I checked my Downloads folder and several gigabytes of files were suddenly gone. They aren't in the Recycle Bin, and I'm not sure what caused the deletion. Recuva can still find some of the filenames, so I'm hoping the data may be recoverable. Are there any free recovery options, and what should I do first to avoid making things worse?
3 Answers
Unfortunately, deleted files aren’t always recoverable, especially if the drive has been used heavily since the deletion. If recovery software finds the files, act quickly, preview what you can, and save recovered copies to another storage device.
Check your storage cleanup settings under System > Storage > Storage Sense. There’s an option that can automatically delete files from Downloads after a certain period, so make sure it’s disabled or set to Never to prevent this happening again. Your browser’s download history may also show where the missing files originally came from, which could help you prioritize downloading the most important ones again.
Stop using that drive as much as possible so new data doesn’t overwrite the deleted files. Since Recuva can still detect some of them, try recovering a few critical files to a different drive, not back into Downloads. Files marked with better recovery status have a higher chance of working, while red entries may be damaged or partially overwritten.
When I click Recover, it sends me toward the Pro version. Does that happen because the files are marked red?