Video has a wide range of uses in the digital age, covering entertainment and culture, education and training, security and surveillance, and many other fields. Video files are typically captured by your phone or camcorder, or downloaded from the internet. However, the videos stored on your phone, SD card, computer hard disk, USB drive, etc. are prone to be lost because of a variety of reasons.
Therefore, how to recover deleted video files becomes the focus. In this tutorial, we will show you several feasible data recovery solutions on different devices. Continue reading to get details.
How to Perform Windows Video File Recovery
Way 1. Check the Recycle Bin
Due to Windows settings, files deleted from your computer’s internal hard disks will be moved to the Recycle Bin instead of being deleted permanently. Therefore, once you find your video files disappear, you can open the Recycle Bin from your desktop and check if the required videos are there. If yes, you can right-click on them and select Restore to recover them to their original locations.
However, in the following situations, you are unable to perform deleted video recovery by using the Recycle Bin:
- The files are too large to be recycled.
- You deleted the video files by using the Shift + Delete keyboard shortcut. Files deleted in this way won’t be moved to the Recycle Bin but directly deleted.
- The Recycle Bin is emptied or corrupted.
- You have enabled the “Don’t move files to the Recycle Bin” feature before deleting your video files.
- You delete files from your external disks such as USB flash drives, SD cards, and more. Files deleted from removable disks are permanently deleted, bypassing the Recycle Bin.
How can you perform video file recovery under these scenarios? You should turn to free video file recovery software.
Way 2. Utilize MiniTool Power Data Recovery
Among a large number of data recovery software on the market, MiniTool Power Data Recovery is the most recommended one which provides you with top-tier data recovery service.
With more than two decades of in-depth research, this free file recovery software excels at recovering videos and other types of data easily. This robust recovery tool not only supports the computer’s internal HDDs/SSDs but also includes USB drives, SD cards, memory cards, CDs/DVDs, etc. in the supported file storage device list. Apart from regular file deletion, this tool is also good at handling secure data recovery tasks under the following situations:
- The disk storing your video files has been formatted.
- The disk partitions have been deleted or lost.
- The file system of the drive is damaged or corrupted, resulting in the disk being unreadable.
- The Windows computer is unbootable (only advanced editions of MiniTool Power Data Recovery work for this case).
- …
Now, download and install the free edition of this file recovery tool to start 1 GB of free video file recovery on Windows.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Step 1. Launch MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free, and then you will see its main interface. Here, you can directly select the target driver or location where the lost videos should exist to scan. Alternatively, you can move on to the Devices tab to scan an entire disk, which is useful in cases where you need to recover files from multiple partitions.
Here we take scanning the Desktop for example.
Once the scanning process starts, you need to wait until the full scan completes. This is the prerequisite for ensuring the best scanning results.
Step 2. After scanning, you can stay at the Path tab and expand each folder to find the videos you want to recover. Optionally, you can switch to the Type tab to view all video items based on video format.
Under Type, expand the Audio & Video category, and then you will see all video/audio files are classified according to file format. For example, if you want to recover MP4 videos, you can focus on the mp4 section.
Moreover, the Filter and Search features are also of great help in narrowing down the file results. After clicking Filter, you will have several options to customize the filtering rules, including By File Type, By Date Modified, By File Size, and By File Category.
Regarding the Search feature, you need to type partial or complete video file name in the search box in the top right corner and press Enter to display all files containing the entered keywords. Due to file or disk corruption, etc., not every file retains its original name.
Step 3. Since the free edition of this file recovery tool only allows 1 GB of free file recovery, it is significant to preview the found videos before recovering them. To preview a video, you just need to double-click on it.
Step 4. Ensure that you have ticked all videos you want to recover, and then click Save. You will receive a new window asking you to select a directory for the recovered files. Just do what it prompts, but note that you should not store the recovered data to the drive where data loss happens since this may lead to data overwriting.
Suppose the total size of the files you select to recover exceeds 1 GB, you will only be able to recover the first 1GB of files. The excess part requires you to update the software to a full edition to continue recovery.
This is all about how to recover permanently deleted videos with the help of MiniTool Power Data Recovery.
Video File Recovery on Other Devices
In the next part, we will introduce some other data recovery software to help you complete video file recovery on Android and Mac.
Android Phone Video File Recovery
When it comes to Android video recovery, you can opt for MiniTool Mobile Recovery for Android Free. It is specially designed to recover diverse files from multiple Android devices, including Android phones and SD cards.
