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Losing your important data is the most frustrating experience anyone can face. Sometimes, accidentally, one can delete the old data and replace it with the new one. In this situation, you actually overwrite your file, and recovery depends on different situations.
Here in this post, we will discuss the meaning of overwritten files and whether they can be recovered or not. Let’s begin with.
When a file is overwritten, the new data replaces the old data in the same storage location on the disk. Because of this, the original data may be permanently lost if it has been fully replaced.
Situation When You Can Recover Overwritten Files
First, you must know that, yes, you can recover overwritten file data, but it depends on several factors. Let’s check out what they are and how you can recover the data.
1. Recover Files Using File History Backup
Windows provides a built-in backup feature that automatically stores copies of files. If this feature were enabled, you may be able to recover overwritten files easily. Steps to Recover files;
- Open the folder where the file was stored.
- Click Home in the File Explorer menu.
- Select History.
- Browse through the available versions of the file.
- Choose the version you want and click Restore.
This method is very effective if regular backups are created.
2. Previous Versions Feature
The file history feature should be enabled in order to recover overwritten data drive saved offline on a Windows OS machine.
If the same is confirmed, then simply follow the steps to recover data and files.
- Now Open Windows Explorer on my PC and then open the folder or drive containing overwritten data.
- Right-click and choose the properties anywhere within the drive and folder.
- Now choose the previous tab button
- Now see the version of the list, with data on each, and check the required version.
- Look at the list of versions with a date wise each and look for the version required.
- Now restore to the version you need
- Hit the restore button.
3. Professional Data Recovery Tools
If you want a hassle-free solution, then you can use an expert solution, the BLR Data Recovery Toolkit for Windows. The tool will effortlessly recover deleted or lost data from your system, drives, and external storage devices. The recovery tool scans the drive for the lost data quickly and performs an advance plus deep scan to locate and fetch more lost data files. Once the scan process is completed, users can try the “Filter” option to refine the specific data recovery by date, time, size, and specific lost folder, along with name and extension. If only photo recovery is required, then select the “Type” and choose “Pictures” and select either the full folder or the particular required files. If you want to recover from Drone you can have a look at Drone Data Recovery software.
When Recovery from Overwritten Drive Is Not Possible?
You can’t recover overwritten files in a few cases, such as
- The new data has fully replaced the original sectors on the drive.
- The storage device is an SSD with TRIM enabled, which quickly removes old data.
- The drive has been used heavily after the overwrite.
Here are a few insights into the topic “Can I recover overwritten files?” I hope this information will be helpful for you.
