If files were deleted from an otherwise working NTFS hard drive, check the Recycle Bin and existing copies first. When those are unavailable, scan the affected source for remaining file records and content, then export to a different physical device. Success means the files you need open correctly, not simply that their names appear in a result list.
Make sure deletion is the event
Confirm the original path and Windows account. A folder moved elsewhere, an unavailable network share and an inaccessible encrypted folder need different solutions. If the drive itself disappeared, resolve detection or read failures before following a deleted-file workflow.
Open the Recycle Bin, locate the item by its original location or deletion date, and restore it if present. If additional deleted files on the same disk also matter, keep new downloads and recovery exports off that disk while looking for the other missing files. Files removed with Shift+Delete or from an emptied bin need an existing backup or a scan of surviving data.
Check a backup from before deletion. Inspect the actual file version before restoring it, and use a different destination when available. A synchronized folder is not automatically an independent backup: confirm that the wanted version still exists rather than creating more changes on the source.
Prepare a recovery destination
Stop saving downloads, installing programs or moving files on the HDD. If it is the Windows system disk, continuing ordinary work creates writes outside the folder where the deletion occurred. Arrange a suitable separate Windows environment before scanning it.
Connect a healthy output disk. Verify its identity and free space, and create a clearly named recovery folder there. Avoid selecting a destination just because its letter differs from the source; check that it is a different physical device.
Scan the affected NTFS source
XRecovery supports NTFS HDD recovery and searching for deleted data that remains. Select the volume where the files lived; if that volume is missing, use the lost-partition route instead. Scan, then check original-path results for the old folder. Use a distinctive filename, approximate modification date and expected size to narrow alternatives.
NTFS stores file information in its master file table. Deleted entries can be reused, as Microsoft’s MFT documentation explains. A recognizable record is therefore a useful clue, not proof that the associated data has survived unchanged.
Ordinary scanning and supported original-file previews are free; recovery and repair share a cumulative 2 GB allowance. Preview representative documents or images. If the original folder is absent, inspect results grouped by type as well; do not discard a plausible file solely because it has a generated name. Conversely, do not recover every familiar filename without inspecting its contents and version.
Export and inspect what matters
Recover priority files to the prepared output disk. Open the exported copies with the application used to create them. For a project, check its linked assets as well as its main file. For an archive, verify that the needed entries can actually be extracted. A visible preview may cover only part of a file.
When a trusted pre-loss copy exists, a matching SHA-256 hash can establish byte-for-byte equality. Without one, hashes help track the exported copy but cannot prove it is the original. Use content checks and record any gaps.
If the scan finds nothing usable, verify the source and search conditions once. Do not create test files on the HDD to see whether recovery improves. Overwritten content cannot be recovered by changing the scan label, and new I/O errors change this from a deletion task into a source-preservation problem.
For the next step, see Hard Drive Recovery: Find the Right Route for Your Missing Files.
