Disk recovery freeware

Recovered files are filtered and displayed in folders to make it easier to find exactly what you need. Select from these categories when searching for data: Pictures, Video, Audio, Documents, Archives, and other files. This feature saves a lot of time, allowing you to focus on the recovery results that matter to you without needing to go through the whole recovery report.

This lets you directly look for a specific filename no matter what type of file it is. When you go into the window of a particular file type you will see a list of recoverable files as well as those that have been reconstructed by a deep scan. Reconstructed files are those that have been recovered by Disk Drill but have not provided enough metadata to obtain a filename.

The files are reconstructed through deep scans based on their file signatures, and will usually have a valid file extension displayed.

You can preview the files to see if you want to recover them and then rename them when recovery is complete. Click the Recover or Recover all button to perform the recovery. You will be prompted to provide a safe storage location where you want the data to be restored. When recovery is complete you can go to the designated folder and move the files wherever you want. Some reconstructed files may need to be renamed. Disk Drill does not only offer data recovery but includes a free data protection tool that helps keep your important files and folders safe.

Recovery Vault acts as an extension to your Recycle Bin and allows you to recover designated files that are deleted without performing a full recovery. When a file goes missing, simply use the Undelete Protected Data feature to get it back fast. Disk Drill can intelligently predict hard drive data recovery chances, keeping you informed throughout the data recovery process.

Files that can be very likely recovered without any issues are assigned the color green, files that are possibly damaged to some extent but can still be recovered are marked in yellow, and files whose recovery is unlikely are labeled with orange color. Common causes of minor data corruption include software bugs, power outages, and benign malware. Such corruption may cause files to seemingly disappear but it seldom leads to their destruction. Some files, such as images and videos, can be recovered even when partially overwritten.

Some serious malware infections, such as ransomware, make files inaccessible by encrypting them. A professional hard disk recovery service may need to be engaged to physically recover data from the damaged device. Some data loss issues caused logical disk errors can be solved without third-party data recovery software, by applying the easy fixes described below. Does your hard drive suddenly seem to be completely empty even though the amount of free storage space is still the same?

Included in Windows is a handy Disk Management utility that lets you format hard drives that are not accessible from File Explorer. The solution? Force Windows to update them by following these instructions:.

In such cases, you can manually assign a new drive letter to regain access to your files:. Here are some tips that can help increase the chances of a successful data recovery. Failure to follow these suggestions may lead to permanent data loss. Stop using the device as soon as you determine it has experienced data loss to prevent the deleted files from being overwritten by Windows, making them unrecoverable.

Strange noises coming from the drive indicate you may soon be performing a hard drive crash recovery. If you hear strange sounds, get your data to a safe place. Create a byte-level backup to reduce the stress on a failing drive. Disk Drill provides this functionality which allows you to save data from the device before it fails. Use a different drive for downloading and installing Disk Drill.

Using the device that lost data runs the risk of overwriting the files you want before you restore them. You may only get one chance to recover your valuable data. This could overwrite your data and make it impossible to ever recover it. Updated on Nov 16, by Disk Drill Team. Disk Drill can recover data from virtually any hard disk brand. If your storage device is disk-based, then there is an excellent chance that Disk Drill supports it and can be used to successfully recover and data that is accidentally lost.

Yes, you can. Disk Drill for Windows enables users to recover up to MB of data using the free trial version of the application. Give the tool a test drive and perform data recovery to evaluate its functionality. See how the combination of powerful technology and an intuitive user interface makes it easy for anyone to restore deleted data from a hdd. Yes, you can recover files from a failed hard drive.

Your operating system needs to be able to recognize and access the device for software to work. The software needs to be able to scan the disk to perform its recovery functions. If this is not the case, your best bet is to use a data recovery center that can physically recover your data.

Data recovery software can be used to recover data from a formatted hard disk. The act of formatting a disk simply informs the operating system that its space is available for use.

Access to the files is logically removed but the data is still physically present on the disk until it is overwritten by new information and can be recovered.

Yes, it is. The first place to look for deleted files is the Windows Recycle Bin. You can also use previously created backups of the data to restore deleted files. This highlights the importance of taking regularly scheduled backups of your data. Cleverfiles Data Recovery Center is the best data recovery service and is within reach of everyone with a simple phone call or email.

