How to Recover Data from Old External Hard Drive?
Jenny Lowrence | March 7th, 2025 | Data Recovery
Summary: External hard drives are a convenient way to store and backup important data. However, sometimes they may become inaccessible due to physical damage, file corruption, and compatibility issues. It is a frustrating situation if it contain valuable data. If you have an old external hard drive and want to restore data from it then you have come to the right place. This guide will provide different methods to recover data from old external hard drive.
Before diving into methods, we understand the reasons behind data loss on old external hard drive.
Why Does Data Loss on Old External Hard Drive?
- Accidental deletion of data without having any backup.
- Improper injection of the drive can also data corruption.
- Errors in the drive file system can make data unreadable.
- Wear and tear, and dropping the drive may loss data.
How to Recover Data from Old External Hard Drive Manually?
In this section, we have explained three manual ways to retrieve data from old external hard drive. All of these methods are explained in a simple way. Let’s look at these methods one by one.
#1. Restore Data from Recycle Bin
Each hard drive has its own Recycle Bin folder. When you click on the Recycle Bin icon located on your system, it shows a combined view of Recycle Bin folders that are present on your system, including Recycle Bin folders located on old external hard drive.
Follow the below given steps to recover data from Recycle Bin.
- Open Recycle Bin on your system.
- Check deleted files here, if it’s there select the required data.
- Right-click on it and select the Restore option.
#2. Recover Data using CMD
- Connect the old external hard drive to your system.
- Now press Win + R to open the Run command.
- Type cmd and click OK.
- Enter chkdsk F: /f/r and press Enter.
Here E denotes the drive letter of your external hard drive. Wait to complete the process and your external hard drive data will recover.
#3. Restore Data from Backup
Backup are the also option from which you can retrieve deleted data from old external hard drive. If you have backup your data somewhere then restore it.
How to Retrieve Data from Old External Hard Drive Automatically?
If the manual methods fail to recover data from old external hard drive then try the Advik Data Recovery Wizard on your system. The software is specially designed to restore deleted data from any storage device. It provides a full preview of deleted files. It is able to retrieve all data in their original format without any modification.
Download the FREE version of this utility to check its working procedure.
Steps to Recover Data from Old External Hard Drive
Note: Connect external hard drive to your system via USB.
Step 1. Run the tool and choose Deleted Data Recovery option.
Step 2. Select the external hard drive and press Next.
Step 3. The software scans the drive and will display all the data.
Step 4. Choose the data that you want to restore.
Step 5. Click on Save button to save data at targeted location.
Now sit back and relax! The software will start restoring data from the old external hard drive.
Why Choose Advik Data Recovery Software?
There are various advantages of using this utility which are given below;
- Retrieve Data from Damaged Drive: There is no matter external hard drive is corrupted, not detected, etc, the software is designed to handle any type of issue effectively. It can securely recover data from corrupted external hard disk without any issues.
- Preview Before Recovery: The software shows old data of your drive before restoring them. You can select the data that you want to recover.
- Restore All Type Data: With this utility, you can recover all types of data such as audio, videos, photos, documents, etc. It can restore all data on your old external hard drive.
- Maintain On Disk Folder Hierarchy: The software retains the original structure of the folder while recovering data from the old external hard drive. It restores data without any change in the original formatting.
- User-Friendly Interface: The software is designed with a simple graphical interface. Beginners can easily use it to recover old external drive data without any technical knowledge.
Conclusion
In this post, we have discussed how to recover data from old external hard drive. Here, we have explained both manual and automated solutions. Sometimes manual methods do not work then you can use the Advik Data Recovery Wizard. The software helps to retrieve data such as documents, audio, video, PDF, etc. in just a few simple clicks.