In layman’s terms, when you delete a file from your machine, it is not removed instantaneously from the drive. Note: NTFS has better recoverability than FAT. NTFS – Entry in the MFT ( Master File Table), which stores file information in NTFS is marked as unlinked, but it still remains on the disk. Additionally, the list of disk clusters against the file in the FAT ( File Allocation Table) is erased, and the sector is marked as available. FAT – Except for the first character of the file name, the directory entry, which holds additional metadata about files, remains unchanged. When a user deletes a file on their Windows computer (including the recycle bin), depending on the file system in place, the following changes take place: How Computers Handle Deleted Files?īefore we dive into recovering deleted files, it is crucial to understand how computers handle deleted files. It is essentially a command-line (CLI) utility that gives you the ability to recover accidentally deleted documents or corrupted files from different storage devices such as drives (HDD and SSD), thumb drives, and memory cards on Windows. To give you a primer, Windows File Recovery (or WFR) is an in-house tool from Microsoft.

Windows File Recovery Command Variations.How to Use Windows File Recovery to Recover Lost Data.What Devices and Formats Can WFR Recover?.

Windows file recovery