Have you ever experienced virus attacks on your devices? Several people report that their files are lost or corrupted due to virus infection and attacks. If you are seeking methods to recover files deleted by virus attack, read this post to get Windows-embedded utilities and powerful data recovery software.
To safely recover files deleted by virus attack, use built-in Windows recovery features or dedicated data recovery software.
1. If the malware only hides your files, you can restore their visibility by enabling Show hidden files in File Explorer settings.
2. If you have enabled File History or created other backups before the virus attack, you can restore virus-deleted files from previous backups.
3. If no backup is available, use third-party data recovery software like MiniTool Power Data Recovery to perform a deep scan and recover lost files.
4. If the virus has damaged Windows and the computer cannot boot, use MiniTool Power Data Recovery Bootable to create a bootable drive and access files without loading Windows.
A virus attack can cause serious data loss. Your important documents, photos, videos, and other files may suddenly disappear, become corrupted, or become inaccessible after malware infects your computer.
What Happens When a Virus Deletes Your Files
A virus or malware infection can affect your files in several ways:
- Delete files permanently by removing file entries from the storage device.
- Hide files by changing file attributes so they no longer appear in File Explorer.
- Encrypt files and make them unreadable, which commonly happens with ransomware.
- Corrupt the file system and prevent Windows from accessing your data.
- Damage system files, causing Windows startup problems.
Different types of virus attacks require different recovery methods. For example, files hidden by a virus may be restored using Windows commands, while permanently deleted files may require data recovery software.
How to Recover Files Deleted by Virus Attack
What to Do Before Recovering Files Deleted by Virus Attack
Before trying to recover virus-deleted files, follow these steps to improve your recovery efficiency and chances.
1. Show Hidden Files
Some viruses do not actually delete files. Instead, they may change file attributes and hide your files, making them invisible in Windows File Explorer.
Go to File Explorer, click View, and check the Hidden items box to show hidden files.
2. Stop Using the Affected Drive
When files are deleted, the actual data may still exist on the storage device. However, new files created on the drive can overwrite the deleted data and make recovery impossible.
Avoid saving new files or installing software on the affected drive. Method 1.
Method 1. Retrieve Missing Files from Previous Backups
Windows contains several backup features that allow users to back up crucial files in time. However, those utilities, such as File History and Backup and Restore (Windows 7), are not enabled by default. If you have backed up files by using the tool, you can directly recover lost files after virus attack from the previous backup. Here I’d like to show you how to recover files using File History.
Step 1. Type Control Panel into the Windows search bar and hit Enter to open the utility on your computer.
Step 2. Select Large icons from the dropdown menu of View by.
Step 3. Find and click on the File History option. Choose Restore personal files on the left pane.
Step 4. There are several versions of the backed-up folders. You can browse those versions to find your lost files.
Step 5. Select the files you need to restore and click the green restoration button. Then, the files will be restored to their original location. Alternatively, you can click on the gear button at the top right corner to choose the Restore to option. This selection allows you to choose a new destination for those recovered files.
Method 2. Recover Virus-Deleted Files by Performing System Restore
System Restore is another robust approach to recover files and resolve computer issues. However, System Restore only works on restoring system files. If you lost system files, this solution works well. Similar to other Windows backup utilities, System Restore also requires manual enable. If you have enabled the utility and created system restore points, you can work with the following steps.
Step 1. Press Win + S to open Windows Search. Type create a restore point into the box and hit Enter.
Step 2. Click the System Restore button. In the prompt window, choose Next.
Step 3. You need to choose the correct system restore point and click Next.
Step 4. You need to verify the information in the following window. Click Finish to start the system restore process. Remember that once the system restore process begins, it can’t be stopped in the midway.
Method 3. Recover Lost Files after Virus Attack with Data Recovery Software
Though Microsoft Windows has provided the above 2 methods for recovering files deleted by virus attack, this is far from enough. The main reason is that those two methods are very limited. They are only useful in finding and recovering Windows files under certain conditions. For example, the backup and restore functions must be enabled.
If you do not have a backup, data recovery software can help recover files deleted by virus attack.
When a virus deletes files, Windows usually removes the file information and marks the space as available for new data. Before new data overwrites the lost data, professional data recovery software may be able to scan the drive and recover your files.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery is designed to recover deleted, lost, and inaccessible files from various storage devices, including internal hard drives, SSDs, external hard drives, and removable drives.
It can help recover documents, photos, videos, archives, and other types of files lost after malware attacks.
The free edition of the software supports 1 GB of data recovery free.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Step 1. On the main interface of the recovery tool, choose the target partition where the lost files were stored and click Scan. The scan process will take a few minutes to complete. Please wait patiently until the process is completed.
Step 2. Browse the file list on the result page. Compared with expanding folders one by one, you are advised to use features like Filter, Type, and Search to filter out unwanted files and search for certain files.
Step 3. Once locating the required files, you can add check marks in front of the files and click the Save button. Then choose a new destination for those files. Do not save files to the original file path to avoid data overwriting.
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If the virus attack has damaged Windows startup files and your computer cannot boot normally, you can use MiniTool Power Data Recovery Bootable to recover files from the unbootable computer.
Its Bootable Media Builder feature allows you to create a bootable USB drive, start the affected computer from it, and access the hard drive to recover important files without entering the damaged Windows system.
After recovering your data, perform a complete antivirus scan and remove the malware to prevent further file loss.
Final Words
Viruses are always the main cause of data loss nowadays. People recognize the underlying risks of loss of data suffering from virus attacks and seek methods to recover files deleted by virus attack actively. This post introduces several data recovery methods in different situations. Hope this post gives you some useful information and helps you in time.
If you have any problems when using MiniTool Power Data Recovery, please feel free to let us know via [email protected].
Recover Files Deleted by Virus Attack FAQ
A virus may have already copied itself to other locations, modified system files, installed malicious programs, or created hidden files before the infected file was deleted. Simply removing one file may not completely clean your device.
To remove a virus, you should run a full antivirus scan using Windows Defender and delete all detected threats.
If the files are not found in quarantine, use data recovery software to scan the storage device and find recoverable files.
Some malware directly removes files from a computer, while others change file attributes to make files invisible in File Explorer. Ransomware usually takes a different approach by encrypting files and preventing users from accessing them.
Ransomware usually encrypts files instead of deleting them, making them inaccessible without the correct decryption key. Data recovery software generally cannot recover encrypted files because the original data has been modified.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Shirley holds a bachelor’s degree in English and has been an editor at the MiniTool Team for many years. She specializes in IT-related content, with a focus on data recovery, file backup, disk management, and other technical topics. She is committed to delivering clear, accurate, and practical solutions to help users resolve common computer issues.
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