Searching on Google, you will find that lots of users are troubled by removable drive file recovery, and here is an example:
How do I recover deleted files from a removable storage device (memory stick)? The only Recycle Bin folder is on my network drive, and there is none on my memory stick.
answers.microsoft.com
Is it possible to recover deleted files or lost files from USB flash drives, memory cards, and other removable drives?
Fortunately, the answer is positive. Now you can read this post to know how to retrieve deleted files from a removable drive with ease.
Overview of Deleted Files Recovery
In general, when you delete a file by pressing the Delete button on your computer, the deleted file will be removed from its original location. But this file is not yet permanently deleted. Rather, it’s moved into the Recycle Bin. In other words, you can easily get deleted files back from the Recycle Bin.
However, when you delete files by pressing the Shift + Delete key combinations or delete files from a USB drive or other removable drives, the deleted items are permanently deleted and not temporarily stored in the Recycle Bin. Thus, you are unable to find them in the Recycle Bin.
So, how can you retrieve deleted files from a removable drive, such as a USB flash drive? Keep reading to find the answers.
How to Retrieve Deleted Files From a Removable Drive
Way 1. Using MiniTool Power Data Recovery to Recover Deleted Files USB Free
To retrieve deleted files from a removable drive, the best way is to choose a piece of free data recovery software. Here MiniTool Power Data Recovery is highly recommended.
Why Choose MiniTool Power Data Recovery
MiniTool Power Data Recovery, the best USB recovery software, has many excellent features, as shown below:
- Powerful data recovery modules: It offers 2 data recovery modules – Recover Data From Logical Drives & Recover Data From Devices. Besides, it allows you to scan and recover files from the desktop, the Recycle Bin, and a specific folder individually as well.
- Easy-of-use: It offers clear and concise interfaces, and wizard-based operations, thus it doesn’t require a technical background to use.
- Strong compatibility: It supports various operating systems including Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11, and more.
- Supports almost all file storage devices: It not only can recover data from internal hard drives but also can recover data from external hard drives, USB flash drives, CDs/DVDs, and so on.
- Supports various types of files: It can restore photos, documents, videos, audio, emails, and more.
Now click the button below to download MiniTool Power Data Recovery and have a try.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Next, let’s see how to carry out removable drive deleted files recovery.
Step 1. Connect your removable drive to the computer. After that, launch MiniTool Power Data Recovery, and then select a suitable recovery module from its main interface.
Logical Drives: In this module, you can see all partitions on your PC, including partitions on the internal hard drives, external hard drives, removable drives, and so on. Also, you can see lost partitions and unallocated space here.
Devices: In this section, you can see all devices on your computer, such as USB flash drives, SD cards, CDs/DVDs, etc.
Once you selected the target partition or device, you can click the Scan button to scan the selected partition/device.
Step 2. Wait for the scanning process to complete to get the best scan result. Then you can preview found files to check whether the desired files are found. MiniTool Power Data Recovery supports previewing multiple types of files (DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PDF, JPEG, JPG, etc.).
Step 3. Finally, select all needed files, and then click Save to store them to a safe location separate from the original path in case of data overwriting.
Tip: You may receive a prompt saying no free recovery remaining when you try to save selected files. This is because MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free allows you to recover 1 GB of files for free. To break this data recovery limitation, you need to upgrade to a full edition.
Once all operations are done, you have finished recovering lost files from the removable drive.
You can watch this video to know more details about deleted files recovery by using MiniTool Power Data Recovery:
MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Way 2. Recover Lost or Deleted Files Using Windows File Recovery
In addition to MiniTool Power Data Recovery, you can use Windows File Recovery, a command-line utility available from the Microsoft Store to retrieve deleted files from a removable drive. It supports recovering files from a local hard disk drive, USB flash drive, or memory card such as an SD card.
Tip: Windows File Recovery is only available for Windows 10 version 2004 or later Windows versions. You can read this post to check whether you meet the system requirements: What Version of Windows Do I Have? Check the Version and Build Number.
