost?

You might have heard that it is costly to repair a dead hard drive. However, it varies. Usually, you can use some native computer features to help you fix the hard drive and use a free hard drive recovery tool to help you recover hard disk data. For example, a Windows computer allows you to scan and check the hard disk errors, and sometimes, it can be repaired without any cost.

Wonder how to repair a hard drive? Get solutions from here: How to Fix Hard Drive Failure.

Still not work? You might have to ask for help from professional hard disk repair centers or experts. But before that, you can extract the inaccessible data and recover them. Can Data Be Recovered from Damaged Hard Drive? Yes, as long as you have free hard drive recovery software built for that purpose.

Part 2: Recover Data from Hard Drive for Free: A Step-by-Step Guide

One such software is Recoverit Free Data Recovery. The hard disk recovery tool is free software to help you recover lost files from the hard drive for free. It's a tool that happens to know every aspect of your hard disk and enables you to recover anything and every data from hard drives. It works straightforwardly. No matter how you end up losing your data, it will help you find it and recover it.

1. Video Tutorial on Hard Drive Data Recovery

Recent Videos from Recoverit

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2. How to Use Recoverit Retrieve Data from Hard Drive

Recoverit Data Recovery allows users to retrieve data from hard drives free that may have been unintentionally or even intentionally deleted, and save their precious time and time. You may follow the following steps to recover the missing data on your hard disk.

Download and launch the free hard drive recovery software. It is available for both Mac and Windows users. Here is the Windows version. If you're using a Mac computer, turn to another guide: How to Recover Data from Mac Hard Drive.

Step 1 Select the Location

The hard disk data recovery tool shows you a list of hard disk drives. Now, to recover files from the hard drive, select the hard disk where you wish to recover data and click "Start" to proceed.

Select drive to recover hard drive data

Step 2 Scan Computer Hard Disk Drive

You can then find Recoverit immediately scans your selected computer hard drive all around to dig out the missing data. As it keeps finding the deleted files in the drive, it lists them down in the scanned items menu.

Scan for free hard drive recovery

Step 3 Preview and Recover Files from Hard Drive

Finally, you can preview the scanned files before restoring them. Recoverit supports the preview of different formats and types of data, like photos, videos, audio, documents, and so on.

Select all the files in the scanned list you wish to restore and click on "Recover" on the bottom right to get your files back.

Recover data from hard drive

A dialog box will open, demanding the location you wish to restore the files. Select the desired but different location and click "Save." Congratulations! Your accidentally deleted files have been recovered.


Part 3: Why Can Recoverit Retrieve Data from Hard Drive

When files are lost, what you need to recover them from your hard drive is a disk recovery tool that can track the deleted files and restore them. There are several such software options available in the market, each with its own set of possible perks. However, what you require is a tool that has been built with all your needs in mind and is specifically designed to handle any hard drive recovery issues you may face. That tool is Recoverit Free Data Recovery.

Hard drive data loss

When you store data on particular hard drives, there is always a risk of losing files due to corruption or other issues. Here's the thing: you may not even be aware of how you lost data from your hard drive. Being tired or intoxicated can lead people to make many mistakes. Imagine that you've just returned from a party or just woken up and are not fully alert. During such periods of not being fully aware, you may accidentally delete important documents and information from your hard drives. Additionally, items such as photos, memos, business files, and other valuable details can end up costing a lot to recover in the future.

Losing data and realizing that something that was there is now gone can be a scary and frustrating experience. To recover files from hard drives, you need to remain calm and focused. Fortunately, when you delete files, traces of them are often still left on your hard drive. This means that the information you're missing may still be recoverable. All you need is a reliable free hard disk recovery tool that can also help you recover data from damaged hard drives, crashed external hard disks, and formatted hard disks.


Part 4: What Causes Hard Drive Data Loss

File deletion is a common occurrence and can happen without any intention. There are several ways you might lose files, and the data lost could be worth millions. Recovering such data can be very costly. That's why you need Recoverit, a free disk recovery software, to recover data from your hard drive. It can save you money and restore accidentally deleted yet valuable data files. Here are some possible reasons why you might lose a precious file.

1. Deletion by Accident

This is one of the most common causes of file loss from a hard drive. After all, it takes just a few keystrokes and clicks of the mouse, and your file is gone forever. Sometimes people delete the necessary file by accident. Or worse, they are not in their right senses and end up deleting files unconsciously. Moreover, there are times when you might not have access to your computer, and someone else might end up deleting your files from your hard drive. For example, children might go up and start tapping away at the keyboard without knowing what they are up to. In such a case, you have no control over your files and are losing them by accident.

2. Hard Drive Formatting

Another possible cause is you or someone else formatting your entire hard drive, whether by accident or on purpose. Sometimes, when installing a new operating system, to get rid of viruses or other problems, you might need to format your hard drive. Formatting the hard drive means losing all information you have there. All files are lost. These include the normal ones you don't require and the ones you do need. Hence, the recovery of those files becomes a necessity. Formatting a hard drive is very useful in situations where data could be compromised, but doing so means losing a lot of valuable data.

In some cases, a decade of information might be lost if you do not back up your files before deleting them. The loss of data is massive, and the valuable files need to be recovered immediately. It gets much worse when people have to format without knowing just what it will lead to.

3. Changing the Structure of the Hard Drive

The hard drive is represented on screen as a virtual disc drive that works as segments of the hard drive. These virtual disks can be partitioned, divided, and resized as per the user's needs. Such functions can, however, end up in a loss of data. Some of the information might not make it to the new drive. Or an error in a merger can lead to some loss of information as well. Even data may be lost during the partition deallocation. In any case, you will be losing valuable files.

4. Software Issues

Software issues are another common cause of hard drive data loss. These issues may be caused by either an application or system software. Many of us have experienced situations where running programs suddenly become unresponsive and freeze, sometimes even causing the entire computer to freeze. In these cases, the only option is to force-stop the program using the task manager, which results in losing any unsaved progress. Similarly, an application may unexpectedly crash, leading to the loss of unsaved data.

Furthermore, data loss can also be caused by system crashes, corrupt system files, or viruses. A system crash can cause the black screen of death, resulting in all running applications losing their progress.

5. Hardware Issues

The hard disk is a secondary storage device, but it stores all the primary data, and it stores it permanently. When the hard drive or any of its parts i.e., sector gets damaged or corrupted, that part of the hard disk disallows the computer to read or access that sector. As your computer is unable to access it, it refuses to recognize that part of the hard drive and does not show it to the user. It is called a bad sector. As the user cannot access that part of the data, it is considered lost and irretrievable. However, it is not the case.

While you are facing any issues we've outlined above, and you lost your important data, you can resort to Recoverit Free Hard Disk Recovery to recover data from hard drives quickly.

Tips on Free Hard Disk Recovery

When storing valuable data on your hard drive, the best way to protect it is to regularly back up your data locally and online. Over time, hard drives may experience a multitude of failures, as shown in the chart. As these failures become more serious, it becomes increasingly challenging to recover data. Therefore, we recommend backing up your data instead of going through the hassle of recovery every time you encounter hard drive failure.

However, losing files from a hard drive is a common occurrence that can cause several problems. In such cases, using free hard drive data recovery software can help you find and recover your lost data.

Recoverit author

Theo Lucia

chief Editor

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