How can you recover lost files?
7th May 2025
96% of workstations are not being back up properly* – can you afford to risk your important files being permanently lost?
There are many ways that files can be lost: they might be on a device which is damaged, meaning that you have no access to the files; you may have deleted them, perhaps to increase hard drive space, not releasing you would need the files again; or the file may be corrupted due to a software failure, or maybe even a cyber-attack.
However, depending on how the file was lost, there are methods to recovering it. Hopefully, if you need to recover a lost file, one of these ways of doing so will help – if not, we recommend setting one or more of these methods up for future reference!
Backups: by having a copy of your files saved to a cloud or physical server (or even to a USB if that is more your speed) you have a second chance at accessing your documents.
Ideally, we recommend that you set your files to back up automatically, so there is no chance of you losing something important – file history on Windows devices is one example of this.
Data recovery software: these tools can be found online to help recover files that have been deleted or lost due to a crash or other error. Recuva, Disk Drill and Stellar Data Recovery are examples of this technology – it may be worth trying multiple if one doesn’t manage it.
Another example of data recovery software is Windows File Recovery, the tool provided by Microsoft to recover lost files. Download and install it from the Microsoft Store, run the commands and the tool will attempt to recover the lost files.
Command prompts: another method to try is by using command prompts. CHKDSK is one, which has the potential to fix disk errors, locate bad sectors and recover readable information. The other is ATTRIB which is used to display, set or remove file and directory attributes, allowing you to recover archived or hidden files.
If you’ve lost your files, give each of these a try, but none of them are a guarantee. Ultimately, you need to have backup methods in place, so that if an error occurs, you’re covered.
For more information on data recovery and backups, contact Interfuture Systems.