When you delete a folder on Windows, the Recycle Bin will hold it temporarily for restoration. Therefore, if you unintentionally delete an important file or folder, you can easily restore deleted folder from the Recycle Bin by right-clicking it and selecting Restore. The lost folders will be restored to their original locations.

However, deleting a folder from external storage devices on Windows is a different story. All deleted data on an external disk will skip Recycle Bin and be deleted immediately. Also, folders deleted by Control + Alt + Delete keyboard shortcut or emptied from the Recycle Bin will be removed permanently.

How to recover deleted folders in these situations? Don't worry. This article introduces 4 ways to recover deleted folders, including using professional folder recovery software, Windows backup features, and Windows free file recovery technique. 

Restoring deleted folders or files that are not held in the Recycle Bin is possible with the help of professional data recovery software. To avoid the possibility of data overwriting and get the best results of data recovery, we strongly suggest you should immediately stop using the disk that contained the folders you wish to recover.

iTop Data Recovery is a comprehensive data recovery software to help get deleted or lost data back in Windows 11/10/8/7. Its advanced disk scanning algorithms allow the program to restore data from various storage devices such as hard disk drives, solid-state drives, SD cards and USB flash drives.

       

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Key Features of iTop Data Recovery

• Recover 1000+ file types like images, music, documents, video, etc
• Get back deleted & lost files from different storage devices
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• Free preview files before recovery.

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Follow the steps below to know how to recover deleted folders in Windows with iTop Data Recovery.

Step 1: Deleted folder recovery software free download and install on your PC.

If you are restoring deleted folders from your Windows PC, do not download iTop Data Recovery for Windows to the partition where you lost your folders.

Step 2: Launch the program and select the disk or partition that contained the folder to be recovered from the list.

iTop Data Recovery will list all detected disks and partitions automatically. If you want to scan a folder for deleted folder recovery, click the Select Folder and select a target folder for scanning.

Step 3: Click the Scan button to start scanning for lost data.

After clicking the Scan button, data scanning will start in no time and a percentage process bar will show up. You can stop the scanning anytime.

Step 4: Filter and preview found files for recoverable files.

After the scanning is complete, you will see a list of all found files. iTop Data Recovery categorizes all found data in type and location so that you can find the folders you want to recover fast. Also, you can double click a file to preview it to know if it is recoverable.

Step 5: Select the folder you want to restore and click the Recover button to save it.

After ticking the checkbox of the folders you want to retrieve and clicking Recover, you will be asked to select a destination for recovered data. Remember not to save the to-be-recovered folders to the same disk or partition that you scanned for deleted folders. 

You may wonder how to get a deleted folder back without a data recovery software Windows 10. Windows operating system protects its users against data loss by providing backup options. If you have created backups of your Windows system or important files, it is easy to restore permanently deleted folders.

Recover Lost Folders and Files from Windows Backup and Restore

Backup and Restore feature is the built-in and primary backup program of Windows Vista and Windows 7, and now it is also available on Windows 10. If you have manually used the Back up now option and set up Back and Restore to automatically create backups of your files, folders, and system image, follow the steps below to recover permanently lost folders.

Step 1: Connect the backup disk to your PC and press the Windows key to bring up the Start menu.

Step 2: Search Control Panel and enter Control Panel.

Step 3: Open System and Security and Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

Step 4: Click the Restore my files button.

Step 5: Click Browse for folders to look for the folders you want to undelete.

Step 6: Select the folder you want to restore and click Add folder.

Step 7: Select a location to restore the folder and click the Restore button.

Restore Deleted Folders with Previous Versions

If Backup and Restore is not helping, you can check if Windows 10 created a system restore point that contains the deleted folder.

Step 1: Open File Explorer.

Step 2: Find the disk, partition, or folder where you deleted the folder.

Step 3: Right-click it and select the Properties.

Step 4: Go to Previous Versions and you will see a list of different versions of your folder.

Step 5: Select a version you want to restore and click on Restore

If Windows backup features can't help you recover deleted folders and you would not like to use a third-party data recovery solution, Windows offers a free command-line utility called Windows File Recovery to recover deleted folders.

It is a completely free folder recovery program and supports recovering data from PCs, hard drives, SD cards, and USB flash drives. Since it doesn't have a graphic interface, regular users may feel hard to use it.

How to recover deleted folders in Windows 10:

Step 1: Download and install Windows File Recover from the Microsoft store. This utility works on Windows 10 2004 or above.

Step 2: Launch the tool and you will see a Command Prompt window with Administration access.

Step 3: Run the following command: winfr source-drive: destination-drive: /n \folder-path

For exampe, winfr C: E: /n \Users\John\Documents\

This command means restoring deleted folder whose path is \Users\John\Documents\ from C: drive to the recovery folder on an E: drive. You can change the command according to your situation.

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Using powerful folder recovery software is the most practical method to recover deleted folders in Windows, especially when you don't have backups and after data has been emptied from the Recycle Bin.

To get the best results of data recovery, you should stop using your Mac or hard drive immediately and start data recovery once you suspect folders are deleted or lost. That's because any further operations may overwrite your original data, causing folders permanently lost. Download iTop Data Recovery for Windows now to start scanning for lost data.

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