How to recover files deleted from external drive deleted by PC Manager?

Question

~~PC Manger deleted key files from a backup drive. I do not see them in the recycle data.

Answer 1

Hi,

you may try to use third-party tools like DMDE or Recuva for file recovering. Try DMDE's signature search option.

For more thorough but longer search one may replace /regular option of winfr command with /signature one.

P.S. PC Manager deleted your files already. Do you want to trust it still?

Answer 2

Files deleted from an external drive by tools like PC Manager typically bypass the Recycle Bin and are immediately removed from the file system index, which is why they do not appear in the Recycle Bin.

To attempt recovery on Windows 10 or Windows 11:

1. Stop using the external drive immediately
   Any further writes to the drive can overwrite the deleted data and make recovery impossible.
2. Check for other backups
   • If the files were ever backed up using Windows Backup/Restore or stored in a cloud service like OneDrive, restore them from there instead of the deleted drive.
3. Use Windows File Recovery (for local/external drives)
   • Install Windows File Recovery from Microsoft Store (Windows 10/11).
   • Connect the external drive.
   • Open Windows Terminal or Command Prompt as administrator.
   • Run a command using the correct source (external drive letter) and a different destination drive. For example:

          winfr D: E: /regular /n "\Users\<username>\Documents\*"
     

     Replace D: with the external drive letter (source) and E: with another drive (destination). Replace the path and filter with the folder/file pattern that matches the lost data.
   • Ensure source and destination are not the same physical drive.
   • If Regular mode does not find the files, retry using Extensive mode if supported for the file types.
4. If recovery fails
   If Windows File Recovery cannot find the files, the free space on the external drive may already be overwritten. At that point, only third‑party recovery tools or professional data recovery services might help, and success is not guaranteed.

Note: Windows File Recovery does not support recovery from cloud storage or network shares; it only works on local/internal drives, external drives, and USB devices.

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References:

• Windows File Recovery