Imagine that you have created a solid presentation with a week of hard work. Then you saved it on your computer and went to your bed, thinking about the praises you will get on the next day in your office. However, the next morning, you discovered that the presentation isn’t on your computer and your device had been corrupted by a virus. It will be a tragedy for sure. A computer virus may affect your computer in multiple ways, including deleting the files from your internal storage. Therefore, in this article, we will show you three easy methods to recover files deleted by viruses and give you tips to increase the odds of restoring your files. Let’s dig in.
How Does the Virus Enter Your Device and Affect Your Data?
The internet has advanced a lot since its inception. And the computer viruses haven’t been sitting quietly, either. Nowadays, cybercriminals are developing a lot of different viruses and malware to get into your device and steal your precious data. For example, cybercriminals can send you an anonymous email containing a link. And if you click on it, you’re just welcoming a potentially disastrous computer virus to mess with your device and its data.
Unfortunately, that’s not the only way for a virus to enter your device. Here is a list of actions that might help a virus invade your device:
- Using pirated software or applications from unknown sources. Some of this software might contain a virus or other cyber threats.
- Using a new mobile or computer without securing them with proper antivirus programs.
- Downloading content from suspicious websites.
- Continue using the websites that your antivirus program detected as abnormal or potentially threatening.
The scary thing is that there are plenty of other ways for a virus to invade your device and affect your data. That’s why we recommend you install professional antivirus software from a reputed company whenever you buy a new device or reset it. Otherwise, it might be too late once the virus successfully sneaks into your device.
How to Recover Files Deleted by Virus?
Many things can go wrong once your device gets attacked by a computer virus or other malicious programs. As a result, your computer might not function well, you might lose your files, or the whole system might go haywire. In this section, we will show you how to recover files deleted by viruses.
Recover Your Data Using File History Backup
Are you a cautious one and created a file history backup in your Windows 10 device? If you did, then the process to recover files deleted by a virus will be a lot easier. Here are the steps to use File History Backup to restore your files back to your computer:
- First, click on the “Windows Search Bar” and type “Control Panel” in it. Once the control panel option shows up in the search result, press the “Enter” key.
- Next, in the Control Panel window, click on the “System and Security” option.
- Now, click on “File History” and a new window will pop up.
- Click on the “Restore personal files” option on the left panel of the new window. This action will open all the file backups in your selected drive.
- Now, look for the files you have lost from your device due to the computer virus. Once you select the files, click on the green and circular “Restore” button.
With this, you will be able to recover files deleted by viruses right back to your computer without any hassle.
Please note: Only the Windows 10 device users who created a file history backup before the virus or malicious program’s attack can use this method. If you did not create a file history backup, skip to the next method.
Recover Files Deleted by Virus Using File Explorer
Don’t have a file history backup of your deleted files? No problem. You can always use File Explorer to recover your files. Just follow the steps below to restore your files back to your computer:
- Click on the “Windows Search Bar” and type “File Explorer” in it. Once the file explorer option shows up, press the “Enter” key on your keyboard.
- Once the File Explorer opens, it’s time to look for the folders where your deleted files were located before deletion by the virus. After you find the folder, right-click on it.
- A new prompt with multiple options will pop up, from here, click on the “Properties” option.
- Next, click on the “Previous version” option and select a “last edit” date when your file was still inside the selected folder.
- Next, click on the “Restore” button.
Once you’re done, open the folder you select again, and you will find your deleted file there.
How to Recover Files Deleted by Virus Using A Third-party Software?
If both of the methods above fail to recover your files, it’s time to use third-party data recovery software. Please note that most of the professional data recovery applications from reputed companies have a similar recovery process and intuitive user interface.
Follow the steps below to recover files deleted by the virus using a third-party data recovery software:
- Install the data recovery software of your choice and launch the application on your computer.
- Now, select the drive or external storage you have lost the data from. For example, if your lost files were located in the C drive, you need to select the C drive to continue. If you have lost data from external storage, select the external storage drive.
- Next, click on the “Scan” option and wait until the whole scanning process is complete. Remember, do not interrupt the scan until it digs out all the deleted data or files from your selected drive.
- Once all the files show up, double-click on them to preview their content. Once you find the right file(s), select it and hit the “Recover” button.
Please wait a moment while the recovery process is complete. Once is done, the files will be downloaded to your computer.
Please Note: In some rare cases, the virus corrupts your device so severely that it becomes impossible to even boot. In these cases, check if the data recovery software of your choice has a bootable version of their application. This way, you can access your computer’s internal storage using a bootable CD or USB drive and recover the deleted data.
Why Shouldn’t You Kill the Virus Before Recovering Your Files?
You might have an urge to eliminate the virus from your device as soon as possible and perform data recovery after the threat elimination. After all, the longer the virus stays in your computer, the time it will have to corrupt the system and affect your files. However, this might not be a wise choice. At the very least, you shouldn’t eliminate the virus before recovering your deleted data, unless the situation is really bad and there’s no other choice.
But why are we recommending you that? It’s actually pretty simple. While your antivirus program tries to eliminate the virus, it might wipe out a few additional files that it might suspect to be compromised. And this might end up in a complete erasure of multiple files from your internal storage, making it almost impossible to recover them.
Therefore, the next time you lose any file because of a virus, make sure you have recovered all your deleted files before performing the virus elimination.
