How to Recover Data From Portable Hard Disk, SD Card, and USB?

How to recover data from portable hard disk, SD card, USB, or local PC? You can learn effective methods to do so in this post. It also allows you to easily retrieve deleted and lost data from various data loss situations.

Posted by @Irene December 17, 2024 Updated By @Irene November 21, 2024

How to recover data from portable hard disk?

Are you trying to recover deleted or lost files from an external hard drive because of accidental deletion, formatting, corruption, malware, or other issues? We will share some effective methods to help you recover data from portable hard disk, SD card, USB, and local PC. Whether you're looking to recover photos, videos, or other files, these fixes will help you retrieve your data back quickly and easily. 

Method 1. Recover data from external hard drive with a comprehensive tool

If you accidentally format your portable hard disk, permanently delete files, or face a malware or virus attack, it is important to perform external hard disk data recovery as soon as possible. At this time, please use professional data recovery software right away, as recovering data becomes much more difficult once it's overwritten. This is also applicable for situations where you find your external hard drive is beeping.

Among various data recovery tools, AOMEI FastRecovery stands out for its advanced expertise in the field, powerful features, and easy-to-use interface.

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This multifaceted software has gained widespread usage due to its capability to:

βœ” Recover from various data storage devices, including local PCs, portable hard disks like HDDs, SSDs, USB drives, SD cards, and more. βœ” Recover data lost due to permanently deleted, formatted, viruses attack, system crashes, corruption, OS reinstalls, system misconfiguration, overwritting, or when the file system is RAW. βœ” It has user-friendly interface. If you need any help, it offers technical support in 24/7. βœ” Easily recover unlimited data and over 1000 file types, including photos, videos, audio files, emails deleted for many years, documents, and more. βœ” Provide support for a diverse range of external hard drive brands, including but not limited to Seagate, Toshiba, Samsung, and more. βœ” Recover lost data to the original path with the same format.

Here is how to recover data from external hard drive with AOMEI FastRecovery:

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

Step 2. The recovery tool will then start to scan and search. It will execute the “Quickly Scan" first to quickly find your deleted data and then the “Deep Scan" to search for 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 want to recover and click "Recover".

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

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

Method 2. Recover data from external hard drive with CMD

To perform portable hard disk data recovery via Command Prompt, you can use the "attrib" command. This command is designed to manage file attributes, such as read-only, hidden, system, and archive. It is especially useful for retrieving data lost due to accidental deletion or hidden files.

Step 1. Connect the external hard drive to your computer. Press Win + R to open the Run window.

Step 2. Type "CMD," and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to run Command Prompt as Administrator.

Step 3. Type "attrib -h -r -s /s /d F:\*.*" and hit Enter.

(Replace "F" with the exact letter of your external hard drive.)

Method 3. Recover deleted data from external hard disk using Windows File Recovery

Microsoft offers a command-line tool for Windows 10 users that supports NTFS, FAT, exFAT, and ReFS file systems. It helps recover deleted files from local hard drives, external hard drives, and USB drives. Follow these steps to use it. This tool is exclusively designed for Windows 10 users. If you are other Windows OS users, you can choose AOMEI FastRecovery.

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Step 1. Download Windows File Recovery from the Microsoft Store and run it as administrator.

Step 2. Type the following command to recover deleted files: winfr source-drive:destination-drive:[/mode][/switches].

Step 3. Hit “Enter” and type in “Y” to start the scan.

β˜…Tips:
Replace "source-drive" with the drive letter of the external hard drive or USB drive, and "destination-drive" with the path of the folder where you want to save the recovered files.
Windows File Recovery supports various [/mode] and [/switches] that you can use to customize the recovery process, click Command line syntax to learn more.
Wait for Windows File Recovery to complete the scan and recover any deleted files. The time it takes to recover files depends on the size of the drive and the number of deleted files.
It is important to note that attempting to recover data from an external hard drive without proper knowledge may result in further data loss or hard drive corruption.

Final words

There are 3 ways about how to recover data from portable hard disk.If you are not familiar with the command line or are using a Windows operating system other than Windows 10, AOMEI FastRecovery is an ideal choice for external hard disk data recovery.