How to Recover Deleted Files With the Folder Structure

What Determines the Success of Recovering Files with the Original Folder Structure

Let’s analyze what impacts your overall data recovery chances, and the different parameters that influence the ability to recover the original folder structure:

Factor A: Circumstances Resulting in Data Loss

Factor B: Type of Storage Device

Here’s a drill down into different types of storage media and their corresponding data recovery verdicts:

Factor C: Capabilities of Data Recovery Software

The data recovery software you choose has a major say in whether or not you will recover data with the original folder structure. While sailing across the vast ocean of data recovery tools, here are essential factors to consider:

Here are some essential factors to consider while shortlisting a data recovery tool:

• Natively supported file systems: See through the data recovery tool’s capability in retrieving data from various file systems like NTFS, FAT32, etc. With regards to file system compatibility, data recovery applications can read the file system table and metadata to attempt file recovery with their original names and folder structure.
• Update Frequency: Find out the tool’s changelog or version release timeline to determine if the developers behind the software keep pushing periodic updates. Scanning algorithms are at the heart of any data recovery tool, and regular updates ensure you have the maximum probability of successfully recovering your data.
• Performance & Scope: Ensure your chosen data recovery app caters to various file formats. Additionally, stay on the lookout for devices supported: ideally, the data recovery app should recover data from different storage devices, including SSDs, HDDs, memory cards, USB flash drives, etc.
• User-Friendly UI: Many users hate CMD and related terminal applications because of poor UI. User-friendly data recovery applications have a simple workflow and can recover your data in a few clicks.
• Scan Technology: Some tools like PhotoRec primarily rely only on signature scans – which doesn’t help recover folder structure and file names. On the other hand, tools like Disk Drill feature deep scans that analyze file system structures to reconstruct deleted data – increasing the chances of recovering files with the original folder structure.

Okay, but how do you choose an appropriate data recovery tool corresponding to the factors mentioned above? We’ve done the heavy lifting for you. Keep reading.

Factor D: Time

Lastly, time is a significant factor. If you deleted the files a very long time ago, and performed several read/write operations on the affected disk during this period, the chances of data recovery with the original folder structure are low.

How to Recover Deleted Files with the Folder Structure

Our editorial team vouches for Disk Drill – a reliable and easy-to-use data recovery application. The tool helps you recover files with their folder structure as it supports many major file systems, including NTFS, FAT32, etc.

Among the reasons why Disk Drill is our top pick is because the tool ensures that your data is intact and recoverable. Additionally, Disk Drill allows you to recover up to 500 MB of data for free and preview all recoverable files.

Here’s how you can use Disk Drill to recover your deleted files with a folder structure:

1. Download, install, and launch Disk Drill. I installed the application on my Windows 11 PC; the tool also works stable for earlier OS instances like Windows 10 and Windows 7 too.
2. Select your storage device from the list of devices, and click on Search for lost data.
3. Wait for the scan to terminate, and then click Review Found Items.
4. Refine the scan results by applying filters. You can leverage two kinds of filters:
   • General file type filter from the left navigation pane
   • Specific file type filter by keying in a file format on the top right-hand corner.
   For this demo, I attempt to recover a deleted mp4 file with the original folder structure.
5. Click on the eye icon to open a preview panel of your deleted file. The preview pane reveals vital file attributes, including the date modified and file path hierarchy.
   In this tutorial, I try to recover a deleted Taylor Swift music video – and the preview panel even plays the video with volume. Additionally, I can also see my precious nested file hierarchy.
6. Select the files you want to retrieve, and click on Recover.
7. Lastly, specify a destination to save your recovered data, and click Next.
8. Click on show recovered data in Explorer. You will notice that Disk Drill has recovered files with the correct file names and folder structure in the original directory.

Our objective is to help you make an informed choice. As a result, we have designed a unique data recovery tool comparison engine for you to select and weigh various tools against each other.

Also, play around with our software picker that intelligently suggests you a reliable data recovery tool based on your personalized requirements. Finally, check out ourdetailed data recovery software reviews to make the right decision.

Alternative Solutions for Recovering Files with Their Original Folder Structure

In addition to Disk Drill, here are five other viable data recovery solutions that can either restore or fix files with the original folder structure.

Since all the applications listed below can recover files with a folder structure, we shall highlight their distinctive features and potential issues: