- Pandora
- Top 10 Best Data Recovery Software in 2022
Top 10 Best Data Recovery Software in 2022
Did you just lose a valuable file that would take you several days of work to replace? Don’t panic! The top 10 best free data recovery software applications on this list can help you get it back, and you won’t have to even spend any money on them.
Our complete ranking
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Key features analysis
Why Did We Choose These Data Recovery Solutions?
There are many more than 10 free data recovery tools. In selecting the ones that made our list, we considered the following criteria:
- Popularity
The popularity of a solution with the user community is often an indicator of its usefulness. We wanted to identify the most popular recovery tools so we could see if their popularity is justified.
- Features
A software tool’s features are what defines it and often differentiates it from competing products. We looked for solutions that had all the features required to reliably recover your lost data.
- Flexibility
We tried to find solutions that can address multiple data loss scenarios and successfully recover different kinds of user data from different types of storage devices.
- User reviews
The online user community often provides insight into the reliability and functionality of software products. We tried to locate tools that have received positive reviews as an indicator of solutions worth trying.
After identifying solutions that fit our criteria, we went ahead and tested the products under the same conditions users will face when struck by a data loss scenario.
Top 10 Best Free Data Recovery Software
#Let’s see which data recovery software applications have the best rating.
1. Disk Drill
Top pick
3.84 • Best choice for Windows users – The Windows version of Disk Drill empowers regular users to reliably recover all kinds of lost data with a few simple clicks.
Windows macOS
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest
Recover up to 500 MB for free
$89...$598
Disk Drill is unquestionably a formidable hard drive data recovery software that ranks high in the information technology industry. This application, developed by CleverFiles, is uniquely tailored to scan both external and internal storage devices, from your local disk drive to portable USB drives and SD cards.
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Two for one
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Visualization of the scanning process
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Mount results as a virtual disk
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File previews
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Raw photo support
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Phone support
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Linux and Apple file systems
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RAID
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Bootable disks
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Recovery over a network
2. R-Studio
Popular among professionals
3.08 • Empowering professionals; intimidating home users – R-Studio for Windows is a powerful data recovery software application, but regular home users may struggle to master it and put its capabilities to good use.
Windows macOS Linux
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest
Recover files smaller than 256 KB
$49.99...$899
R-Studio is a commercial data recovery software tool with versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It was originally designed to be used by data recovery professionals but has evolved to provide a user-friendly solution accessible by anyone.
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Supports all major operating systems
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Compatible with many file systems
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RAID reconstruction module
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Good performance of file system scanners
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Network recovery
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Limited preview feature
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Complicated
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Unintuitive scanning process
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Very complex scan results
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S.M.A.R.T
3. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard
Decent recovery results
3.01 • Popular for its trial recovery capabilities – Easy to use and capable of delivering solid results, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is good at what it does.
Windows macOS
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest
Recover up to 2 GB for free
$69.95...$499
EaseUS is a leading software company, and its data recovery solution doesn’t fail to impress with a reliable data recovery performance and the ability to recover a large number of file formats from all kinds of storage devices.
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Scan results
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Scan speed
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Free recovery
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Support
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Labeled results
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Pop-up ads
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Inaccurate time estimations
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Limited preview capabilities
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Limited preview size
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Recovery speed
4. Stellar Data Recovery
2.19 • Frequently recommended – Stellar Data Recovery is a good example of data recovery software that doesn’t to anything exceptionally wrong nor exceptionally right.
Windows macOS
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest
Recover up to 1 GB for free
$49.99...$599
This multi-featured data recovery application lives up to its name, offering stellar performance and design. Stellar Phoenix is a high-end, user-friendly recovery software that comes in several editions.
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Support
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Repair of photos and videos
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S.M.A.R.T
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Preview in safe mode
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Backup creation
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Updates in the free version
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Lost license information
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Slow previews
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Preview limits
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Scanning speed
5. PhotoRec
Open-source solution
2.29 • Intimidating but rewarding at the same time – PhotoRec for Windows offers unbeatable value, but you need to overcome a steep learning curve to unlock it.