All recovery services require you to ship your device, so their physical location is somewhat irrelevant. Cleverfiles offers customers reliable recovery services with no charge for unsuccessful recoveries. A free cost estimate is available through their website. Search results on www. Search the website. Hard Drive Data Recovery Software. Also available for Mac OS X.

Your browser does not support the video tag. Formatted Hard Drives. Accidental Data Deletion. Filesystem Problems. It's said to work with Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP. It's also available in a portable form for both bit and bit versions of Windows, so it doesn't require installation. Disk Drill is an excellent free data recovery program not only because of its features but also due to the very simple design, making it almost impossible to get confused.

According to their website, Disk Drill can recover data up to MB from " virtually any storage device ," such as internal and external hard drives , USB devices, memory cards, and iPods. Disk Drill can also preview files before recovering them, pause scans and resume them later, perform partition recovery, back up an entire drive, filter files by date or size, run a quick scan versus a full scan for faster results, and save scan results so you can easily import them again to recovery deleted files at a later time.

The program works with Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7, as well as most versions of macOS. Earlier versions work with older operating systems like Windows XP. Pandora Recovery was another file recovery program but it now exists as Disk Drill. Glarysoft File Recovery Free is a user-friendly file undelete program.

There aren't a ton of options and it doesn't compare to some of the choices ranked higher in this list, but it does work and is easy to use. Choose a drive, scan for deleted files, and then pick out the ones you want to recover.

You can undelete things even while the scan is still running, which is nice so you don't have to wait. Pausing the scan is also supported.

You can filter by file type, time deleted, size, and keywords. There's a setting you can adjust to pick which file extensions belong to which categories, such as ensuring that MP4s are listed as videos; you can add your own, too.

We tested v1 in Windows Unlike most file recovery tools, this one doesn't let you see how successful the file recovery will be. SoftPerfect File Recovery is another superb file undelete program. It's very easy to search for recoverable files.

Anyone should be able to use this program with very little trouble. It will undelete files from hard drives, memory cards, etc. Scroll down a bit on the download page to find it.

According to SoftPerfect, bit versions of Windows operating systems are also supported. We tested v1. Wise Data Recovery is a free undelete program that's really simple to use. The program installed very quickly and scanned our test PC in record time. An instant search function makes it really quick and easy to search for deleted files that Wise Data Recovery has found, and there's both a quick and a full scan option depending on how deep of a scan you want to perform.

There's also a portable version available. The Restoration data recovery program is similar to the other free undelete apps on this list. The thing we like most about Restoration is how incredibly simple it is to recover files. There are no cryptic buttons or complicated file recovery procedures — everything you need is on one, easy to understand program window. Restoration can recover files from hard drives, memory cards, USB drives, and other external drives.

Like some of the other popular data recovery tools on this list, Restoration is small and does not need to be installed, giving it the flexibility to be run from a floppy disk or USB drive. We successfully tested it with Windows 7, and didn't run into any problems.

However, v3. FreeUndelete is self-explanatory — it's free, and it undeletes files! It's very similar to other undelete utilities around this rank on our list. The major advantage of FreeUndelete is it's easy to use interface and "folder drill down" functionality i. FreeUndelete will recover files from hard drives, memory cards, and other similar storage devices in, or connected to, your PC. We tested it with Windows 10 and didn't have any issues, so it should work equally well with Windows 11, 8, and other versions.

One of this program's best features is the ability to preview text and image files. You can even browse deleted folders in thumbnail view to quickly see which files you want to undelete. Several hundred file types are supported, so you can bet that iCare Data Recovery Free can probably recover anything you've deleted.

Windows users can download this program as a portable tool or a normal, installable program. It's said to work with Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7. Even Microsoft has a tool for data recovery, but it's not as easy to use as most of these other programs. This one runs over the command line, so you have to type out everything you want to do.

It's still pretty easy to use, though. To undelete files this way, download and install Windows File Recovery and then search for it in the Start menu to open in.

