Recover lost files with Windows File Recovery

Microsoft has released a command line app called Windows File Recovery which can be used to recover lost files. These lost files could have been deleted from your local storage device (including internal drives, external drives, and USB devices) and can’t be restored from the Recycle Bin. This app requires Windows 10 build 2004 and later. 

For photos, documents, videos and more, Windows File Recovery supports many file types to help ensure that your data is not permanently lost.It also has various options such signature mode which can be used for recovering from a camera or SD card where one has to see beyond NTFS recovery and caters to your storage device needs. 

One should note that if one wants to increase chances of recovering a file, minimize or avoid using that computer. In the Windows file system, the space used by a deleted file is marked as free space, which means the file data can still exist and be recovered. But any use of your computer can create files, which may over-write this free space at any time. 

Let us check various options this app provides. After running the app, it'll provide with a command prompt window, one has to enter the command in the given format:

winfr source-drive: destination-drive: [/switches] 

 The source and destination drives must be different. When recovering from the operating system drive (often C: ), use the /n <filter> and /y:<type<(s)> switches to specify the user files or folder.

Microsoft automatically creates a recovery folder for you called, Recovery_<date and time> on the destination drive.

There are three modes you can use to recover files: Default, Segment, and Signature. 

Default mode examples

• Recover a specific file from your C: drive to the recovery folder on an E: drive.

            winfr C: E: /n \Users\<username>\Documents\QuarterlyStatement.docx

• Recover jpeg and png photos from your Pictures folder to the recovery folder on an E: drive.

            winfr C: E: /n \Users\<username>\Pictures\*.JPEG /n \Users\<username>\Pictures\*.PNG

• Recover your Documents folder from your C: drive to the recovery folder on an E: drive.

            winfr C: E: /n \Users\<username>\Documents\

Don’t forget the backslash (\) at the end of the folder.

Segment mode examples (/r)

• Recover PDF and Word files from your C: drive to the recovery folder on an E: drive.

            winfr C: E: /r /n *.pdf /n *.docx

• Recover any file with the string "invoice" in the filename by using wildcard characters.

            winfr C: E: /r /n *invoice*

Signature mode examples (/x)

   When using signature mode, it's helpful to first see the supported extension groups and                     corresponding file types.

            winfr /#

• Recover JPEG (jpg, jpeg, jpe, jif, jfif, jfi) and PNG photos from your C: drive to the recovery folder on an E: drive.

            winfr C: E: /x /y:JPEG,PNG

• Recover ZIP files (zip, docx, xlsx, ptpx, and so on) from your C: drive to the recovery folder on an E: drive.

            winfr C: E:\RecoveryTest /x /y:ZIP
 

When you are prompted for confirmation to continue, enter Y to start the recovery operation.

Depending on the size of your source drive, this may take a while.

To stop the recovery process, press Ctrl+C.

For more such examples and the details, please check the user guide.

• In short, we can summarize its features as: 

• Recovers JPEG, PDF, PNG, MPEG, Office files, MP3 & MP4, ZIP files and more 
• Recovers from HDD, SSD, USB, and memory cards
• Supports NTFS, FAT, exFAT and ReFS file systems

One can get the Windows File Recovery from the Microsoft Store.