Windows macOS Linux
Free All features are provided free of charge, and the software can be used, studied, and modified without restriction.
None
Free
PhotoRec is an open-source data recovery software application that runs on basically any operating system. Despite its name, it can recover over 300 file format families, making it a great choice for those who would like to recover deleted data without paying.
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Completely free
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Open source
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Optional graphical user interface
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Does not require installation
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Capable signature scanner
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Interface slows down during scanning
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Window size settings
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Rarely updated
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No auto-update
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Scan automation
6. Recuva
Popular among Windows users
1.75 • Good for basic data recovery jobs – Despite its age and lack of development, Recuva is still worth taking a look at—if only because it recovers an unlimited amount of data for free.
Windows
Freeware All features are provided free of charge without any limitations.
None
$0...$34.95
Recuva is a straightforward data recovery software capable of handling simpler data recovery jobs, such as the recovery of recently deleted files. Its biggest advantage is the fact that it can recover an unlimited amount of data for free.
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Completely free
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Chances of recovery
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Two operating modes
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Secure file erase
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Multilingual capabilities
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No Enterprise license
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Scanning/creation of images
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Recovering structure and names
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Recovery odds accuracy
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Updating the list of drives
7. MiniTool Power Data Recovery
2.15 • Does it have the power to recover your files? – MiniTool Power Data Recovery for Windows makes recovery easy for any user, but its price tag may not justify its abilities.
Windows
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest
Recover up to 1 GB for free
$69...$499
The most harrowing data damage experience is losing an entire partition or drive. This may be attributed to an accidentally deleted partition or an overwritten one, an unfinished format procedure, etc. If this has happened to you, MiniTool Partition Recovery can help.
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Interface
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Creating a bootable disk
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Recover during a scan
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Scanning speed
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Support for soft RAID
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No HDPI support
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Paid option to fix corrupted video files
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Settings are not saved
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All file types are not selected by default
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No resizing of the main screen
8. Data Rescue
2.07 • Still worth a try – Data Rescue may be developed by a reputable company with decades of experience, but it doesn’t look and perform like a modern application.
Windows macOS
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest
Preview only
$19...$399.96
Data Rescue is an advanced data recovery software package offering from Prosoft Engineering. Relying on 20 years of data recovery development, Data Rescue has helped reunite users with billions of lost and deleted files.
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Two recovery modes
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Disk cloning
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Zero fill erase utility
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Speed
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Configuration
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Scanning methods
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No convenience with previews
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No thumbnail preview window
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Outdated interface
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No real-time view
9. UndeleteMyFiles Pro
0.59 • Spoiler: It probably won’t undelete your files – UndeleteMyFiles Pro struggles to meet the necessary standards for file recovery, destroying any perceived value indicated by the free price tag.
Windows
Freeware All features are provided free of charge without any limitations.
None
Free
Despite being abandoned by its developers, UndeleteMyFiles Pro remains a recommendable data recovery software application for Windows, especially thanks to the inclusion of several extra disk tools.
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Completely free
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Decent quick scan results
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Free add-ons
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Only Quick Scan
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There is no signature scanner available
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The project is abandoned
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Scan only partitions
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Preview only in Media Recover feature
10. Undelete 360
0.78 • Prepare to be disappointed – Undelete 360 presents itself as a free and unlimited data recovery application, but the reality is very different.
Windows
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest.
Only basic file recovery
$0...$69
If you’re looking for a truly free data recovery application for Windows, Undelete 360 has you covered. It’s Office 2010-inspired user interface may be outdated, but at least it looks familiar and makes the application intuitive.
