While it's great that we can now store countless large video files on a single hard drive, it also means that a single user error or hardware/software failure can instantly wipe hours of memory without any obvious way to restore them . In this article, we provide a quick step-by-step video recovery guide to help you get your videos back.
Video Recovery Instructions
Video restoration is neither magic nor rocket science. It's just the way modern operating systems like Windows and Mac are used to delete files.
Your PC or Mac doesn't need to spend time erasing storage space taken up by deleted files, it just makes the storage space available so new data can be stored there. If you start the recovery process in time, you should be able to recover the videos before they are overwritten.
Since there is no way of knowing how much time you have left before the storage space occupied by deleted videos is overwritten, you should start the recovery process as soon as possible. You should also avoid all activities that may cause the video to be overwritten, such as data transfer and defragmentation.
Before starting the video recovery process
We know you can't wait to get your videos back, but there are a few things you should always do before starting the video recovery process:
1. Stop using the storage device
As we explained in the previous section, if you continue to use the storage device that stored the deleted video, you can greatly reduce the chances of successfully recovering the video.
If the videos you want to recover are stored on a memory card, external hard drive or USB flash drive, all you need to do is unplug the device from your computer until you are ready to start the recovery process. If they are stored on your system drive, we recommend that you remove the drive from your computer and connect it to another computer as an external drive.
2. Check Recycle Bin (PC) or Trash (Mac)
By default, Windows and Mac computers move deleted files to a special folder, the purpose of which is to give users a chance to change their minds and restore them easily. On Windows 10, 8, 7 and earlier, this folder is called the Recycle Bin, while Apple refers to it as the Trash.
3. Check your backups
Backups are—and always have been—the most effective data loss prevention measures. Before starting video recovery, check your backup and find lost videos. Remember, both Windows and macOS have built-in backup solutions that you may have activated in the past and forgotten about.
How to Recover Deleted Videos on Windows
To recover deleted videos on Windows, follow these steps:
Step 1: Install and launch Geek
The first thing you need to do is download and install Geek Data Recovery for Windows. Make sure you don't download the installer to the same storage device where the videos are stored, as you could overwrite them and make them irrecoverable. Likewise, you should install the application on a different storage device than the one you are restoring. While the chances of accidentally overwriting video during installation are relatively small, you should always do as much as possible to increase the likelihood of a successful recovery.
https://www.geekersoft.cn/geekersoft-data-recovery.htmlStep 2: Select the storage device containing deleted video files
Next, select the storage device where the video will be stored. Geek Data Recovery lists all available storage devices and their partitions in a tree view for easy visualization, and you can select the entire storage device or just one of the partitions. If you're not sure which partition to choose, we strongly recommend that you choose the entire storage device, even if it means the scan will take longer. To verify that you have selected the correct storage device, you can click on the Information tab in the right pane to view the exact model and serial number.
Step 3: Select Videos to Recover
Chances are you will find hundreds or even thousands of deleted files, and you can recover them all or just select deleted videos. If you decide to go with the latter option, start with the filters in the left pane to narrow down the scan results to a more manageable amount. Then, browse the recoverable videos and use the preview feature to help you decide which ones to recover. To add a video to the recovery queue, just click the checkbox next to it.
Step 4: Click Recover and specify the recovery directory
When you are ready to restore the video, click the Recover button and specify the recovery directory. Again, you need to make sure you save the recovered video to a different storage device than the one you recovered the video from. Guest Data Recovery will tell you if you have selected a suitable storage device.
How to Recover Deleted Videos on Mac
To recover deleted videos on Mac, follow these steps:
Step 1: Install and launch Geek Data Recovery for Mac
To get started, download Geek Data Recovery from its website and save the installation file on a different storage device than your videos to avoid overwriting them. If the videos you want to recover are on your system drive, you should remove the drive from your Mac and connect it to another machine, as you cannot safely install Geek Data Recovery on the same drive without There is a risk of accidentally overwriting the same files you installed while working to restore. Once installed, go ahead and launch it like any other application. Geek Data Recovery will request administrator privileges, which it needs to perform a deep scan of your storage device.
Step 2: Locate the storage device containing the deleted videos
The main window of Geek Data Recovery lists all available hardware disks and logical volumes, as well as the total storage capacity and available storage space for each. You need to find the storage device that contains your videos and click the Search Lost Data button next to it.
Step 3: Wait for the scan to complete
Once you click "Search Lost Data", the scan will start and it may take a while for the scan to complete. Fortunately, you don't have to wait until the scan is complete to browse for recoverable files. That said, we recommend that you give Geek Data Recovery some time to work its magic, as it may recover important deleted files that you didn't even know were still on your storage device.
Step 4: Select Videos to Recover
Instead of restoring everything, just select the videos you care about. To do this, use the filters in the toolbar to narrow down the scan results, then preview recoverable files to see their contents before actually recovering them. Click the checkbox next to each file you want to restore to add it to the restore queue.
Step 5: Click Recover and specify the recovery directory
Finally, click the Recover button on the bottom right to get your videos back. Geek Data Recovery will ask you to specify the recovery directory and most importantly you choose a directory that is located on a different storage device than the one your videos were originally on. Ignoring this may result in overwrite and restore failures.
Other Free Data Recovery Software
While Geek Data Recovery can confidently recover video from all storage devices on Windows and Mac, it's not the only data recovery software available. Here are some alternative free file recovery software options worth a look:
1. Rikuwa
Recuva is a free data recovery software for Windows that costs nothing to download and use. Its easy-to-learn user interface with only a few basic options makes this solution very beginner-friendly, which is one of the reasons we recommend it. While recovering videos with Recuva is straightforward, the recovery results leave a lot to be desired, which can be attributed to the fact that Recuva is no longer actively developed.
2. Photo recording
PhotoRec is a powerful data recovery tool for Windows, Mac and Linux. Although it has no graphical user interface, it can recover hundreds of file formats from all file systems used by modern operating systems. PhotoRec comes with a partition recovery and disk repair software called TestDisk, these two solutions work well together and can solve various data loss situations directly from the command line.