[Free] How to Recover Deleted Files from Flash Drive without Software

Is it possible to recover deleted files from USB flash drives without software?

Accidentally deleted important files from your USB flash drive and can’t find them in the Recycle Bin?

Don’t panic, deleted USB files may still be recoverable, even without data recovery software. This guide will show you several methods to restore data quickly and safely, whether your files were lost due to accidental deletion, formatting, corruption, or virus attacks.

How to recover deleted files from flash drive without software

You can recover deleted files from USB flash drive by using the attrib command or restore to the previous version.

▶ Method 1. Recover deleted files from flash drive using CMD

Microsoft provides users with a suite of commands to repair different issues. The CHKDSK and Attrib commands are closely related to data recovery, especially when your files are hidden.

Step 1. Plug in your USB flash drive to your computer. Type "cmd" in the Start menu and select “Run as administrator”.

Step 2. Input the following commands one by one. Replace X with the drive letter of your USB drive.

• chkdsk X: /f /r
• attrib -h -r -s /s /d X:*.*

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Wait for the process to finish. You can then check if your missing files are back on flash drive.

▶ Method 2. Recover deleted files from flash drives with Previous Versions

If the above method does not work, your files will be permanently deleted. Check if you have enabled the File History feature, which allows you to restore deleted files to a previous version. 

Please note that “File History” only backs up files in user folders. You will need to move files from flash drive into one of these folders before losing them. Otherwise, this method will not work.

Step 1. Connect your USB flash drive to the computer, right-click it, and select “Properties“.

Step 2. Under the “Previous Versions“ tab, select a previous version according to the time, and click “Restore”.

▶ Method 3: Recover deleted files from USB drive using Windows File Recovery 

Windows File Recovery, released by Microsoft in 2020, is a free command-line data recovery tool that can recover deleted files from hard drives, SSDs, memory card, etc. It requires you to learn the syntax and necessary parameters (i.e., file system, recovery mode, switches) before you can use it. 

Step 1. Check the file system of your hard drive. Right-click the partition and select “Properties”. Scroll down to check the file system.

Step 2. Select a recovery mode based on the file system and scenario.

Step 3. Select one or more switches to control what kinds of files to recover and specify locations & file types. 

• - /n: Scans for a specific file by using a file name, file path, file type, or wildcards.
• - /segment: Segment mode, recovery option for NTFS drives using file record segments. /signature: Signature mode, recovery option for all file system types using file headers.
• /u: Recover the undeleted files, like from the Recycle bin.

Step 4. Enter the winfr commands to recover data. You can refer to Winfr usage and real examples.

Example 1. To recover the “Test” folder from C: drive to the recovery folder on E: drive, type:

winfr C: E: /regular /n \Users\*\Test\

Example 2. To recover PDF and Word documents from C: drive to the recovery folder on E: drive, type:

Winfr C: E: /regular /n *.pdf /n *.docx

An easier way to recover deleted files from flash drive 

If you still cannot find the deleted files, the only method is to use a reliable Windows data recovery software - AOMEI FastRecovery to scan and recover deleted files from flash drive. It doesn't require you to create a backup beforehand.

Step 1. Launch FastRecovery on your computer. Then, click Deleted Files Recovery.

Step 2. Find the USB drive and click Scan.

Step 3. The program will start a quick scanning process to find missing files in the flash drive. You won't have to wait long. Scan time mainly depends on disk size and health, especially regarding bad sectors or file system corruption.

Step 4. Wait for the process to complete. You can select files by Type (default) or Path, with options to sort, search, filter, and preview files, making it easier and faster to find files.

👉Under the Type section: 

• Specify the data type and specific formats, then click the arrow next to type, size, date modified, etc., to sort files. 
• To locate files quickly, type the file name or extension in the search box.
• Or use the filter feature, similar to the Type category, allowing you to further specify the size of files, from less than 512 KB to 1GB above.
• Once found, double-click the files to preview. 

👉 Under the Path section: Expand Deleted Files/Existing Files to find deleted files in the original location. Sort files if needed.

Step 5. Select the file or the folder that you want to recover and click "Recover".

Conclusion

In short, if you want to recover deleted files from flash drive without software, data recovery becomes a breeze as long as you have a backup file in the event of data loss. If not, a reliable data recovery software is the last resort. Meanwhile, please stop using the storage device immediately to increase the success rate of data recovery.

In addition, it's necessary to make a regular backup to keep your data safe, preferably create multiple backups and save to different locations. You can save backup image to external hard drive, NAS, cloud drive, etc.