Deleted data on a magnetic hard drive may remain in sectors until later writes reuse them. Recovery becomes less likely as Windows, applications, downloads, updates, and temporary files continue writing to the disk. Stop using the affected HDD as soon as the deletion is discovered.
Check copies that already exist
Look in the Recycle Bin, File History, Windows Backup, cloud version history, application autosaves, external backups, email attachments, and copies held by collaborators. Restore found files to another disk and open them before continuing.
If the deleted files were on the Windows system drive, normal operation continues to create writes. Shut down when practical and attach the HDD to another Windows computer as a secondary source. Do not install recovery software on the affected drive.
Confirm the HDD is physically stable
Simple deletion should not make a hard drive click, disappear, change capacity, or freeze the host during ordinary reads. Those symptoms require a failing-drive assessment. Do not repeatedly power a disk that clicks or struggles to spin up.
If Windows exposes a stable disk or partition with a plausible capacity, XRecovery can scan it. XRecovery 3.1.6 runs on Windows. Select the source by model and capacity, then start scanning. Quick scan runs first and deep scan begins automatically.
Review and export results
File-system results can retain names, folders, dates, and allocation information when metadata survives. Signature-based scanning can locate recognized content when directory records are damaged, but it may not reconstruct the original path or name. Fragmented files are harder to rebuild when their allocation records are gone.
Preview representative files where supported and recover a small sample to a different physical device. XRecovery warns against choosing the scanned source as the destination, although a user can override the warning. Do not override it: new files written to the HDD may overwrite other deleted content.
The free allowance is 2 GB in total. Support covers common photo, video, and document formats, not every format.
Verify before reusing the disk
Open recovered documents, extract archives, inspect photos at full resolution, and play videos through multiple points with audio. Compare sizes and expected contents. Keep the source unchanged until important files exist in two independent locations.
If the first controlled scan cannot produce usable copies, repeated scans do not reverse overwrite. Preserve the source and decide whether the value of the missing data justifies another method or a professional service.