Can You Recover Shredded Files from Hard Disk & Drives?

Can a file shredder tool make your files disappear?

A file shredder tool is designed to permanently delete files from your computer, making them unrecoverable. However, the effectiveness of a file shredder depends on how it works and the methods it uses.

When you decide to shred a file, instead of just deleting a file, a file shredder overwrites the file’s data with random patterns of ones and zeros multiple times. After overwriting, the tool removes the file references from the file system, making it impossible to access the data through normal means. Many file shredders allow multiple passes of overwriting to ensure no trace of the original data remains. This is important for protecting against advanced recovery techniques.

Can you recover shredded files?

Sadly, recovering shredded files is extremely difficult and, in most cases, impossible if the shredding is done correctly.

After overwriting the file’s data with random patterns multiple times, once the original data is replaced, it cannot be recovered using conventional methods. And shredding also deletes file metadata, such as names and locations, which further complicates recovery attempts. Especially for SSDs, wear-leveling and TRIM operations complicate recovery even further. Proper shredding on SSDs ensures data is distributed and erased, making recovery almost impossible.

However, we still have hope. Under these cases, recovering shredded files might be possible:
▶ Improper Shredding: If the shredder tool didn’t overwrite the data properly or performed a single pass instead of multiple passes, partial recovery might be feasible.
▶ File Backups: If the shredded file existed in backups (e.g., in the cloud or an external drive), it could potentially be restored from those sources.

How to recover shredded files/completely deleted data

Now, let’s try to recover your lost data.

Way 1. Restore shredded file folders from Regedit

If you accidentally shred a whole folder, you may try Regedit.

Step 1. Type regedit.exe on the search bar and run it.

Step 2. Click on HKEY_current_user > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > User Shell Folders > %USERPROFILE%

Step 3. Type the name of the folder you want to restore, then click on Modify

Way 2. Recover shredded Office files (Word/Excel/PPT, etc)

AutoRecover is a built-in Microsoft Office tool that saves the Word or Excel document you're working on automatically after a set amount of time. If you've activated AutoRecover, you can use it to recover unsaved Office files.

Here, we use Word as an example.

Step 1. Find the file saving path (e.g.: C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles).

Step 2. Here, copy the file name of the Word document you want to recover.

Step 3. Open your Microsoft Word, click "File". Then, click "Manage Document" and select "Recover Unsaved Documents" from the drop-down list. Please paste the copied file into the file name column and click "Open".

Manual active the AutoRecover: Click “File” > “Options” > “Save”. Then tick “Save AutoRecover information every x minutes” > “Keep the last autosaved version if I close without saving” > “OK”.

Way 3. Retrieve completely removed files from a file history backup

Windows has a File History Backup feature to recover lost files. It can recover deleted files such as documents, videos, music, pictures, and desktop folders. It does, however, require that you have previously backed up your files. Then, follow the procedures outlined below to discover how to recover deleted files on a Windows computer.

Step 1. Open "Control Panel" by typing it in the search bar and then click "System and Security".

Step 2. Select "Restore your files with File History" under the "File History" tab.

Step 3. Click the "Restore personal files" button.

Step 4. If you directly click "Restore", the lost files will be sent to their original location. If you right-click "Restore", you can save them in your specific location.

Way 4. Recover shredded files with File Recovery Software

If all the above solutions can’t help you, our last choice is to hope professional data recovery tools have a chance to help you. File recovery program that is capable of recovering not only files listed as "deleted" by Windows but also partially overwritten files and restoring their content.

AOMEI FastRecovery is a powerful scanning engine that can recover files even after the drive has been formatted. It can also restore partially overwritten files in just a few clicks. This advanced data recovery tool is fully compatible with NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, ReFS, and other file systems. It supports Windows 7, 8, 10, and 11 and all Windows Servers.

The tool excels in recovering deleted or lost data from various storage devices such as HDDs, SSDs, USB drives, and other external storage media. Whether the data loss is due to accidental deletion, formatting, or system crashes, it provides reliable solutions to restore your valuable files.

It supports the recovery of multiple file types, catering to diverse user needs. From office documents like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to multimedia files such as photos, videos, and audio, the tool ensures comprehensive recovery. Additionally, it retrieves emails, web pages, and compressed files, covering a broad spectrum of data types.

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI FastRecovery. Choose the exact partition or disk where your data lost and click Scan.

Step 2. Then, the recovery tool start to scan and search. lt will execute the “Quickly Scan" first for finding your deleted data fast, and then execute the “Deep Scan" for searching other lost data.

Step 3. Once the scan is completed, all deleted files, recycle bins and other missing files will be displayed. Please select the file you would like to recover and then click "Recover".

Step 4. Then, select a folder path to save your recovered files.

Step 5. Wait patiently for this process of recovering ends.

Conclusion

Can you recover shredded files? As this article shown, it is virtually impossible for the common user to recover safely shredded files using readily accessible data recovery applications. But, if the lost files are very important, you can still try the 4 ways in this post.