What to do when you accidentally delete or lose files on your PC

Data loss is every tech-users nightmare. To find precious pictures of friends and family members, videos of your kids when they were tiny, or that work proposal you’ve sweated blood and tears over, have suddenly been erased from your hard drive is something that can cause the heart to sink. But what can you do? If something is deleted accidentally or a drive has corrupted or crashed, is there any way to get back those important files? Thankfully there is, so here’s the steps to take if you want to recover lost or deleted data from your Windows PC.

Check for online backups

While it’s always important to have a regular backup routine for your data, the truth is most of us forget from time to time. But, with so much of our lives lived online, there’s a chance that your cloud storage (be it Google Drive, Onedrive or any of the huge selection of others) could be backing up your data for you. So, before you panic, try going to the web versions of your service and checking to see if the files you’re missing are stored there.

If they’re not, then you’ll need some more powerful tools to retrieve your files. There’s no need to head off down to a repair store though, as professional data recovery software is something that anyone can use to get back lost items.

How professional data recovery software can rescue your files

As the name suggests, this kind of application is purpose built to locate and restore files that have been deleted or stuck in drives with newly written partitions, hardware faults or now unbootable due to a crash. There’s plenty to choose from, so to make things simple we recommend always looking for one that’s trusted by a large user-base and has been around for a number of years. One excellent option is Stellar Data Recovery. This award-winning software supports more than 3 million users and the company has over 30 years’ experience in the field, making it a tried and tested solution for retrieving lost files.

The interface is so simple that anyone can use it. No need for command line coding or tech prowess, just follow the onscreen menus to select the kind of files you’re looking to recover, preview them to check they’re correct, scan the drive, then save the retrieved data to a new, safe location. You don’t have to do it all at once either, as the scan can be paused if you need the PC for other duties.

Steller Data Recovery Professional for Windows works with a range of storage media. It can recover data from HDDs, SSDs, USB storage, SD Cards and a selection of other sources. You’re not limited by the kind of files you can recover either, as it is compatible with document formats, photos, videos, audio, email, as well as archive types like ZIP and RAR.

Even if your system has failed and the drive is unbootable, you can still use the software to mount the disk and get back the data, and the same is true if you accidentally partition a drive and wipe out the files in the process. It might seem like an irredeemable disaster, but with pro-level software all is not lost.

Keep your files safe with Stellar Data Recovery Professional

There’s no point in shelling out money for a data recovery software package, only to find that the file you really need is truly gone. That’s why it’s a good idea to take advantage of the Stellar Data Recovery free trial. With this, you can scan the affected drive, and the app will let you know whether the files you need are recoverable.

To restore your data, and know that you’ll always be able to do so from now on, you can pick up Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Windows for a one-time price of £89.99/$89.99. This not only allows to retrieve lost files, but also repairs corrupted or damaged photos and videos, making it the complete data restoration package.

Losing important files can be heartbreaking, but with a professional data recovery package on-hand, it can just be an inconvenience.