Recover deleted data using Microsoft's new "Windows File Recovery" tool, which supports files such as photos, documents, videos and other types of files

Wanting to recover an important file accidentally deleted or corrupted data should no longer be a problem on Windows. Microsoft has launched a new data recovery application that can be used to recover files that have been deleted, or to recover documents from drives that have been formatted or have become corrupt. Called “Windows File Recovery”, the application requires Windows 10 build 19041 or a later version.

Anyone who has accidentally deleted a file already knows the panic that accompanied the error. Sometimes you can find the files in the trash and restore them, but some files after deletion are not there. Also anyone familiar with the operation of Windows and other operating systems knows that the files are not actually deleted, but that they are marked to allow other data to be overwritten in the future, when the user continues to use their system.

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This means that with the right recovery software, it is possible to recover “deleted” files such as images or documents. It is for this purpose that Microsoft has designed a new free tool. Windows File Recovery is a command line tool that can recover several types of files, including photos, documents, videos, and more, which have been lost for various reasons. It can be used to recover data from local hard drives as well as from removable media such as USB drives and memory cards.

Have you accidentally deleted an important file? Clean your hard drive? Not sure what to do with corrupted data? Windows File Recovery can help you recover your personal data. For photos, documents, videos and more, Windows File Recovery supports many types of files to ensure that your data is not lost forever, this is how Microsoft described the application.

The tool specially designed for you to cancel the deletion of files, was launched discreetly by Microsoft. Maybe it’s just disaster preparedness, that is, preparing for the side effects of Windows updates? , suggested a commentator.

Features of Windows File Recovery

Windows File Recovery allows you to target filenames, keywords, paths or extensions. The application gives you the possibility to recover JPEG, PDF, PNG, MPEG, Office, MP3 & MP4, ZIP and many other file types. Files can be recovered from a hard drive, SSD, USB, and memory cards. The tool supports NTFS, FAT, exFAT and ReFS file systems.

The application supports three modes, including Default mode, Segment mode and Signature mode. Here are some details on the different recovery modes below:

Default Mode: this mode uses the Master File Table (MFT) to locate lost files. The default mode works well when the MFT and file segments, also called file recording segments (FRS), are present.

Segment mode: this mode does not require MFT but segments. Segments are summaries of file information that the NTFS stores in the MFT, such as the name, date, size, type, and index of clusters / allocation units.

Mode Signature : this mode only requires the presence of data and searches for specific file types. It does not work for small files. To recover a file from an external storage device, such as a USB stick, you can only use Signature mode.

Microsoft however warns. It is that the recovery of files on an SSD storage is limited by TRIM. To be able to use file recovery under Windows, users must be running Windows 10 version 19041.0 or higher on PC ARM, ARM64, x64 or x86 architectures.

Microsoft also notes as an important point that if you want to increase your chances of recovering a file, minimize or avoid using your computer. In the Windows file system, the space used by a deleted file is marked as free space, which means that the data in the file can still exist and be recovered. But any use of your computer can create files, which can overwrite this free space at any time. It should also be noted that recovery from cloud storage and network file sharing is not supported by the tool.

How do I use Microsoft’s file recovery tool?

If you want to use Windows File Recovery, Microsoft has given the basic steps:

Download and launch the application from Microsoft Store.
Click the Windows button, enter Windows File Recovery in the search box, and then select Windows File Recovery.
When prompted to allow the app to make changes to your device, select Yes.
In the command prompt window, enter the command in the following format:

winfr source-drive : destination-drive : [/switches]
The source and destination readers must be different. When recovering from the operating system drive (often C:), use the / n switches and / y:<(s)> to specify files or user folder.
Microsoft automatically creates a recovery file called Recovery_ for you. on the destination drive.

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Since it is a command line tool rather than a native application for Windows, Windows File Recovery might not be to everyone’s taste. Microsoft released Windows File Recovery for free, but recent history of Microsoft issues with Windows updates, such as LSASS failures and reboots, could leave some users unsure about upgrading to Windows 10 support for actually using the tool.

Windows update won’t improve until Microsoft tackles the source of the problem, which he says isn’t Windows 10 itself, but rather their number of tests before release, says one commenter he wrote. According to him, they reduced the tests of tests with virtual machines and dismissed the people who carried out the majority of the internal tests. Which means that more bugs have appeared. In addition, they do not listen to the first users of the updates and the developers rely on their mini memory deposits to find the problems, where they really lack correct data, he added. And you, what do you think of the new Microsoft tool?

Source : Microsoft

And you ?

What do you think of the Microsoft file recovery tool?
Why do you think the launch of “Windows File Recovery” was done discreetly?
Will you be using Microsoft’s new tool? What are the features that catch your attention?