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4 August 2023  Amanda J. Brook  Senior Product Manager
 

Summary
Learn how to recover data from Western Digital hard drives (WD) to prevent loss due to hard disk failure and ensure the longevity of your files.



Table of contents

table iconI. Introduction to Western Digital Hard Drive and Reasons for Hard Drive Data Loss
table iconII. What are the simple and practical data recovery software?
western digital hard drive recovery

I. Introduction to Western Digital Hard Drive and Reasons for Hard Drive Data Loss

Western Digital Corp, referred to as WDC for short, is a world-renowned hard disk manufacturer. The company was founded in 1970 and began designing and producing hard disks in 1988. Headquartered in Lake Forest, California, USA, it is one of the oldest hard disk manufacturers and one of the founders of the IDE interface. Western Digital hard drives are also called Western Digital hard drives and WD hard drives. They have the characteristics of high performance and low power consumption, so they are loved by many users.
Although Western Digital hard drives are produced by world-renowned hard drive manufacturers, they are consumables after all. Once encountering various failures, data loss is likely to occur. So what are the reasons for hard drive data loss? Generally, there are the following points:
●Virus infection : When the hard disk is attacked by viruses, data loss may occur.
●Human factors : Human error operation usually results in data loss of the hard disk device. For example, dropping a hard drive can damage the device and make it impossible to read data normally, or accidentally delete files, etc.
●Hardware failure : As the usage time becomes longer, various physical devices in the hard disk will suffer from wear and tear, which may eventually cause the hard disk to fail and become unusable.
●Firmware corruption : Firmware (firmware) is equivalent to the operating system of the hard disk, and is installed on a small memory chip of the hard disk to guide the hard disk to work. Firmware corruption can also cause the hard disk to fail to read data normally or cause data loss.
●Environmental issues : Hard drives typically cannot withstand excessive heat or humidity. When the hard disk is exposed to direct sunlight or placed in a high-temperature, airtight, and humid environment, the service life of the hard disk may be affected, resulting in the failure of normal access and use of data in the device, and data loss may occur.
●Power failure : During the data transmission process of the hard disk, if there is a sudden power failure due to power failure, the data may not be read normally or lost.
Regardless of the reason, if you need to recover data from Western Digital hard drive, you can try to use the following simple and practical data recovery software.

II. What are the simple and practical data recovery software?

1. Renee Undeleter

Renee Undeleter 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. Therefore, it can help you solve all possible data loss problems that may occur during system use in an all-round way, which is very convenient.

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Multiple scan modes Fast partition scan, whole partition scan and whole disk scan;

Supported file types Image, video, audio, text, email and so on;

Image creation Create a partition image to read and back up data;

Supported devices SD card, SDHC, SDXC, USB flash drive, hard disk and computer.

Easy to use Recover data by 3 steps;

Multiple scan modes Fast partition/whole partition/whole disk scan;

Supported devices SD card/USB/hard disk.

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Renee Undeleter interface
advantage:
  • Applies to both Windows and Mac systems.
  • It has three different data recovery functions to meet various data recovery needs.
  • The scanning speed is fast and the data recovery quality is high.
  • It is suitable for many situations, such as formatting a disk, emptying the recycle bin, suddenly disappearing a partition, turning a drive into RAW, etc.
  • The free version scans and previews lost files to see if they are damaged.
  • Support scanning multiple devices, such as SD card, U disk, mobile hard disk, local disk, etc.
  • The File Recovery function supports scanning only a specific type of file, such as scanning only pictures, audio, and video to save time.

shortcoming:

  • The free version supports recovery of 50MB.

It is very simple to restore hard disk data with Renee Undeleter. The specific operation steps are as follows:
Step 1: Download, install and run Renee Undeleter, select the (Partition Recovery) option on the main interface. If you need to restore the Western Digital mobile hard drive, please connect it to the computer in advance.
Note: Do not install on the disk that needs to restore data, so as not to cause data overwriting.
Select partition 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: Next, select the hard disk device to be scanned, and click (Next). Select (default setting) on the advanced setting interface.
Select target device for partition recovery
Step 3: After that, the software will analyze the hard disk device. After the analysis, a prompt window of “Select the partition you need to scan” may pop up. You can select the corresponding partition according to your needs. If you don’t choose, it will scan all partitions, which will take longer. After scanning, you can preview the files in the preview window on the right, then select the files you need to restore, and click the (Recover) button in the lower right corner to restore the selected files.
Partition recovery scan result presentation
Step 4: Next, select the target folder, click (Browse) to select another disk to save the recovered files, and then click the (Recover) button to start the file recovery command, you just need to wait patiently.
Partition recovery data recovery interface

2. Disk Drill

Disk Drill is one of the more popular and compact data recovery software currently on the market. It supports you to scan and recover data from most storage devices, including internal hard drives, external hard drives, U disks, cameras, iPods, Kindles, and memory cards.
Disk Drill software
advantage:
  • Supports recovery of 300 file types.
  • The UI design is small and practical.

shortcoming:

  • The free trial version supports recovery of 500MB data.
  • Unable to select specific file types for scanning.
  • The pro version is very expensive.

3. Piriform Recuva

Piriform Recuva is a free and easy-to-use data recovery tool that can be used to recover accidentally deleted files from various storage devices, such as hard drives, USB storage devices, SD memory cards, etc. Its data recovery speed is very fast, the software is small and convenient, and easy to operate and use. The file types it supports to recover include photos, music, documents, videos and emails, etc.
Piriform Recuva Software
advantage:
  • The software is small and exquisite, easy to operate.
  • Scanning and recovering data is fast.

shortcoming:

  • There are fewer modes that support recovery.
  • The free version is less likely to restore files.

The above are some software that can help you recover data from Western Digital hard drive, you can try it according to your actual situation. It should be noted that when you find that the hard disk data is lost, it is recommended to stop using the hard disk immediately to avoid storing new data and overwriting the deleted old data, otherwise the deleted old data may be damaged and cannot be successfully recovered.