This tool supports recovering not only media data such as videos, photos, audio, etc. but also text data, including messages, call history, contacts, and more. It has intuitive and easy-to-use interfaces so that you can use it to recover files without needing many professional data recovery skills.
It also provides you with a free edition that enables you to recover 10 files of one type each time. Now download it to your Windows computer and follow the instructions in this post to recover your videos: How to Recover Deleted Video on Android Phones and SD Cards.
MiniTool Android Recovery on WindowsClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Mac Computer Video Restoration
If you are using a Mac device, you can use Stellar Data Recovery for Mac to recover videos. It serves as the best Mac data recovery software, which can help you quickly and safely recover videos from a wide range of Mac devices and file storage media.
Also, it supports a diversity of file types (documents, archives, photos, emails, audio, etc.) and file systems (HFS, HFS+, APFS, NTFS, FAT, FAT32, FAT16, etc.). Furthermore, it is perfectly compatible with older macOS versions and the latest ones, allowing you to recover data without worrying about compatibility issues.
It should be noted that Stellar Data Recovery for Mac only supports free scanning for deleted or lost files but does not support saving them. So, you can download it and use it to check whether it can find the required videos, and then you have to upgrade it to save the found data.
Data Recovery for MacClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Useful Precautions to Prevent Video Loss
Though MiniTool or other data recovery services companies release many secure data recovery services to help you recover files, preventing permanent data loss at the source remains the most ideal option. What measures can you take to avoid complete file loss? Here are some suggestions.
The Top Suggestion: Make a File Backup
Having backup files is always the best way to prevent data loss on various storage devices. There are multiple ways you can opt for video backup:
- Copy and paste the video files from their original storage device to another location. For example, you can transfer important videos from a computer’s hard drives to external hard drives, USB drives, SD cards, etc.
- Upload videos from local drives to reliable cloud drives, such as OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud, and so on. In this way, once unexpected data loss happens, you can easily download the lost videos from the cloud servers to the local storage.
- Use Windows built-in data backup features like File History and Windows Backup and Restore. They are totally secure file backup solutions and are free to use.
Apart from these backup solutions, you can opt for professional data backup software to create a backup. Here MiniTool ShadowMaker is strongly recommended due to its comprehensive backup schemes, flexible backup schedule settings, and 30-day free trial policy.
It offers you three backup schemes, full backup, incremental backup, and differential backup, enabling you to back up videos and other files flexibly. In addition to file backup, this tool is also good at backing up disks and systems. Download MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial now and employ it to back up files.
MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
- Launch MiniTool ShadowMaker, and click Keep Trial to continue.
- Go to the Backup section, and then select SOURCE > Folders and Files to select the videos you want to back up. Next, click DESTINATION to specify a location to store the backup image.
- Click Options in the lower right corner to enable the Backup Scheme and Schedule Settings features. Then customize them according to your needs.
- Click Back Up Now, and then wait for the backup process to complete.
Other Suggestions
In addition to backing up files, you can implement the following precautions as well.
- Be careful during file management to prevent mistaken file deletion due to human factors.
- Enable the Delete Confirmation Dialog so that a box will pop up asking you whether you are sure to move the files to the Recycle Bin when you delete a file.
- Do not interrupt the file transfer in case of data loss or corruption.
- Disable automatic disk space cleanup features such as Storage Sense.
- Develop a habit of checking disk health regularly. When a disk fails, you should replace it with a new one in time to avoid data loss due to disk problems.
- Do not store personal videos or other files on the system drive. Otherwise, the files are prone to be lost due to system crashes.
- Do not download files or software from unknown or untrusted websites. This can effectively prevent data loss due to virus infection.
- Be careful to prevent physical damage to your disk. Ensure that the hard disk is well-ventilated and avoid overheating or overcooling. Data recovery software on the market is unable to recover files from a physically damaged hard disk.
To Sum Up
In a word, this is a comprehensive guide on how to implement video file recovery on Windows and Mac with the help of secure data recovery software.
If you encounter any issues while using MiniTool software, please contact the support team for help via [email protected].
Also, some precautions are mentioned above to help you prevent data loss or corruption. You are suggested to follow these tips.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Shirley graduated from English major and is currently an editor of MiniTool Team. She likes browsing and writing IT-related articles, and is committed to becoming a professional IT problem solver. The topic of her articles are generally about data recovery, data backup, and computer disk management, as well as other IT issues. In spare time, she likes watching movies, hiking and fishing.