Top 5 Free Data Recovery Software for Windows

1. Disk Drill

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.

Features that bring Disk Drill on top of the list are:

User-friendly

For first-time users, working, downloading and installing Disk Drill is a walk in the park. Testers and laypersons alike assert that Disk Drill is an easy-to-install, user-friendly and intuitive software that is imbued with wizards and GUI tools to make for a successful recovery process.

Excellent recovery results

When it comes to the actual data recovery statistics, Disk Drill is unmatched. Recovering lost documents from a lost partition or a reformatted drive, Disk Drill performed at an optimal 95% recovery rate which is impressive as this is 4% above the average.

Furthermore, Disk Drill performs exceptionally well when it comes to the recovery of images, at an average rate of 99%. This validates the supremacy of Disk Drill as the top data recovery software.

Disk Drill is rootedly powered by various data recovery algorithms aimed at a plethora of file systems, for instance APFS, HFS+, FAT32, EXT and NTFS.

Data Protection

The two central features that maintain Disk Drill's supreme reign as an excellent data recovery software are its supplementary data loss prevention utilities.

Disk Drill adds a layer to the Recycle Bin denoted as Recovery Vault, to safely store a backup reference to all deleted files and media. Disk Drill keeps a copy of each recovered file using a unique featured known as Guaranteed Recovery.

Additional features

Disk Drill is a favorite among digital forensic experts as the software comes with features which allow users to generate binary data image files, enabling them to isolate the manipulation of data within the clone, protecting the original storage container.

Support

Additionally, Disk Drill offers extensive technical support available through their website.

Free version:

Being available in several editions, Disk Drill recovery software accommodates users of multiple levels. The most popular is the freely available Basic package, tailored for personal use. The Basic package enables users to preview files that are recoverable as well as recover previously protected data. Free recovery of other deleted data is capped at 500MB per computer.

Pro version:

The PRO version provides full functionality, allowing a user to recover files on various media without any restrictions. The Enterprise version is a commercial license with extended features and permissions such as enabling multiple simultaneous users to run the data recovery software as a commercial service.

3. MiniTool Power Data Recovery

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.

Here are some of the features of MiniTool Recovery:

The functionality of MiniTool is pretty simple. As the name suggests, this application is available as a small downloadable file.

Upon installation, launch the application and select the drive on which your lost partition was located. The app will then prompt the user with a dialog box querying whether they want to scan the entire disk or just a portion of it. Proceed to select an option and specify the nature of the scan — whether it's a full or quick scan.

From there, the application will take a moment to run and then it will list the detected partitions on the drive. To restore the selected partitions, click Finish. The restored partitions allow a user to view the contained files to verify whether the restored partition is the desired one.

One shortcoming of MiniTool is it's random sluggishness, which results in the app's unresponsiveness once a user proceeds to scan a partition. Nonetheless, MiniTool is adept at recovering lost partitions efficiently without leaving Windows and has a simple interface.

Free version:

MiniTool Free Edition has 1 GB data recovery limit.

Pro version:

MiniTool provides different license types to meet the needs of users: Personal Standard ($69), Personal Deluxe ($89), Personal Ultimate ($129).

5. Pandora Recovery

Pandora Recovery is an excellent, easy and free data recovery tool. One of the most exceptional features of Pandora is how well it is suited for beginners. The helping tools, wizards, and customization options feel like the interface is holding your hand and guiding you through your data recovery process.

Here are some of the Pandora’s features:

Pandora may not have a colorful interface as with most freely available data recovery tools, but its features and deep scanning capability make up for this.

Unfortunately, Pandora is not available as a portable software and must be installed. It supports various Windows OS releases such as XP, 7,8, 8.1 and 10. Once installed, Pandora can recover lost files in three significant ways.

Pandora may present a list of files that the application can successfully recover, from which a user can select a file to undelete. Secondly, Pandora can search for records using various criteria such as name, file size and dates. Lastly, the surface scan tool does a deep search of recoverable data on a device.

Overall, Pandora is a simple and efficient tool and is the best choice for casual and curious users looking to perform simple data recovery procedures of the highest quality.

Update:

“As of today Pandora Recovery is now called Disk Drill, the Disk Drill software by CleverFiles will replace Pandora Recovery for superior file recovery and restoration”. — prmac.com