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9 August 2023  Ashley S. Miller  Specialist of Customer Service Dept.
 

Summary
Learn how to recover lost/deleted photos from your mobile hard disk with practical methods. Get back your important data effortlessly.



Table of contents

table iconI. Several reasons for the loss of photos on the mobile hard disk
table iconII. Use Renee Undeleter to recover lost photos from mobile hard drive
table iconIII. Detailed introduction of mobile hard disk repair methods
how to recover deleted photos from external hard drive

I. Several reasons for the loss of photos on the mobile hard disk

Before starting to recover photos from the mobile hard drive, you can learn about several reasons for photo loss in order to better solve this problem.

1. Photos are hidden

When the photos on the mobile hard disk cannot be found, you first need to check whether the photos on the mobile hard disk are hidden due to virus infection or other reasons, resulting in files that cannot be displayed. You can modify options in (Control Panel) to view hidden files.
First, press the Windows icon + R key at the same time, then enter (Control Panel) in the run window, and press the (Enter) key to open the Control Panel. Then click (Appearance and Personalization).
Click Appearance and Personalization
Click (Show hidden files and folders), find (Show hidden files, folders, and drives) and check it, and then click (OK).
control panel show hidden files
After doing the above, if you still can’t find the photos, they may have been deleted.

2. Accidental deletion or virus

Accidental deletion is a common cause of data loss. If you frequently delete data accidentally, it is recommended that you regularlyMake a backup of the mobile hard drive . Virus infection of the mobile hard disk may also lead to loss of photos. Some viruses will automatically delete files in the mobile hard disk. At this time, you can connect the mobile hard disk to the computer and use anti-virus software to scan and kill the virus.

3. Mobile hard disk failure

When the mobile hard disk fails, such as the file system error, the mobile hard disk becomes RAW, the hard disk partition disappears or there are bad sectors, etc., the photo files in it may be lost. This phenomenon often occurs in those mobile hard disks that have reached the end of their service life or are of low quality. Please refer to the repair method in the third part. Before repairing, it is recommended to use data recovery software to restore the photos on the mobile hard disk.

II. Use Renee Undeleter to recover lost photos from mobile hard drive

1. What is Renee Undeleter?

Rene.E Laboratory ™ data recovery software It is a software specially used to restore various data files. When you accidentally delete important files, empty the recycle bin, or format the disk/storage, you can use this tool to retrieve the lost data. The software covers four functional modules, including file recovery, format recovery, partition recovery and image creation, which can help you solve all data loss problems in an all-round way.
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Supported devices SD card, SDHC, SDXC, USB flash drive, hard disk and computer.

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2. How to use Renee Undeleter to recover lost photos from mobile hard disk?

As a professional data recovery software, Renee Undeleter not only has comprehensive functions, but also has a very simple operation process. The specific operation steps are as follows:
Step 1: Connect the mobile hard disk to the computer. Download, install and open Renee Undeleter, and select (Format Recovery).
Note: Do not install on the disk that needs to restore data, so as not to cause data overwriting.
Select formatted recovery option
Data recovery function introduction:
File recovery: Quickly retrieve files lost due to accidental deletion or emptying the recycle bin.
Format recovery: Quickly recover files lost due to inaccessible or formatted partitions.
Partition recovery: Partition information can be analyzed and obtained, and the entire partition can be fully scanned.
Create a mirror: A mirror can be created for a partition to back up the current partition state.

Step 2: Select the mobile hard disk partition where the photos are lost, and click (Next). Then enter the file scanning process, please wait patiently. The scan time is determined by the partition size.
scan document
Step 3: After the scan is over, select the photos you want to recover, and click the (Recover) button to save the recovered files in other disks.
Select the file you want to restore and click Recover
After recovering the lost photos on the mobile hard disk, you can further repair the mobile hard disk. The following are some repair methods.

III. Detailed introduction of mobile hard disk repair methods

1. Check the system file error of the mobile hard disk

You can use the built-in file system error checking function of the Windows system to check and repair the mobile hard disk. The premise is that the mobile hard disk can be displayed in the file explorer. If it cannot be displayed, you can also perform this operation in (Disk Management).
Specific steps are as follows:
Step 1: Connect the mobile hard disk to the Windows computer.
Step 2: Open the file explorer, right-click the mobile hard disk, select (Properties) > (Tools), and click (Check) in the “Error checking” column.
Check for file system errors
Step 3: Click (Scan and Repair Drive). If errors are found, the computer may need to be restarted to repair the file system.
scan and repair drive

2. Format the mobile hard disk

Formatting a portable hard drive can fix many problems. If the mobile hard disk is not displayed in the PC file explorer, please right-click the (Start) menu and enter (Disk Management) to format the mobile hard disk.
Specific steps are as follows:
Step 1: Connect the mobile hard disk to the computer. Copy the data of the entire mobile hard disk to other disks for data backup.
Step 2: Open File Explorer, right-click on the removable hard drive, and select (Format).
Format the mobile hard disk
Step 3: In the format window, select the appropriate file system: FAT32, NTFS or exFAT. If it is used in Windows system, it is recommended to select (NTFS).
Step 4: Click (Start) to start formatting the external hard drive.
Select the mobile hard disk file system

3. Use Chkdsk to repair damaged mobile hard disk

As long as the mobile hard disk is not physically damaged and the computer has a way to recognize the mobile hard disk, then you can use the Chkdsk tool to fix logical errors. Note: Please back up important files before repairing.
Specific steps are as follows:
Step 1: Connect the mobile hard disk to the computer.
Step 2: After the connection is successful, search for (cmd) in the computer search box, right-click (command prompt), and select (run as administrator).
search command prompt
Step 3: In the command prompt window, enter the command (chkdsk H: /f) (H: is the drive letter of the mobile hard disk, /f is the repair parameter), and then press the (Enter) key. The repair process will take some time, depending on the severity of the damage and the size of the storage capacity. Exit Command Prompt when the repair is complete.
Kind tips If this command does not repair the mobile hard disk, you can also try the (chkdsk H: /r) command, (/r) is also a repair parameter, which can find bad sectors and restore readable information. (/r) includes the functionality of (/f) with additional analysis for physical disk errors.