For recovering files from a damaged hard disk using Windows 11, the built‑in option from Microsoft is Windows File Recovery.
Key points and steps:
- Stop using the damaged disk
To improve the chance of recovery, avoid writing anything new to that drive. In Windows, deleted or corrupted file data can be overwritten by new data at any time. - Install Windows File Recovery on the Windows 11 laptop
- Open Microsoft Store on the Windows 11 laptop.
- Install Windows File Recovery (command‑line tool).
- Connect the damaged hard disk as a secondary drive
- Attach the old hard disk to the Windows 11 laptop (USB enclosure, SATA–USB adapter, or internal connection).
- Confirm it appears with a drive letter in File Explorer.
- Choose the right recovery mode
First identify the file system of the damaged drive:- In File Explorer, right‑click the drive → Properties → check File system (NTFS, FAT, or exFAT).
- NTFS, deleted recently → use Regular mode.
- NTFS, deleted a while ago / after format / corrupted disk → use Extensive mode.
- FAT or exFAT (typical for USB/SD) → Extensive mode only.
- Run Windows File Recovery from Command Prompt
Open Windows File Recovery (it opens a Command Prompt) and use:
Examples (replace letters and paths with actual ones):winfr source-drive: destination-drive: [/mode] [/n filters]- Recover a folder from old drive
D:to a healthy driveE::winfr D: E: /regular /n \Users\<username>\Documents\ - Recover specific file types (for example, Word and PDF) from
D:toE::winfr D: E: /extensive /n \*.docx /n \*.pdf
- Source and destination must be different drives (never recover back onto the damaged disk).
- The tool creates a folder like
Recovery_<date and time>on the destination drive. - If Regular mode finds nothing, rerun with /extensive.
- Recover a folder from old drive
- If recovery fails
- If Regular mode does not recover the needed files, try Extensive mode.
- If Extensive mode also fails, the data may already be overwritten or the disk too damaged; the documentation notes that in such cases there is no guaranteed native recovery.
For general Windows problems with files and folders (copy, move, delete issues) on a still‑working disk, the File and Folder Troubleshooter can automatically diagnose and repair some issues, but it is not a file‑undelete tool.
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