Whether you are a graphics designer or managing a business, vector image files are very important documents. You can use those images for logos, animation, campaigns, graphic designs, printed goods, and much more. These image files allow you to adjust their size without losing the image quality. Therefore, their removal from your computer may affect your business operations and cause quite a few sleepless nights. But you don’t have to suffer these problems anymore. In this article, we will show you three solid ways to recover vector images on a Windows 11 PC.
Note. We have myriad image-related restoration guides if you used specific software to edit, share, or view them.
1. Recover Vector Images from Recycle Bin on Windows 11
Recycle Bin should always be the first place to check if you lose any files on your Windows 11 PC, including the vector images. If you accidentally delete any file on your computer, the file automatically moves to the Recycle Bin folder. Thus, as long as you check the folder, you can recover these images through these steps:
- Double-click on the Recycle Bin icon on the home screen of your computer. It will open the Recycle Bin window.
- Browse through the Recycle Bin files to find the vector images you want to recover. Once you find the images, select them.
- Right-click on the selected images and click on the “Restore” option.
That’s it. You have recovered the deleted vector images back to your computer.
2. Using Previous Versions Feature to Retrieve Vector Images
No luck with the Recycle Bin? No worries—you can use the “Previous Versions” feature of the Windows 11 operating system to restore the vector images. This feature reverts a folder and its content to one of its previous versions. That way, if the vector image was still available in the folder’s previous version, you can retrieve the image even if it has been deleted or corrupted. Follow these instructions to use the Previous Versions feature to recover vector images:
- Go to the folder that held the vector image before its deletion.
- Now, right-click on the folder and click on the “Show more options” text. A new prompt will show up.
- Click on the “Restore previous versions” option from the new prompt. A new window will appear containing the previous versions of the folder.
- Click on the previous version when the folder still holds the vector images.
- Click on the “Restore” button and then click on the “OK” button to finalize the changes.
Now, the folder has been reverted to the selected version, and you should be able to find the vector images intact.
3. Restore Vector Images via Data Recovery Software
The Previous Versions feature can help you restore the lost vector images but isn’t 100% full-proof. If a folder doesn’t have any previous versions, that method would never work. In this case, a professional data recovery application is the best option. These applications scan your computer’s hard disk drive to extract the previously deleted files from its sectors. That way, you can find them as long as a file hasn’t been overwritten from the HDD completely. However, to increase the success rate of file recovery, you should use the application as soon as possible. This will prevent any possible risk of data overwriting.
Now, you can choose to use any data recovery app as long as it fulfills two important conditions. These are:
- A reputable data recovery agency must have made it
- The data recovery app must have a lot of positive reviews. Extra points if it has been tested and approved by a data recovery expert
As long as these two conditions are fulfilled, download and install the data recovery application of your choice on your computer and follow these instructions:
- Launch the data recovery app on your PC and select the drive that contained the vector images before their deletion.
- Click on the “Scan” or “Search for lost data” option to start the scanning process.
- After the scan is complete, you will be able to see a list of recoverable files extracted from the hard disk. Look for the vector image files you want to restore and select them all.
- Now, click on the “Recover” or “Restore” button.
- Select a folder where you would like to download the chosen files and click on the “OK” button.
Congratulations! You have restored the vector images you erased or lost on Windows 11.