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Free recovery
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Recovery chances
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Filtering by file type
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Multiple languages
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Good file deletion functionality
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The program is not completely free
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Only Quick Scan
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No signature scanner
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The project can be considered abandoned
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Scan only partitions
Honorable Mentions
Narrowing available data recovery software applications down to just the top 10 best options wasn’t easy. There are several applications you should know about even though they didn’t make the list, so we’ve decided to include them here as honorable mentions.
This data recovery application didn’t make the list because it’s a clone of EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard (or quite possibly another version of the same white label product). However, that’s also the main reason why it deserves your attention, especially if you manage to buy it at a heavily discounted price during a special sale.
Given that Wondershare Recoverit Data Recovery is one of the most popular data recovery solutions around, we think that you should at least check it out. What you may not like is that all of its versions lack several essential features, such as the ability to save scans.
As if there weren’t enough clones already, there’s also AnyRecover Data Recovery—a clone of Wondershare Recoverit Data Recovery. What makes this clone stand out is the fact that it’s sold at a discounted price in a bundle with other recovery tools, including iMyFone ScanOutlook, a powerful Outlook repair tool to repair corrupted PST/OST files.
Even though Puran File Recovery is compatible with Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8/10, the application looks and feels nothing like modern Windows software because it was last updated in 2013. Still, you may want to take a quick look at it because it works great on old computers and delivers satisfactory data recovery results.
This data recovery tool promises to recover over 1,000 types of files from a variety of devices, but, during our testing, it failed to deliver good results on computers running the latest version of Windows 10.
The developers of this data recovery tool are known mostly for their collection of computer cleanup and optimization utilities, and they don’t hesitate to leverage their name for marketing purposes. That may explain why Glarysoft File Recovery feels like white label software that’s been quickly repackaged instead of developed from scratch.
If you’re a fan of open-source software, then make sure to check out Kickass Undelete. Just don’t expect it to rival the top 10 best data recovery software applications described in this article because it only supports FAT and NTFS filesystems and sports an outdated user interface.
This professional data recovery software offers many useful features, such as the ability to back up and restore a partition table or clone an entire storage device, but its user interface looks like it has arrived from the past using a time machine.
One look at the user interface of this data recovery application should be enough to tell you that it’s outdated. But despite its old age, it still holds up relatively well, especially when it comes to the recovery of basic file formats from Windows drives.
On the paper, SysTools Data Recovery Software seems like a highly capable data recovery solution, but looks can be deceiving. In reality, SysTools Data Recovery Software is not only difficult to use, but its data recovery performance leaves a lot to be desired. Why give it a try then? Its extensive file format support is one reason, and its ability to preview recoverable data items is another.
In the past, Ontrack EasyRecovery used to be a fairly capable clone of Stellar Phoenix, but those days are gone. Developers have since then abandoned the application, focusing on other projects instead. But one reason to download Ontrack EasyRecovery remains its ability to recover up to 1 GB of files that are less than 25 MB large.
With Remo, you can recover more than 300 file formats from all kinds of storage devices and preview recoverable files prior to their actual recovery. The recovery results can be a hit or miss, but there’s a free version that you can use to evaluate the software.
Comparison table
#The comparison table below provides an overview of all data recovery software applications that have made our list.
