Recover file program

We tested it in Windows Another free data recovery program is available from iBoysoft. This one is severely limited in that it can recover only 1 GB of data, but if you need to undelete just a few files, or even a video or collection of music, you're probably fine being limited to 1 GB.

You can browse through them much like you can in Explorer, and easily select the files you want to restore. Besides being able to filter the results by file extension and search by file name, the only other thing you can do before recovering a file is preview it, but only if it's smaller than 5 MB. When you exit the results screen, you have the opportunity to save the results to an SR file that you can later reopen in iBoysoft Data Recovery Free to work out of the same list of deleted files.

This is great so that you don't have to rescan the drive to continue sifting through the results. This program works on Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP.

It's also available for Mac computers Orion File Recovery Software is a free file recovery program from NCH Software that's basically the same as most of the other programs in this list. A nice wizard prompts you to scan for specific file types at the launch of the program, like documents, images, videos, music, or a custom file type.

You can also scan the entire drive to search for all file types. Orion File Recovery Software can scan any attached hard drive, whether internal or external, flash drives, and memory cards for deleted data.

Then you can search through the files with an instant search function, while easily identifying the recovery potential of each file.

A nice addition to Orion File Recovery Software also functions as a data destruction program , so you can scrub all the files it finds to make them unrecoverable for future scans. This program should work fine in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP. The setup tool might try to install other NCH Software programs along with the file undelete tool, but just deselect those options if you wish not to install them. BPlan Data Recovery is a file recovery program like the others in this list.

It may not look as nice as similar software, but it can recover many types of deleted files. We found BPlan Data Recovery to be a bit difficult to navigate around. It was hard to know what we were doing because of the layout of the results. That said, it still managed to find and recover images, documents, videos, and other file types. This program officially works in Windows 8, 7, and XP.

We tested the latest version in Windows XP. While testing this program, the desktop shortcut the installer created was incorrect, and therefore didn't open BPlan Data Recovery. You might need to open bplan. This free data recovery tool from Stellar is easy to use because it walks you through a simple wizard where you select what and where to search for deleted files.

A unique feature in this program is the preview option you have while the scan is taking place. You can watch, in real time, which files the program finds before the scan completes. Something else we like about Stellar's free file recovery program is that when you exit the results screen, you're given the option to save the list of deleted files so that you can resume recovering them later.

It's available for Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7, as well as macOS 12 and older versions. The free PhotoRec file recovery tool does the job, but it isn't nearly as easy to use as other programs in this list.

It's limited by its command-line interface and multiple step recovery process. However, our greatest problem with PhotoRec is that it's very difficult to avoid recovering all deleted files at once, not just the one or two you're after.

It can recover files from hard drives, optical drives, and memory cards. PhotoRec should be able to undelete files from any storage device on your PC. If another data recovery program hasn't worked, give this one a try. We just don't recommend making it your first pick.

We tested it in Windows 7, but since the minimum OS requirement is Vista, it should work equally well in Windows 11, 10, and 8. It also runs on Mac and Linux. True, there are many more file recovery programs than those listed above, but we've only included true freeware file recovery programs that also undelete wide ranges of files.

Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. By Tim Fisher. Tim Fisher. Tim Fisher has more than 30 years' of professional technology experience.

He's been writing about tech for more than two decades and serves as the VP and General Manager of Lifewire. Tweet Share Email. Apps Best Apps Payment Services. What We Like. What We Don't Like. Our Review of Recuva. Our Review of Puran File Recovery. Our Review of Disk Drill. Our Review of Restoration. No problem - Recuva recovers files from your Windows computer, recycle bin, digital camera card, or MP3 player!

And it can recover from any rewriteable media you have: memory cards, external hard drives, USB sticks and more! Unlike most file recovery tools, Recuva can recover files from damaged or newly formatted drives.

Greater flexibility means greater chance of recovery. For those hard to find files, Recuva has an advanced deep scan mode that scours your drives to find any traces of files you have deleted.

Sometimes you want a file gone for good. We'll therefore list the best data recovery software, both free and paid, currently available. Stellar Data Recovery is one of the most popular data recovery services for businesses and for good reason. The platform comes with several scan options, meaning you can tailor the scan for the type of data loss that has occurred.

The platform also comes with advanced search capabilities, making it easy to identify and extract the most critical data. Another important feature of Stellar Data Recovery is its support for all file formats and drives. It is an adaptable provider that will recover data from hard drives internal and external , memory cards, flash drives, and optical media like CDs and DVDs.

Read our full Stellar Data Recovery review. EaseUS isn't overstating the 'Wizard' part of this software's title — it really is 'wizard' in the sense of being good at something. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is straightforward to use, taking you step-by-step through the recovery process. Run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro quickly enough after disaster has occurred and it'll be able to resurrect just about everything, from inadvertently-deleted partitions to virus-ruined files.

The full package is still one of the more affordable solutions we've seen for resurrecting crashed RAID setups — certain packages hide this functionality away in their premium versions. While there are definitely more advanced recovery packages out there, and certainly some cheaper ones, this is the one we'd keep on our shelf for those not-so-special occasions. There are various pricing options, from monthly to yearly, or alternatively a Lifetime upgrades license.

Upgrading to a paid license is a little expensive, but the vast number of features you get for that investment means that in reality it represents great value for money. And, when you add to this the app's great performance, EaseUS's responsive customer support, and a tidy user interface, you have a clear winner. Disk Drill's website boasts that any lost data file type can be recovered, from almost any data loss scenario you can think of. Disk Drill's complete collection of features for every imaginable platform and scenario are impressive enough.

It's ability to effortlessly mount and read a previously unmountable USB flash drive and to recover the data from it within a comparatively small timeframe proves that Disk Drill is a recovery tool that you should be considering. Pricing for the PRO version isn't ideal for home users, sadly, but this aside, Disk Drill is an excellent recovery option for Windows.

Read our full Disk Drill data recovery review. Once the darling of free backup solutions for the home user, CrashPlan has since shifted its focus to the enterprise arena with its CrashPlan for Small Business offering. And CrashPlan is certainly a favourite around here — in fact our official company machines here at TechRadar all run Crashplan , and it's saved our bacon on more than one occasion.

It's not quite the same as the traditional file recovery apps that we've covered in this article — it's a backup service first and foremost — but it's so comprehensive that it almost counts. Crashplan, you see, stores absolutely everything. It chugs away in the background and makes full, detailed backups of your entire machine starting with the newest files first. It then sifts everything into virtual buckets so you can get quick access to the files that matter most.

Critically, though, Crashplan even stores files you've deleted. You can switch this feature off, but we wouldn't: your backups are fully encrypted, so even those deleted files will be safe from prying eyes, and you never know when you might need to retrieve that long-discarded or virus-removed file.

Read our full CrashPlan review. Ontrack EasyRecovery comes in a number of different options, all intended to help provide the complete recovery of data under a range of different data loss conditions. A free version allows you to recover up to 1GB, so isn't going to be particularly helpful except as for a tester for most people. The Home edition allows for the recovery of files and folders that have been accidentally deleted, though it can also recover them after a virus infection.

The Technician and Toolkit editions are even more powerful, allowing for lost or reformatted RAID volumes, but also come with commercial licensing for commercial use, working across Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. Prices rise accordingly for the level of data recovery required, and while some of the more advanced tiers don't come cheap, we can speak from experience in saying the cost can be worth it for a successful full data recovery.