How to find a lost file in windows 10

Quick Navigation:

• Need to recover missing files in Windows 10

• 3 easy ways to recover lost files in Windows 10

• More reliable way to protect your data from losing

• Conclusion

Need to recover missing files in Windows 10

We save a lot of files and folders on our PCs. However, it is not definitely safe to keep our data on PCs. You may lose your files in following occasions:

• Your computer suffers from system crash, hard drive failure or other serious errors.

• You permanently delete your files by accident.

• You find files missing after Windows update.

Is it possible to recover lost or deleted files in Windows 10? Fortunately, the answer is positive.

3 easy ways to recover lost files in Windows 10

To retrieve lost or deleted files in Windows 10, there are three efficient solutions you can try:

• Solution 1: recover lost files with File History

• Solution 2: recover deleted files via Backup and Restore

• Solution 3: recover missing files by powerful recovery software

Solution 1:  recover lost files with File History

If you own a habit of making backups and have backed up your files with File History, you can retrieve your data in the following steps:

1. Tap the Search button on the taskbar and type “file history” in the search box. Select Restore your files with File History from the search results.

2. In the pop-up window, choose what you want to restore by clicking your way through the libraries, folders, and files until you spot the item or items you’d like to restore.

3. Move forward or backward in time to find the version you’d like to restore.

4. Click the Restore button to restore your desired version.

Note: If Windows notices a naming conflict with the item you’re trying to restore, you should choose how to handle the conflict—Replace the File in the Destination Folder, Skip This File, or Compare Info for Both Files.

5. Close File History.

Solution 2: recover deleted files via Backup and Restore 

If you have created a backup with Backup and Restore, then learn how to retrieve deleted files in Windows 10 as follows:

1. Search for “backup” from the taskbar and select Backup settings from the search results.

2. In the pop-up window, click on Go to Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

3. In the Backup and Restore window, click Restore my files in the Restore section.

4. In the next window, click on Browse for files or Browse for folders to find the files/folders you want to recover. You can also click Search and type a filename or folder to search for it.

5. Choose to restore your files to the original location or a new location and click Restore to start.

Solution 3: recover missing files by powerful recovery software

If you haven’t got a backup, you may need a powerful data recovery software—Recoverit Pro. Follow the instructions below to recover deleted/missing files in Windows 10:

1. Install and run Recoverit. Select the “All-Around Recovery” option which supports to recover lost data caused by any scenarios.

2. Select a location where you lost your data and click “Start”. The “All-Around Recovery” option will scan deeply for lost data, thus taking a longer time.

3. Wait for the scanning process to be done. Tick the files you want to retrieve and click “Recover”. It is recommended not to save the files into the hard drive where you lost your data.

More reliable way to protect your data from losing

You may discover that it costs less time and energy to recover lost files with a backup than without a backup. You get the importance of performing backups regularly. Here I’d like to recommend the best free backup software—AOMEI Backupper Standard to you, which works better than File History and Windows Backup and Restore.

• It enables you to do system/disk/partition/file backup based on your needs.

• With the Schedule Backup feature, you can set your backup tasks to run at fixed intervals.

• You are also allowed to create incremental backups or other backup options (eg: automatic splitting) to improve the backup efficiency.

All Windows PC operating systems are supported. Just download this freeware to have a try. For server users, try AOMEI Backupper Server.

To backup your important files, you can choose one of the methods below:

1. Perform file backup to create an image for your files. When they are lost or deleted mistakenly, you can restore them from the backup image.

2. Perform file sync to copy them to another place. You can copy them back directly if they are lost in the original place.

After backing up, you will get an exact copy of the files. But the previous one requires you to restore files from backup if you want to use or modify files in it. You have two ways in the following: 

#1: Restore files from file backup. This way requires you to create a file backup in advance, and you can choose to restore files to original location or new location.

#2: Restore files using Explore Image. This way applies to all backup solutions including file backup. If it's a file backup, this software will save all the files to the original location by default. And it will keep its original structure.

Conclusion

Now you know how to recover lost files in Windows 10—File History, Windows Backup and Restore, and the professional tool Recoverit can do you a favor. Sometimes you may recover lost partitions in Windows 10 to get missing files back.

For better data protection, you can do a regular system backup for Windows 10 with AOMEI Backupper. Besides, you are allowed to do selective file restore in AOMEI Backupper, thus retrieving needed files only.

How do I locate a lost file on my computer?

How do I find missing files in Windows 10?