How To Recover Deleted or Lost AutoCAD Files?

Updated on July 13, 2022

Lost or deleted your AutoCAD .dwg files that you’ve been working on for a while? Or cannot open AutoCAD files due corruption? Don’t worry, this article will guide you with solutions to recover and repair DWG AutoCAD files on the windows system.

AutoCAD is a Computer Aided Design (CAD) software application used for designing 2D and 3D formats, this tool was one of the first programs to run on personal computers. Nowadays this software is widely used by industries, project managers, engineers, architects, etc for many purposes. Although this software has numerous benefits, there are numerous reasons for an AutoCAD file to get deleted or lost; it may be due to system crash, format, virus infection, accidental deletion, improper termination of AutoCAD file, power failure and many more. But there are many ways to get back this CAD files and following are few methods that might help you to retrieve your CAD file.

Before we jump into the solution, let us try to understand the reasons behind corruption or deletetion.

What Are The Major Reasons For AutoCAD Files To Get Corrupted/Deleted?

Below are some of the major reasons that can lead to AutoCAD file corruption or deletion issue. Let’s take a look at them:

• Intentional/accidental deletion.
• File system failure or breakdown.
• Virus or spyware infection.
• Bad sectors present on a hard drive.
• Inappropriate handling of the AutoCAD files such as forceful closing of the system while working on AutoCAD files.
• When PC or AutoCAD get crashed & your AutoCAD files were not saved.

Now that you know the possible causes of AutoCAD .dwg file loss, you can recover it by following the below mentioned.

How To Recover An Unsaved Or Deleted DWG AutoCAD File?

Method 1: Recover The AutoCAD File Using Recover Command

Recover Command is one of the simplest ways to retrieve your AutoCAD file, to recover your file using this command follow the below procedure:

Open a new drawing and select File->Drawing Utilities and then “Recover”. Select the drawing from the dialog box and click OK.

Method 2: Recover The AutoCAD File Using Autosave Feature

• Open AutoCAD application
• Go to Tools and then Options
• Under Options go to Files Tab
• In files tab click on Automatic Save File Location and check the location of the auto save files(Default location would be at C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Temp)
• Access the folder and try to search for your CAD file name, but the file would be of a different extension(BAK or SV$)
• See the date modified of those files, if the date and time correspond to your lost/deleted CAD file then change the file extension of those files from .bak or .sv$ to .dwg.

Method 3: Recover Unsaved AutoCAD File From Backup

This method only requires changing the extension of the BAK file to DWG. It can be done in Windows Explorer.

• In Windows Explorer, all you need to do is locate the backup file, which is identified with the file extension of .bak.
• After this, all you need to do is right-click on the file and opt for the rename option.
• Post this, you can feed in a new name by changing the extension to .dwg.
• You can then just open the file as you would for any simple drawing file.

Method 4: Recover AutoCAD File Using Save Temporary Files (.ac$) Extension

• First, you need to go to the path of the temporary file which may be labeled as "C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp". Alternatively, you can access it with WIN+R -> %temp%.
• Then to recover deleted Autocad files, you can search for the ones with having a BAK or ac$ extension. You would need to figure out the right file with the help of either the file size or the partial name.
• Copy this file onto the local server. You would not want to corrupt the temporary files in this process.
• After, this simply open the AutoCAD file, go onto drawing utilities, and then recover. After this, an open file dialog box will open.
• Locate the earlier temporary file and then after the recovery process is over, you can recover your unsaved AutoCAD file.

In case the above methods do not achieve your goal of recovering AutoCAD .dwg file, go for the next method, it will certainly recover your AutoCAD files in any unexpected situation.

Method 5: Recover AutoCAD Document/File Using A Recovery Program

Yodot File Recovery tool is a media recovery software that is specially built to recover AutoCAD files (.dwg) along with all other media files. This tool performs rigorous scanning and retrieves CAD files deleted/lost due to any scenario. Apart from recovering DWG files, this utility also recovers other media files such as photos, videos, audio, RAW images, documents, and many more from all storage devices like hard disks, pen drives, memory cards, and USBs, iPods and etc.

Steps To Recover AutoCAD Files Using the Yodot File Recovery Software:

• Download Yodot File Recovery and install the application to your desktop / laptop.
• Launch the application and click on Deleted File Recovery option to retrieve your deleted AutoCAD files or Click on Lost File Recovery option to recover your missing CAD file.
• Choose the drive from where the file is to be recovered and click Next.
• The application repeats the scanning process and displays all the deleted / lost AutoCAD files in 2 views.
• Choose and Preview the files which you would like to obtain back and save the rescued files to your desired location.

How To Repair Corrupted AutoCAD Files That Can’t Open?

Repair Corrupted AutoCAD Files that are not opening by following the below-mentioned methods:

Method 1: Repair Corrupted Or Not Working CAD Files With Recover Command

While trying to open a CAD file, if you get an error message saying “Drawing file is not valid”, use the steps below to fix the problem:

Step 1. Run the Recover command after opening a blank DWG. Select the corrupted file and allow AutoCAD to recover and open the file.

Step 2. Open a blank DRW, run RECOVERALL command this time. Once you selecting the problematic file, AutoCAD will try to recover the file and open it.

Step 3. Open a blank DWG, and run INSERT command > Select the problematic file and see if it will insert.

If not, run EXPLODE and select the inserted block, after this run AUDIT and PURGE command, then click Save to create a new DWG file.

Step 4. Navigate to: C:\Windows\Temp for files with an SV$ extension. If you find a similar file with the same name as the corrupted .dwg file, rename it to .dwg format to see if it opens or not.

Step 5. Use DWG Trueview to open the corrupted drawing.The drawing should be converted to an older DRW version if it can be opened there, then you can try to open it again.

Method 2: Repair Corrupted .dwg Files Not Responding When Opening Using Commands

Step 1. Open the corrupted .dwg file and type: -PURGE, then press Enter.

Step 2. Type: R and press Enter.

Step 3. Type: N and press Enter.

Step 4. Type: PURGE and check all boxes > Click Purge All.

Step 5. Type: AUDIT, select Y to fix or repair various errors and hit Enter.

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