Once you're on a screen like you see above, you could enter a command like this to recover PNG images from your C drive's Downloads folder and copy them to the Images folder on a drive called E :. Since this is a bit more of a process than using a standard application where you can point and click on buttons and menus, check out Microsoft's help page for other examples and more information. It explains how to recover single files or multiple file types at once, how to use wildcards, and more.

Only Windows 11 and Windows 10 users can download this tool. File recovery with this program is uncomplicated and could probably be accomplished by the average computer user without any kind of documentation. Data Recovery Tools officially supports Windows XP, , and 95, but we successfully tested data recovery with this program on Windows Vista and Windows 7. This is a standalone, KB program, making it a very portable data recovery tool that will easily fit on any removable media you might have.

We also tested v1. CD Recovery Toolbox is a completely free and very unique file recovery program. According to the publisher, CD Recovery Toolbox should help recover files from discs that have been scratched, chipped, or have surface spotting. One obvious con is the inability of CD Recovery Toolbox to recover files from hard drives or portable media drives. However, the program isn't designed to do that, so we haven't held that fact against it. We tested it successfully in Windows 7.

The recoverability state of the file isn't shown, so you don't know whether it will be usable upon recovery. UndeleteMyFiles Pro is another free file recovery program. Don't let the name fool you — it's entirely free even though it says "Pro. Data Rescue. Compatible with Windows 7 and later, Data Rescue is a straightforward hard drive recovery tool with a useful Clone feature, which lets you duplicate a potentially failing drive onto a healthy drive to prevent data loss from occurring in the first place.

Wise Data Recovery. Puran File Recovery. The application is completely free and reliably recovers basic file formats. Just keep in mind that it was last updated in AnyRecover Data Recovery. Clearly inspired or perhaps even based on by EaseUS Data Recovery, this all-in-one hard drive recovery tool can address all kinds of data loss scenarios, including the recovery of RAW and formatted drives.

Thank you for your vote! Help Us Improve This Article. Was the provided information useful? Your vote is important to use! You've already voted! Key Points for Successful Hard Drive File Recovery You can pick the best hard disk recovery software available but fail to recover your data unless you keep in mind the following key points for successful recovery:. As soon as you realize that data loss has occurred, you should stop using the hard drive.

When the Windows operating system deletes a file or folder, it does not physically remove it from your hard drive. It simply marks the space occupied by the item as available for future use by the system.

Until the OS reuses this space, the deleted data can be restored with file recovery software. If the file deletion occurs on your main hard drive, you should download, install, and run hard disk recovery software on a USB drive to avoid overwriting the deleted data. You might only get one chance to recover your lost data. Use a hard disk recovery tool with a proven track record of successful data recovery and many positive user reviews.

Doing this runs the risk of overwriting or corrupting files as they are being recovered, making them permanently unrecoverable. If the data was stored on your main hard drive, consider using a removable USB drive to ensure a successful recovery. You should follow best practices and regularly create backups of your hard drive so that you can easily recover all lost files should you experience data loss.

In addition to backing up individual files, you can create byte-level backups and use them to recover your entire operating system, along with all installed applications, in the event of a catastrophic hard drive crash. External hard drive recovery tools can be used to recover data that has become inaccessible for the following reasons:.

Accidental deletion. Hard drive or partition corruption. However, you may encounter situations where even the best hard drive recovery software is unable to retrieve your data. To retrieve data from a physically damaged hard drive, you need to contact a professional data recovery center with specialized equipment and clean rooms. Search Google for a reliable recovery center. You will be asked to explain the problem and receive an estimate of recovery costs.

Ship your device to the recovery center. On receipt, technicians will examine the device and give you a firm recovery price. A reputable service will not charge you if they cannot successfully recover your data. Upon completion of the recovery, your data will be returned to you on a new storage device.

If you have lost valuable data and cannot restore it yourself, a data recovery center may be just what you need. It is a more expensive option than recovery software, so you will have to determine how much your data is worth to you. Using a service is probably your last resort for getting data back from a damaged drive. Frequently Asked Questions. Updated on Dec 17, by Pandora Recovery Team. What is the best hard drive data recovery software? Why do hard drives fail?

Hard drives can fail for a variety of reasons.