How to Recover Data from External Hard Drive

When it comes to moving and storing an enormous amount of data files, nothing can beat the versatility of external hard drives. They are simply one of the ideal ways to ensure that you will not lose your data, even in the case of a computer crash, accidental deletions, memory loss, virus attacks, and more. These days almost everyone uses a computer system and then uses an external hard drive for storing data backups. But there are instances when these drives tend to lose the data, such as getting damaged, or simply being unworkable.

In this article, we will discuss what external hard drive recovery is, how you can recover files from the external hard drive, causes of losing data, recommended external hard drive recovery software, and how you can avoid data loss from an external hard drive.

Part 1. About External Hard Drive Recovery

External Hard Drives are important when using your computer to store your every bit of data. They store all forms of data and are large enough to cater to all your storage needs. Moreover, they are light in weight, portable, and can be used for a seamless data transfer from one point to another.

However, there are times when external hard drives lose the data. It can be due to a virus attack, accidental format, unexpected system failures, damage resulted from power failure or the loss of partition structures. Data loss sometimes happens suddenly without attention. There is no way to recover data from external hard drive without a third party external hard disk recovery tool. Therefore, a powerful external hard drive recovery software is needed to help you do an efficient job and solve these issues.

This article will only focus on the solution on Windows system, we also provide solutions for external hard drive recovery on Mac. If your external hard drive is crashed or damaged, check our solutions for crashed external hard drive recovery and data recovery from damaged external hard drive.

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Part 2. How to Recover Data and Files from an External Hard Drive?

As you find that there is a data loss in your external hard drive, don’t perform any operation that will overwrite the data. Make sure that you do not attempt to restore the data by checking it in your own as it requires a dust free environment to do so. If you want to recover files from external hard drive, you can use the recommended external hard drive recovery software to rescue your data.

Recoverit Data Recovery is one of the best, safest and most reliable external hard drive recovery software that recovers your deleted and lost files from any type of storage device. This software recovers the data caused by sudden deletion, formatting, virus attack, system crash and more. Along with this, it also helps you recover data from various devices including recycle bin, memory card, hard drive, flash drive, camcorder, and digital camera as well.

To start with, download and install Recoverit external hard drive data recovery tool on your Windows or Mac computer. Connect your external hard drive to the computer and follow the below mentioned steps to recover data from your external hard drive.

Step 1. Select recovery mode

Before you start the recovery process, check that your external hard drive is connected to and recognized by the computer. To recover the data from your drive, select the "External Devices Recovery" Mode.

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Step 2. Select external hard drive

Now select a location where you need your lost data to be secured. Also, choose the drive that you want to recover and click on the "Start" button to scan the files.

Step 3. Scan external hard drive

Recoverit will start a quick scan and search all the files from the external hard drive. This software also lets you preview your files and save them. There are chances that you will find your files after the first scan. But if you are unable to find your files, you can try the “All-Around Recovery” to deep scan and search more files.

Step 4. Preview and recover data from external hard drive

After the scan, you can preview all the recoverable files from the external hard drive. Click the "Recover" button to get back the lost files. However, make sure that you don’t save the recovered files into the hard drives from which you lost the files.

Video Guide to External Hard Drive Recovery

Part 3. What Are the Causes of Data Loss from External Hard Drive??

There are times when we are not aware of how we lose the data from our external hard drives. But it is best if you know the exact reasons for data loss. Here is why you lose data from your external hard disk:

• Accidental deletion of files.
• A sudden virus attack.
• Loss of file system and structures.
• Application failure.
• Unexpected shutdown of your system.
• Damage of disk due to a power failure.
• Partition structures get damages
• Mishandling of external drive

Any of the above situations do harm to your data and also lead to its complete loss. The best approach is to back up your data, or you will have to use external hard drive recovery tools for getting your files back.

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Part 4. More Tools for External Hard Drive Recovery

1. Prosoft Data Rescue

Prosoft is a piece of effective data recovery software that helps you to recover files from external hard drive. Apart from external hard drive, it also lets you retrieve files from other devices like flash drives, recycles bin, camera, and more.

1Firstly, you should select "Start Recovering Files" option and then choose the external hard drive location to the next step.

2The external hard drive recovery gives you the option to start from a quick scan or deep scan. If you are not sure which scan you should select, when you click on the option, there will be an explanation to show you the difference.

3A scanning result will present on the menu. Select the files you want to recover and store them in the target storage.

2. Easeus

Easeus is an external hard drive recovery tool that retrieves the lost data, whether it is deleted through formatting, misuse or mishandling.

1Select the location where you want to start. You can also specify a location such as desktop, document or external hard drive.

2The initial scan is a quick one to retrieve all your lost data and will scan all the files in the selected location. However, a deep scan finds out more lost files by searching the entire selected data field.

3Filter what you want to recover and the preview all your lost data. Once you select the files you want to recover from external hard drive, click on the Recover button to recover all your lost data.

3. Stellar

Stellar is one of the best external hard disk data recovery software that helps you to recover the lost data files from the Windows Operating System.

1 To start, install and launch the Stellar Phoenix data recovery on your computer. Choose the type of data from the option of "Select What to Recover" on the main user interface.

2Select the external hard drive where you lost data and start scanning.

3Choose the files you want to recover and save files to a destination location.

4. Disk Drill

Disk Drill is external hard drive recovery software that aids you in how to retrieve data from Mac external hard drive. Whether you need to recover files from an internal drive or an external one, this software will come to your rescue.

1After launching Disk Drill, click on the Recover button beside the volume that you want to scan. This action will let the software automatically go through all the available scanning methods.

2Once the scan is over, you can select the files and click on the Recover button to get them back.

5. Recuva

Whether you have deleted an important file accidentally or lost files after a sudden computer crash, Recuva recovers file from the external hard drive, computer, recycle bin, MP3 player, digital camera card and other devices. It even recovers the files from re-writeable media as well.

1Open, launch and install Recuva hard drive recovery software in your system.

2As you select the location you need to recover, click on the Scan option so a quick scan will start. Recuva uses a deep scan mode that checks your drives to find the traces of the files that are already deleted.

3As the scan is completed, you will need to select the files and recover them.

Comparison Chart for External Hard Drive Recovery

All the above tools will help you with your external hard drive recovery, but you need to ensure that when you are “recovering the files”, you need to copy them rather than cut. Follow this method will leave you with a backup on both the ends.

Part 5. How to Avoid Data Loss from External Hard Drive?

It is always best to protect your data rather than losing it in the first place.

The first step to avoid the data loss from an external hard drive is to understand the signs of a potential data loss. Did you know that most of the hard drive failures occur due to a failure in drive or its mishandling?

However, to prevent the data loss, make sure you save and backup your files regularly on multiple locations. Purchase a hard drive from a legitimate manufacturer and take good care of it. Along with this, avoid the partitions as it increases the loading hence decreasing its overall performance. Keep the anti-virus up to date and check that you always disconnect it after every use. Apart from this, make sure that you always disconnect your external hard disk after every use. Furthermore, don’t delete the system files and always use a surge protector to prevent the data loss. While data loss may seem unavoidable, but with proper techniques, you can surely prevent unwanted situations.