How to Restore Xbox One - Data Recovery Pit

Xbox One is one of Microsoft’s greatest selling home video game consoles. It stands in line as the third base console in Microsoft’s Xbox video game consoles. Microsoft proudly advertised this console as the “All in One Entertainment System”. Hence the name, Xbox One. Xbox One received a lot of positive comments among players. It has great multimedia features, an elegant controller design, and even features voice navigation. However, gamers are also bound to face a series of problems. People are worried that their saved games are lost. But do not worry! It is possible to recover your saved game data from your Xbox One hard drive!

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Reasons For Data Loss in Xbox One

Your game data maybe deleted in Xbox One for a number of reasons. Problems with your hard disk can cause potential data loss. Here are some of the reasons that may cause data deletion in your Xbox One.

Accidental Game Deletion – This deletion is entirely due to human error. You may have deleted your saved game by mistake. Or, you may have deleted a saved game when you wanted to delete some other saved game.
File Deleted On Own – This deletion is due to a technical error. It may be prompted by a faulty hard drive, data corruption, some internal technical error, or even a virus attack.
Formatted Hard Disk – Accidental or intentional formatting of the external hard disk of Xbox One can erase off the entire saved data.

These are the most possible reasons for your data deletion. If you are looking for a solution to any of the above mentioned problems, then do not worry. All your data can be recovered either manually or by using third-party solutions. However, if you are looking for a solution to any other data deletion reason, you can try the below solutions and you can retrieve your data.

Increasing Your Chance of Recovery

Before moving on to the solution to recover your data from Xbox One hard drive, here are a few reminders that you need to keep in mind. If you detect that some of your files are missing and if you want to recover them, you need to perform the below actions before recovering them. Not doing this may cause permanent deletion of your data and you may not be able to recover it forever.

If you find a few files missing from your hard drive and you want to recover them, then stop using that hard drive. Continuous usage of the hard drive after the deletion of files may cause overwriting of data. If new data is overwritten on the existing data, you may not be able to retrieve your files.
Use your Xbox One in the right way. DO NOT use it during the data retrieval process.
During the recovery process, you will be saving the recovered data on your device. For that, use a different external hard disk, or any other storage device instead of the corrupted disk. Using the same corrupted disk again may cause problems and you may erase your data permanently.

Restoring All Your Deleted Game Data on Xbox One

Method 1: Ensure Your Account

Before getting into any other recovery process, double-check whether you are using your own account. There are a lot of cases where people panic about losing data, but end up searching in someone else’s account. There is a lot of chance that you are logged out of your account or you have logged in with a friend or family member’s account. Even if it is your account that you have logged in to, it is advised to log out once and then log in again. This may bring back your data if you are facing cache issues. Here are the steps that you need to follow in this method –

Switch on your Xbox One gaming console.
Press the Xbox Button.
This will launch your Xbox Guide. Go to Profile & Settings.
Click on Settings.
Select Account.
Verify whether it is your account. In both cases, try logging out and again logging in. Click on log out.
Again, click on Add Account.
Now, enter your credentials and again log in to your account.

This method may work in some cases. You may find all of your lost game data. If you don’t find them even now, you can head on to the next method.

Method 2: Rebooting your Xbox One Console

Rebooting your Xbox can sometimes bring back some of your deleted files. Files may sometimes not appear due to cache issues or due to some temporary bugs. So, try rebooting your console for a chance to get back your game data. If you don’t know how to reboot your Xbox One Console, here are the steps that you need to follow –

Click the Xbox Home button.
Go to Start.
Click on Quit.
Again switch on your Xbox after 10 to 15 minutes.

You may find your missing files now. However, if you don’t find any of your deleted files, don’t worry. You can try performing the next method.

Method 3 – Re-installing all the Missing Game Files Manually

This step involves downloading all of your game files manually. However, you will have to download and install all the game files one by one. Bulk processing is not possible. You have to completely re-install all of your files into your Xbox Ones’s hard drive. The process is pretty simple, but you need to put a lot of time and effort. You can follow the below steps one by one –

Download and install the Xbox App in your Xbox One.
On opening the app, it will ask you to sign in. Sign in with your Xbox Account.
Go to Settings and click on Account.
In there, you will find your Download History. Click on that.
A list of all the games that you have downloaded before appears here. Find the game that you are missing or lost.
Click on the Download Again button. Wait till the download gets over.
Repeat the same process for all the games that you have lost.
Now, you will be able to recover all your deleted game data.

This method comes in handy when you are looking to recover one or two games. But if you want to recover a bunch of games, this method becomes quite hectic. However, there are other options. If this method does not suit you, you can try out the method given below.

Method 4 – Running CHKDSK on your Xbox One Hard Drive

This is another method that you can follow to recover your deleted or lost game data files. Remember that you need a HDD Enclosure or a SATA to USB connector to perform this operation. Grab those and perform the steps below –

Remove your hard disk from your Xbox One gaming console.
Connect the removed hard disk to a Windows PC using the HDD Enclosure or SATA USB connector cable.
You will receive a pop-up asking to Format your Hard drive. Click No.
Look whether you can access your hard drive through your PC. If you can access, copy all the data and paste it on your PC or any other external storage device.
If your PC cannot access the hard drive or if it does not show up in the File Explorer, note down the location of your hard disk.
Now move to the location and run the CHKDSK utility.
This will scan your device and denote errors. You can fix them simultaneously.

Method 5 – Using Third-Party Software

In addition to the methods mentioned above, there are a handful of third-party recovery tools available in the internet. These tools help you to recover all your deleted or lost files from your Xbox One hard disk. Among them, the AnyRecover Tool is considered to be pretty effective. Here is how you can use it to recover your data –

Go to the official AnyRecover homepage. (https://www.anyrecover.com/data-recovery/)
Download and install the tool on your computer system.
Launch AnyRecover. It will take you to the homepage.
Connect your Xbox external hard drive to your computer.
After you have connected, select the hard drive under External Removable Devices from AnyRecovery’s homepage.
Hit Start.
After this, the tool will start scanning your hard drive and the files found will be listed there.
Once you have found the file you were searching in the list, you can pause or stop the scan.
You can also preview the files displayed. Now, select all the files that you want to recover.
Click on Recover.
It will ask you the location to store your files. Provide a different location other than the corrupted hard drive.
That’s it. You have recovered your lost files!