So of all the external hard drives out there, Western Digital is among the best. However, there are still not immune to going under. So that's why today in this video, I'm gonna be showing you how to recover your files and data from a Western digital external hard drive. Let's get started. All right. So first things first, we need to stop using our external hard drive as much as possible right now. So what this will do is it will help preserve the data that's on it and prevent the damage from becoming much worse. And I would recommend you do this at least until you have a chance to watch this video all the way through. All right. So with step one, out of the way, who exactly is this video for? Well naturally, yes. If you've deleted files from your Western Digital external hard drive, then yeah, that would make sense. But it also includes people that have formatted their hard drive or they can't access their hard drive, or it won't show up inside of Windows Explorer. Or if you simply just want to get the status of which files have actually been deleted from a given hard drive. And this will especially include anyone that already uses a whole bunch of Western Digital external hard drives already, such as My Passport or My Book NAS. So regardless of whichever, Western Digital hard drive you are running right now, this tutorial is right up your alley. And by the way, if any of these don't sound like you, then leave a comment down below exactly what your issue is and we'll address it. But regardless of what's going on, what happened to your files and data, we're going to be going the DIY route with one of the best recovery softwares available. And that software is Disk Drill. Disk Drill gives you all the tools you need to both recover and protect your data. All right, at your fingertips, combining that with Disk Drill's, topnotch power and advanced recovery algorithms, it gives you the best chance of success with your data. And on top of this Disk Drill also comes packed with a whole bunch of data protection features as well. You can use them to either back up your data 24/7, or you can create a byte to byte back up of the drive whenever you want to ensure that nothing like this hopefully ever happens again. I've used Disk Drill countless times for my own personal needs. And right now you can download it from the link in the description for free. All right, let's jump in. So first of all, go ahead and download and install Disk Drill from the link in the description. And also a quick note here. Be sure not to install or run it from your Western Digital external hard drive. As that again, could make things worse. Next, go ahead and open up Disk Drill and you'll be greeted with the data recovery panel. So this is a lot like the central hub of Disk Drill, where all of your disks are connected, where you'll initiate scans and where you'll most likely spend a majority of your time. All right. So now if you haven't already go ahead and connect your drive. In this case, you're a Western Digital external hard drive to your computer. And then once it's connected, select it from the disk list in the center here, choose your scan method and begin the scan. Now, of course, this will take some time depending on the size of your drive and how much data was actually present at the time of deleting. So it is gonna take a little while, but I'm going to leave and come back once it's done. All right. So once the scan is complete, you can go ahead and review found items in the top right corner here, and you can sort through them based on the different parameters available. You can view them either in the center folders here in the left hand categories or in the search bar in the top right now at this exact juncture, there's something else that's pretty important to mention, and that is the preview feature and the recoverability chances feature. So for every file Disk Drill assigns each one, a chance of recovery, which is essentially just a scale of pretty much not recoverable at all, to highly likely that this file is completely intact and ready to go.
And you can actually view this just in the bar right here. You can see that it will tell you the recoverability, roughly of each file. Now this in combination with the preview feature will give you the best idea as to whether a given file or file set is recoverable and completely intact. You can enable the file preview just by clicking this little icon right here, Which will show you a preview of the file. And if you are able to see a full and complete preview of that file, then that's pretty good evidence that the file's completely intact and it is able to be recovered 100%. All right. So once you have verified all of this and you're ready to recover, go ahead and put a check mark next to the items that you want. Then click recover and choose your save location. Now do not recover to your Western Digital external hard drive. It's very important. There's still a chance of overwriting them. So if we save them to that drive, there's still a good chance that we'll do that. So just export it to some other place on your computer. Like for me, most of the time I choose my desktop and click Okay. Then upon completion, your files will be awaiting you in the location that you chose already to go. So that's, it, it is that easy. That is how you recover data and files from a Western Digital external hard drive. And I really hope that you guys got something out of this video and you found it helpful. And if you did always be sure to leave us a like down below, and also if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or things you want me to cover any future video, be sure to leave those down below in the comments section and maybe I'll respond, but until next time, thank you guys so much for watching. My name is Andrew. And thanks again.
