How to Recover Deleted Files from NTFS Partition/Drive/External Hard Drive/Formatted NTFS Drive

Updated to File Recovery Tips by Nancy on Mar 8, 2024 | Approved by Cesar C

"Is it possible to restore deleted files from NTFS partition? I want to perform data recovery from NTFS drive. I lost important photos and documents on the NTFS disk."

First, you can perform data recovery from NTFS file system after deletion, no matter it is a Windows PC internal NTFS partition, an NTFS external hard drive or a formatted NTFS drive. Here in the following, we're going to learn how to recover files from NTFS partition, external hard drive, formatted, corrupted, damaged NTFS drive.

Part 1. How to Recover Deleted Files from NTFS Drive

Method 1. Restore Deleted Files from Recycle Bin

If you have deleted files from the NTFS partition or drive on your computer, to recover the deleted files from NTFS, the first method should be checking the recycle bin to get deleted files back.

  1. Click the recycle bin to open it.
  2. Scroll down to find the deleted files from the NTFS partition.
  3. Select them and click "Restore". After then, you can find the recovered NTFS files.

Method 2. Use the Command Prompt to Recover Files from NTFS Partition/Drive

If it has not been a long time after you delete files from the NTFS partition/drive, then you can try CMD to recover data from NTFS disk.

  1. Press Win+R > type cmd > press Enter
  2. Type chkdsk "drive letter" /f into the command prompt and press Enter.
  3. Then, hold down the Y key until the command lines appear again.
  4. Now, type the drive letter of the drive where the files have vanished and press Enter.
  5. After that, type [drive letter : \ >attrib –h –r –s /s /d *.*], and the deleted files from the NTFS partition will be recovered.
  6. Please replace the "drive letter" with the real NTFS hard drive letter.

Method 3. Use Software to Retrieve Deleted Files from NTFS Partition/Drive

When files are deleted from the NTFS disk, it also eliminates the data's logical access. The files physically exist on the drive until the operating system reuses the space they previously occupied. In this case, the NTFS data recovery software is helpful to find deleted files by mending the logical connection to the data. Because data removed from NTFS drives is not truly lost until it is replaced, you can get back it with a few simple clicks using NTFS disk recovery software. Here in the following, you can try the steps to recover deleted files from the NTFS partition/hard drive/external hard drive.

  1. Click the DOWNLOAD to get the most recent version of the NTFS data recovery. Double-click the.exe file to install the software on your PC after downloading it. The best hard drive recovery software is fully compatible with Windows PCs and operating systems.
  2. Download for Windows Download for macOS
  3. When you open the app, a window will appear. Choose which NTFS drive you wish to scan. To scan the NTFS partition or drive, click the "Scan" button. The software will begin scanning the NTFS hard drive to recover the data from the NTFS file system.
  4. The software will examine the NTFS partition for missing or deleted files, which will take a few minutes. You can see and filter the files after the scan is completed. Select the file type you want to recover and hit the "Recover" button. The files will be saved on your computer as a result of this.

Part 2. FAQ for Data Recovery from NTFs File System

1. How to Recover Files from Formatted NTFS Drive

To answer the question, you should first know what happened when an NTFS drive is formatted. When a hard drive is formatted, the information saved on it is erased. However, until the drive is overwritten, the data is not erased. Formatting the drive just makes space accessible for new data while leaving the old data alone. As a result, if you formatted the NTFS hard drive and want to recover files from formatted NTFS drive, do the two steps.

  1. Stop using the NTFS drive/partition immediately. Remember that adding more data to a formatted hard drive would overwrite the existing data. Even a data recovery application won't be able to retrieve data from an NTFS hard drive.
  2. Download iBeesoft Data Recovery on your computer > launch the NTFS data recovery and click "Start" > select the formatted NTFS hard drive to scan and click "Scan" > preview and recover files from a formatted hard drive.

2. Is It Possible to Recover Files from Damaged/Corrupted/Crashed NTFS drive?

It depends on how the NTFS drive is damaged, corrupted, or crashed.

3. What Is the NTFS File System?

When it comes to dealing with data storage issues, knowing NTFS (New Technology File System) is beneficial. NTFS is the Windows operating system's standard file system. More and more Windows users are installing it on their hard drives because of its advantages of large file transfer and file encryption. Furthermore, the NTFS drive allows users to work on many file operations at once. PC users that have it can deal with large amounts of data.