Data recovery is a crucial element for every business and computer user. Laptop hard drives like any other hard drives are not immune to any cause of data loss. As a result, they must be properly secured to prevent unintended data losses.

Whether you intend to recover files from a formatted drive or files deleted by accident, this guide will help you work around it quickly and efficiently. Data protection however is very important to ensure you are not getting into such a compromising situation without notice. Apparently, there are many ways to perform hard drive data recovery.  Check out this procedure for restoring data from from crashed drive. Below are some of the proven methods to restore lost data from a laptop computer. 

Method 1: Microsoft’s Windows File Recovery Tool

Before you can think of any other recovery method to restore data from a laptop hard drive, Windows file recovery tool from Microsoft should be a good trial. This is a command-line utility built by Microsoft. It uses the winfr command for undeleting files in Windows 11 and 10.

You may not be very familiar with the tool. Because the utility is not preinstalled on your laptop, you will need to visit Microsoft Store where you can search for it, download and install it on your laptop. Follow the steps below: 

Step 1: Search for Microsoft Store using Windows search and pick the first result. Open it.

Step 2: Tap on the search icon appearing on the top-right side of Microsoft Store and search for windows file recovery from it. 

Step 3: Tap on the “Windows File Recovery” icon from the search results.

Step 4: on the page that appears next, click “Get” to download the utility.

Step 5: Click “Install” to install the utility on your laptop hard drive.

Step 6: Once the utility is installed, launch it by tapping on the launch button. 

Now that you have the utility installed on your laptop, launch the utility to recover data from the hard drive of your laptop. You will be amazed how this method can quickly get back your lost files.

Method 2: Recover Data with Windows 11 Data Recovery Software

If the methods above did not help you restore the data, then you will need a versatile data recovery tool. That is where Disk Drill by Cleverfiles comes in. 

Data recovery software is the most efficient method to get back lost data on any device. Currently there are many data recovery software. They generally claim to excel in data recovery of all forms of data. 

Disk Drill comes with both quick and deep scan features that will help you scan and retrieve all lost data in record time. With this tool, data recovery is even possible from a dead MacBook. Whether you have lost data from the hard drive of your laptop or from external backup drives, the software will solve all your recovery queries.

To use this app, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Visit the CleverFiles website to download and install the software

Step 2: Open it and search for the lost files

Step 3: Preview the files after search results are displayed

Step 4: Choose the ones you need to restore, click “Restore” and choose where to send them

Step 5: Check if your files are restored and are back in their original location.

Method 3: The Undo Command

This command is essential for recovering data immediately if they are lost through accidental deletion. It’s fortunate that the command is much easier to use even by learners. 

If you were working on Microsoft, locate the undo button on the top left corner of your window. Proceed by tapping on the button to undo the changes made to the document and your data will be restored. 

This method gets you back the deleted files. Otherwise, you can still use the keyboard shortcut “Ctrl + Z.” to quickly undo the deleted files and recover them from the laptop hard drive. Some of the operations you can undo include copy, delete, rename etc. 

Some tips for effectively using the undo function with your laptop include:

• Do not delete the files from recycle bin
• The operation is very time-sensitive and must be carried out immediately to be effective
• If your laptop went off and you need to restart it to perform this operation, you will not be able to restore lost data with this method.

Method 4: Recover from Recycle Bin 

The Recycle Bin is a means of protecting your hard drive from unwarranted data losses caused by accidental deletion. This is where all the data you delete are sent for temporary storage. 

All Windows computers including Windows 11 laptops have this feature and you can use it to restore your data. You will however not be able to use this feature if your data was deleted more than 30 days ago or if they were deleted with the shift button. This is because permanently deleted files are removed from the Bin and can only be restored using data recovery software. 

If you feel your files were deleted just a few minutes ago, proceed with this method to recover deleted files from a hard drive. To proceed, open the Recycle Bin and select the files you need to restore. Tap on “restore selection” to recover only selected files.

If you emptied the recycle bin after deleting the files from the laptop hard drive, you will not be able to recover them with this method. Rather, you will require backups or an existing history to recover the files.

Method 5: Restore from Previous Backup

Backups are an easy way to recover lost files from laptops. If you have the habit of backing up files and the files you lost had been previously backed up, you will easily get them back with this method. 

There are several methods people use to back up files. Some of these include: 

Conclusion

Laptop hard drives are similar to desktop hard drives and can be used to store all forms of data. Similarly, data recovery from the laptop can be done following all the methods described here among many others.