How to Recover Files Lost During/After Cut and Paste in Windows 11/10

Updated on Jun 14, 2024 | by Edwards

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What happens when you cut and paste a file?
Part 1. How to Retrieve Files Lost after/during/in/from Cut and Paste in Windows
Method 1. How to Recover Lost Files in Cut and Paste with Software
Method 2. Find Files Lost During Cut and Paste with File History
How to Recover Cut and Paste Files in Windows 10
How to Recover Files Deleted During Cut and Paste in Windows 11
Method 3. How to Get Back Files Lost in Cut and Paste by OneDrive Backup
Part 2. How to Prevent Files Lost in Cut and Paste

Losing files after cutting and pasting in Windows 11 can be frustrating, but don't worry, there are ways to recover them. Here are the top 3 ways to restore files that disappeared during cut and paste:

What happens when you cut and paste a file?

It's not uncommon for files to seemingly disappear after being cut and pasted, especially when working with multiple folders and files. There are several reasons why this might happen:

You should know that cut doesn't mean "delete". It only removes the files from one folder and keeps files in a virtual clipboard. After then, you right-click and choose PASTE, the cut files will be moved there. But you may lose files in cut and paste if there is an abrupt interruption. Don't worry, you can check the following solutions to restore lost files from cut and paste.

Part 1. How to Retrieve Files Lost after/during/in/from Cut and Paste in Windows

Though files are lost or missing after cut and paste, you can still get the files back. The files are hidden somewhere and they are not visible. The sooner you perform the data recovery process, the better result you will get. Here are the workable ways for how to recover files lost in cut and paste in Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 8, and Windows 7.

Method 1. How to Recover Lost Files in Cut and Paste with Software

Deep Data Recovery is one of the best software to get lost cut files back. It has helped thousands of people rescue files world widely. It is able to find over 1000 different file types, covering all daily used pictures, videos, audio files, documents. It retrieves files no matter how they're lost, such as deletion, hard drive formatting, partition loss, etc. To recover cut and paste files in Windows 10 and other Windows OS versions, follow the steps below.

Download and install the data recovery software for Windows 11, 10, and more on your PC. There will not be an incompatibility issue at all. After installing the app, launch it right away.
In the main window, please hove mouse over the hard drive list and click the "Scan" button beside the hard drive. The software will begin to scan the selected hard drive, looking for the files lost after cut and paste. If the files are lost during the cut and paste in an external hard drive, you should connect the external hard drive with your computer first.

During the scanning process, you can see that found files are put into directories. If you found the needed files are found, you can stop the scanning process. If not, wait for the scanning process to finish. After then, select the found files in the result window to preview. If there is no problem with the target files, select them and click "Recover" to save them on your computer.

how to recover files lost after cut and paste

Note: the above we mentioned how to use Deep Data Recovery to recover files lost during cut and paste in Windows 11/10 and other Windows OS versions. If you lost files in cut and paste on Mac, try Deep Data Recovery for Mac version. It works in the same steps.

Method 2. Find Files Lost During Cut and Paste with File History

File History is the default feature in Windows OS, created for people to prevent data loss. If you had enabled it before files were lost in cut and paste, you can try it to restore the lost files after cut and paste.

How to Recover Cut and Paste Files in Windows 10

Open Control Panel > System and Security
If you lost files in cut and paste on Windows 11/10, you can try using File History to restore the lost files. Here's how:

After enabling File History and setting up the backup process, you can browse the backed-up files and folders to restore lost files. Here's how:
Find the folder from where you did cut and paste. Check out whether there are the files you need or not.
Select them and click the green "Restore" button at the bottom middle of the window.

How to Recover Files Deleted During Cut and Paste in Windows 11

Click the "Search" icon in the bottom menu of Windows 11
Type "File History" and click the open button to start it
Click "Restore personal files" in the left panel

Click the "left and right arrows" to view your backed up files
Select files lost during the cut and Paste process
Click the "Restore" button to save them

For people who haven't enabled the File History feature, you have to try method 1 and method 3 to recover files lost during cut and paste.

Method 3. How to Get Back Files Lost in Cut and Paste by OneDrive Backup

Some people like to use Microsoft OneDrive cloud service to back up Windows files. It's helpful to get back files lost after cutting and pasting as well. To see whether it is helpful or not, check whether you have enabled the backup for the folder where files are lost.

In the Settings of OneDrive client, navigate to Back up tab > manage back up.
Check whether the folder where you have lost files is in the list or not. If it is, then go to the main window of OneDrive.
Click Recycle bin in the left panel, check the files on the right side are the ones you need or not. If they're, select them and click "Restore".

Part 2. How to Prevent Files Lost in Cut and Paste

There are many reasons cause files lost in cut and paste. Luckily, we can classify them into the following ones.

If your computer is shut down or powered off abruptly during the cut and paste process, it can cause files to be lost. This is because the operating system is unable to complete the cut and paste operation, resulting in the files being deleted.
System crash of your computer.
Unexpected external storage device ejection or removal.
Computer hard drive failure.

Except for the hard drive failure, you can prevent files lost in cut and paste by keeping power on, ejecting storage devices appropriately, and what's more important, backing up your important files regularly. To do the backup, you can try Qiling backup or enable the File History feature on PC, Time Machine backup on Mac.

You can recover lost files from cut and paste once you have backup files on your computer when there is an incident. If not, only data recovery software, like Deep Data Recovery can help. It will scan your computer's internal hard drive or external hard drive, displaying all the hidden, invisible files for you to preview and get back.