| Feature | Disk Drill | R-Studio | EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | Stellar Data Recovery | PhotoRec | Recuva | MiniTool Power Data Recovery | Data Rescue | UndeleteMyFiles Pro | Undelete 360 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Score Free Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque. | 100% | 80% | 78% | 57% | 60% | 46% | 56% | 54% | 15% | 20% |
| Requirements | Windows 7-11 | Windows 2000-11 | Windows 7-11 | Windows 7-11 | Windows XP-10, 11 (unofficial support) | Windows XP-10, 11 (unofficial support) | Windows 7-11 | Windows 7-11 | Windows XP-7, 8-11 (unofficial support) | Windows XP-11 |
| Clever in-depth scan | ||||||||||
| Quick scan | ||||||||||
| Distributed as | Freemium | Freemium | Freemium | Freemium | Free | Freeware | Freemium | Freemium | Freeware | Freemium |
| Trial version available | ||||||||||
| Trial version limitations | Recover up to 500 MB for free | Recover files smaller than 256 KB | Recover up to 2 GB for free | Recover up to 1 GB for free | Freeware. No limits | Freeware. No limits | Recover up to 1 GB for free | Preview only | Freeware. No limits | Freeware. No limits |
| Starting price | $89.00 / Perpetual | $49.99 / Perpetual | $69.95 / 1 month | $49.99 / 1 year | Free | Free | $69.00 / 1 month | $19.00 / 1 file | Free | Free |
| See Plans & Pricing | Pricing details | Pricing details | Pricing details | Pricing details | Pricing details | Pricing details | Pricing details | Pricing details | Pricing details | Pricing details |
| Raw photo recovery | ||||||||||
| Video formats recovery | ||||||||||
| Document formats recovery | ||||||||||
| S.M.A.R.T. | ||||||||||
| Helpdesk support | ||||||||||
| Live chat | ||||||||||
| Phone support |
Why Is Data Recovery Software Necessary?
Truth be told, data recovery software isn’t always necessary. For example, you don’t need to download a data recovery application just to get back recently deleted files that are still in the Recycle Bin. Likewise, you don’t need to perform data recovery if you have a backup of the deleted files and can simply restore them from it.
However, data recovery software is the only way to recover deleted files that are no longer in the Recycle Bin and are not backed up. Data recovery software is especially useful in situations when you accidentally formatted a storage device or deleted an important file and immediately realized your mistake.
Because deleted files are still physically present on the storage device until other files use the space they occupy, you should be able to get them back without any issues. All you need is a reliable data recovery software application.
Where data recovery software isn’t of much use is the recovery of data from physically damaged storage devices. If your hard drive has stopped spinning or your memory card has fallen apart, even the best data recovery software won’t be able to help you. In such cases, your only options are professional data recovery services with clean rooms and state-of-the-art equipment.
Why Have We Included Only 10 Data Recovery Applications?
Listing each and every available data recovery application would be a monumental task to undertake, and its result wouldn’t be worth the effort because the list would include many abandoned and poorly performing applications that are simply not worth spending time on.
Instead, we decided to focus our attention on just 10 most popular data recovery applications, listing the pros and cons of each so that you can easily decide which of them is the most suitable for you.
What to Consider When Selecting Data Recovery Software
With so many data recovery software applications to choose from, how do you decide which to try and which to ignore? Simple! You compare their performance, compatibility, features, usability, price, and security. Let’s take a closer look at each of these factors.
- Performance: The main factor to consider when selecting data recovery software is performance. After all, a data recovery application that’s unable to recover your files isn’t very useful, is it? Ideally, you want to select a data recovery application that supports all commonly used file formats and storage devices and doesn’t take hours to recover data from them. Some applications offer multiple scanning algorithms to speed things up, while others don’t make you wait for the scanning process to finish, allowing you to access deleted files as soon as they are found.
- Compatibility: It goes without saying that your data recovery software of choice must support your operating system. If you use both Windows and macOS, it makes sense to select a data recovery application that can run on both operating systems.
- Features: There are many different data recovery software applications competing for users, who have come to expect more than basic data recovery capabilities. That’s why many leading data recovery applications include additional features, such as data backup, disk health monitoring, and bootable data recovery. By choosing a data recovery application with a lot of extra features, you can avoid spending money on multiple different software applications.
- Usability: You shouldn’t have to spend a lot of time to understand how to recover your deleted or lost data with a data recovery software application. Instead, the application should be intuitive and easy to use, making it obvious what each of its options is for without forcing you to read a lengthy manual. The good news is that such data recovery applications are fairly easy to find these days, and we’ve featured several of them in this article.
