Microsoft launches Windows 10 File Recovery tool

[Shawn Knight]

Bottom line: Your odds of a successful recovery job are directly related to how long ago the files were deleted and how much you have used your computer since then. That’s because, in the Windows file system, space occupied by a “deleted” file is marked as free space but the data once associated with it might still be intact. Once the space has been reused for a new file, however, it’s gone.

Microsoft recently published an app on the Microsoft Store designed to help in the recovery of deleted files.

The app, appropriately named Windows File Recovery, is a command line utility that can attempt to recover deleted files from internal and external drives as well as USB devices and even SD cards. Supported file types include JPEG, PDF, PNG, MPEG, Office files, MP3 & MP4, ZIP files and more across NTFS, FAT, exFAT and ReFS file systems.

The tool offers three modes of operation: Default, Segment and Signature.

Default mode is recommended for NTFS files that were recently deleted. If you are dealing with content that was deleted a while ago or after formatting a disk, try Segment first, then Signature. Microsoft said Signature is also ideal when working with FAT, exFAT and ReFS file systems.

Notably, Microsoft said the tool can’t be used for recovery of data on cloud storage or network file shares.

Microsoft’s Windows File Recovery tool is available as a free download here.

Masthead credit: mike mols

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/85806-microsoft-launches-windows-10-file-recovery-tool.html

 

[Lionvibez]

Very nice will pass this along

 

[Uncle Al]

Excellent!

 

[netman]

Twenty-year old technology in 2020...Bravo Microsoft...!

 

[alainw1977]

Twenty-year old technology in 2020...Bravo Microsoft...!

Even older: 30 years. I remember using "undelete" command bundled with MS-DOS ver.5, released in 1991. And it was available even earlier with external tools like "Norton Utilities".

 

[SilentMarket]

Tested on the Samsung 970 Pro 1TB, after deleting 500GB of VMs, it doesn't work. As always, Microsoft knows **** about how hardware works.

 

[J spot]

Tested on the Samsung 970 Pro 1TB, after deleting 500GB of VMs, it doesn't work. As always, Microsoft knows **** about how hardware works.

Can you expand on how Microsoft doesn't know how hardware work? I'm trying to figure it out from your comment. You should try it with one of the listed supported files.

 

[SilentMarket]

Can you expand on how Microsoft doesn't know how hardware work? I'm trying to figure it out from your comment. You should try it with one of the listed supported files.

I said Microsoft knows **** about how hardware works. All they do is taking control. The tool doesn't work on VMs. It is the same, little free, twisty, shabby tool from somewhat Microsoft Store who doesn't have significant uses in the industry. Better get the real 3rd party tools for data recovery.

 

[Adhmuz]

I said Microsoft knows **** about how hardware works. All they do is taking control. The tool doesn't work on VMs. It is the same, little free, twisty, shabby tool from somewhat Microsoft Store who doesn't have significant uses in the industry. Better get the real 3rd party tools for data recovery.

You do realize SSDs have a function known as TRIM right? Do you understand how that works? I'm pretty sure Microsoft does as they implement it in their OS and even the tool has a disclaimer in regards to it. IE if TRIM has happened on a SSD the tool will not work as the data will have actually been removed. This type of tool was originally designed for HDDs, LONG before SSDs were a thing, so typically results may vary. More so with large data files, as it would only take partial TRIM to make them unusable.

 

[madboyv1]

You do realize SSDs have a function known as TRIM right? Do you understand how that works? I'm pretty sure Microsoft does as they implement it in their OS and even the tool has a disclaimer in regards to it. IE if TRIM has happened on a SSD the tool will not work as the data will have actually been removed. This type of tool was originally designed for HDDs, LONG before SSDs were a thing, so typically results may vary. More so with large data files, as it would only take partial TRIM to make them unusable.

Apparently HDDs using SMR also use the TRIM command so they'd be in trouble too.

 

[Mugsy]

The mirror link your link points to is broken.