Compared to MiniTool Power Data Recovery, Windows File Recovery has high requirements for you to use commands. For the specific steps to use it, you can refer to: How to Use Microsoft’s Windows File Recovery Tool and Alternative.
Now you should know how to recover deleted files USB free with the best USB recovery software – MiniTool Power Data Recovery, and with Windows File Recovery.
However, you may wonder: Can I recover removable drive files without data recovery software? How to recover deleted files from USB without software?
To retrieve deleted files from a removable drive without software, you can try the following ways.
Way 3. Retrieve Deleted Removable Drive Files From Backup Files
If you have backed up your files to another file storage device or your cloud drive, now you can restore them from the backup files easily. When it comes to data backup, here I want to share two data backup tools with you – MiniTool ShadowMaker and MiniTool Partition Wizard.
1. MiniTool ShadowMaker is an all-in-one data protection and disaster recovery solution for computers. It allows you back up your files, folders, operating systems, and even a whole disk so that you can restore your files when encounter a system crash, a hard drive failure, or other accidents.
More importantly, MiniTool ShadowMaker offers you a 30-day free trial. So, you can enjoy all its data backup features within 30 days.
You can download MiniTool ShadowMaker by clicking the button below.
MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
2. MiniTool Partition Wizard is the best disk management tool. You can use it to copy disk, copy partition, recover partition, resize partition, rebuild MBR, and so on. The copy disk feature allows you to copy all partitions and data from one disk to another, so MiniTool Partition Wizard is also a good solution for data backup. Now you can download it to have a try.
MiniTool Partition Wizard FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Way 4. Seek Help From a Data Recovery Company
If you do not have backup files, and you do not want to use any data recovery software to carry out removable drive file recovery, you may need to go to a data recovery company to seek help from professionals.
4 Useful Tips for Protecting Your Data
After seeing the introduction above, I guess you already have a basic understanding on how to retrieve deleted files from a removable drive. Although MiniTool Power Data Recovery can help to restore lost or deleted files, you had better try some solutions to protect our important data, for data loss will bring some troubles in your life, work, and study.
1: Back up Your Data Regularly
In general, you store massive important files in your internal hard drives or removable hard drives. However, data loss happens often and sometimes brings up some heavy losses, including economic loss.
Therefore, you had better make a backup of the important data. And then, if files are lost caused by various reasons, you can quickly, easily, and safely restore them from backup files.
2: Think Twice Before You Delete Files Or Empty the Recycle Bin
Sometimes, you may turn to the Delete button or Shift & Delete key combinations to delete some unwanted files to release more disk space. However, some important files may get deleted by mistake. So, you need to think twice before deleting some unnecessary files.
Besides, it is also recommended to think twice before emptying Windows Recycle Bin.
See Also: Full Guide to Enable Windows 10 Confirm Delete.
3: Never Write New Data to the Location Where Data Loss Appears
If your files (whether they are stored on internal hard drives or removable drives) are deleted or lost due to mistaken operation, computer virus invasion, and so on, you should stop using this drive immediately. Otherwise, the original data could be overwritten by new data, and there is no way to recover them.
Bottom Line
Are you still worried about removable drive deleted files recovery? Now, it’s your turn to retrieve deleted files by using the ways listed above.
Like this post? Share it to help more users get out of data loss trouble.
If you have come across any other good solutions to restore lost files, welcome to share them with us by leaving your comments in the comment zone below. Thank you in advance.
If you have any questions or suggestions about MiniTool software, you can directly send an email to [email protected] for further assistance. Much appreciated!
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Shirley graduated from English major and is currently an editor of MiniTool Team. She likes browsing and writing IT-related articles, and is committed to becoming a professional IT problem solver. The topic of her articles are generally about data recovery, data backup, and computer disk management, as well as other IT issues. In spare time, she likes watching movies, hiking and fishing.