- Price: The idiom “you get what your pay for” holds true even when it comes to data recovery software. While there are many great data recovery applications that cost absolutely nothing, their features, ease of use, and customer support typically pale in comparison with paid data recovery software. The good news is that most paid data recovery applications let you try them for free by providing a trial or demo version, which is why you can find some of them on our list.
- Security: Security comes into play when downloading any free software from the internet. There are many shady websites that distribute malware disguised as legitimate software, and avoiding them is not always easy because their owners know how to reach the first page in Google and other search engines. If you don’t want to risk a malware infection and irreversible damage to your system, we recommend you stick with leading data recovery applications, such as those featured in this article.
What If Data Recovery Software Failed?
Unfortunately, there isn’t any data recovery software application that provides a complete guarantee of successful recovery. That’s because data loss can be caused by a number of different factors, including human error, computer malware, and physical damage.
While non-mechanical issues are relatively easy to deal with, physical damage presents a serious obstacle to data recovery, usually requiring the expertise of a professional data recovery service like CleverFiles Data Recovery Center.
Thanks to state-of-the-art equipment and Class 100 (ISO-14644-1 Class 5) clean rooms, CleverFiles Data Recovery Center is able to repair storage devices that have suffered a physical failure and can’t be recognized by data recovery software applications.
Of course, professional data recovery services can also recover data that has become inaccessible due to a logical failure or human error, making them a great choice for those who have either found no luck with DIY data recovery software or would rather avoid it entirely.
Did You Know?
Even though hard drive capacity has been increasing year after year, the same thing can’t be said about hard drive reliability. Each year, data storage provider Backblaze publishes hard drive reliability statistics based on its experience with running over 100,000 spinning hard drives in data centers on two continents. In 2019, the annualized hard drive failure rate in Backblaze data centers was 1.89 percent, which is significantly more than it was in 2018 (just 1.25 percent). Clearly, hard drive manufacturers still have some work to do to make hard drives more reliable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Data recovery software works by restoring access to files deleted by the operating system. When the OS deletes a file it removes logical access but leaves the physical data on the disk. Data recovery software can restore this logical access if the file’s storage space has not been overwritten.
Yes. Data recovery software is safe to use and will not lead to further data loss. In cases where your drive is experiencing physical problems, attempt to make a byte level backup to be used when performing the recovery. Then you can recover without adding stress to the degraded disk.
Yes, with some restrictions. An SSD drive can be TRIM enabled which is used to improve performance and increase drive life. Unfortunately, if you have TRIM enabled on your drive you cannot recover data from a formatted SSD. Drives that are not using TRIM can be recovered with software.
Recover permanently deleted files for free using these methods:
- Launch your backup and restore program and recover from an old version.
- Locate the folder that contained the file and recover a previous version in Windows.
- Download Disk Drill and recover 500 MB for free on Windows.
There are many SD card recovery applications available. Some solutions are specifically developed for photo recovery. The best SD card recovery software is:
- Disk Drill Data Recovery Software;
- Stellar Photo Recovery;
- EaseUS Photo Recovery;
- PhotoRescue;
- Minitool Photo Recovery.
Not all data recovery solutions are compatible with the Mac operating system. The best data recovery software applications for Mac are:
- Disk Drill for macOS;
- Stellar Data Recovery Professional;
- Softtote Mac Data Recovery;
- EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac;
- R-Studio for Mac.
Jeff Cochin is a data management and recovery professional, who has been with Pandorarecovery for nine years and has always been an essential part of the team. Jeff also works as a technical writer at Macgasm, being a first hand in testing, trying and writing about big and small tech software.
Houston, Texas, United States
Nikolay Lankevich has over 15 years of strong experience in various fields and platform includes Disaster Recovery, Windows XP/7. System analysis, design, application (Inter/Intranet) development, and testing. Provided technical supports on desktop and laptops on Win-XP and Macintosh for about 2000 employees.
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