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Tricks to Recover Deleted Files From External Hard Drive – A DIY Guide

Peter Baris ~ Modified: 29-10-2018 ~ Data Recovery ~ 5 Minutes Reading
“I am software developer by profession & currently working on the government project assigned to my company. We have to deliver the project before deadline. So, I have to work on weekends too. But a disaster has happened when I was transferring files from the external hard disk to my personal laptop. Then a notification pop-up having the message that Windows is unable to recognize the device connected. when, I connected the same to other system, the same message arrives. Now, I am in big trouble and continuously finding solution to recover deleted files from external hard drive using command prompt without any software.”

The use of external hard disk continuously increasing day by day. Large number of people using it to store the crucial data such as images, videos, documents instead of storing on the system. The main motive behind this action is to secure data from any type of data loss. This external hard drive can proved ace during the time of data catastrophe. However, most of the time, it is seen that when user trying to connect the HDD or SDD to the system, the data becomes inaccessible or the operating system unable to recognized the connected device. Most of time without knowing the actual reason behind this error, user looking to solution to “How to Recover Deleted Files From External Hard Drive Without Software”. So, in this post we will discuss the multiple available techniques to recover files from external hard drive which becomes inaccessible.

Techniques to Recover Deleted Files From External Storage Device

There are two different methods are available to retrieve deleted files from external storage device.

  1. Recover Deleted Files From External Hard Drive Using Command Prompt
  2. Recover Permanently Deleted Data Using Expert Recommended Software

Method 1: Recover Deleted Files From External Hard Drive Using CMD

There are multiple techniques available which can be used to successfully recover deleted data from external hard drive. Most of the system administrator recommended to use command prompt to retrieve the deleted data. Read and follow the below mentioned step by step:

  1. Open Windows Run by pressing Win+ R at the same
  2. Type cmd and click on OK (make sure that you have admin privilege)
  3. When command prompt interface open up then type chkdsk X: /f and hit Enter (here X is the drive from which your gets deleted)
  4. Type Y to proceed with above command.
  5. The after type X:/> attrib -h -r -s /s/d*.*. and the click on enter. This will take time depends on the size of the deleted files.
Note: The recovery of deleted data from external hard disk is theoretically looking perfect. But when we doing the practical implementation of the same method, then there will no output or the result comes, This can only recovered back with the professional recovery software.

Method 2: Alternative Solution to Recover Deleted Files From External Hard Drive

In the above section we have discussed the manual solution to retrieve the deleted data which is not technically healthy. So, the professional solution is required to recover permanently deleted data from external hard drive. One such tool is the Revove Hard drive recovery tool which is the complete solution itself to recover data from any type of external device. It support formatted and corrupted file type recovery such as FAT, exFAT, NTFS. It facilitates the raw data recovery from the external drive also. Let’s read about the user scenarios who used the tool and successfully recover their crucial data in quick time.

“I have lost my crucial documents about my employment with the company from the external drive. The documents includes the contract and other important information. I tried the manual solution but it seems fake as I did not get any output after 5 hours of continuous effort. Then one of my friend has suggested me to try professional software like Revove Hard disk data recovery solution. I used the utility and recovered my data successfully.”
“The best data recovery utility to recover lost or deleted data from external hard disk. I used the tool to recover my wedding pictures and the videos captured by my friends and relatives.”

4 Step Guide to Use Professional Solution to Recover Deleted From External Drive

1. Download & Install Software from here.


2. Select the type of the scan mode i,e. Scan or Formatted scan

Easy to Use Tricks how to recover deleted files from external hard drive using CMD without Software
3. View the recovered data in the software panel. The deleted data is marked with Red to recognize it easily.


4. Select the data which you want to recover and then click on save button to save it locally.

Also Read: How to Fix Hyper-V Failed to Change State With Error Code 32788?

The Last Recommendation

This is very casual behaviour seen in most of the user that they try to recover the deleted data itself. As a result of which the data get overwritten. Once the data overwrites then no software or tool will able to recover it. So, it is recommended to left the untouched until get any solution for the same or hire any data recovery expert. If you do not want to hire anyone and want to do the recovery itself then in such case, you can deployed Revove Hard drive recovery software to precisely recover deleted  files from external hard drive.