File Recovery Programs Pc
EaseUS free data recovery software can help recover data after accident deletion. Extremely easy and safe free file recovery software for PC/laptop/Server.
We all know the importance of making regular backups, but that's of little comfort to anyone – even those with good backup regimens – who suddenly find themselves confronted by the stomach-churning feeling of data loss. That's why it's always a good idea to have a reliable free file recovery program on hand for emergencies. Whether it's a virus infection, a hardware failure, or just human error, it's all too easy to lose vital files. As soon as you've become aware of data loss, it's critical you stop using the drive affected immediately. Whether the drive itself is failing or you've simply deleted a file accidentally, this is the golden moment when you may be able to get your data back before it's gone for good. We've picked five of the best free file recovery tools in the business.
Just pick the one closest to your requirements and with a bit of luck (and no small measure of help from the app involved), you could yet save your files. Ads for premium version makes things as easy and stress-free as possible. It opens by default to a file recovery wizard, which advanced users can subsequently skip. From here, choose the type of file you're trying to recover (picture, documents, compressed, emails and all files are among those on offer) and it'll focus its search accordingly. You can target your search to a specific location or search all your drives, and you can opt to choose a quick or deep scan. The latter takes much longer, but flushes out more results. Then click 'Start' and wait for the scan to complete.
Once done, your results are presented, with each recovered file given a rating depending on its condition. You can recover files direct from here or switch to Advanced Mode for a frankly better view, offering file preview, information and a peek at the file's header. No deep scans If you’ve ever used IObit Uninstaller or Advanced SystemCare, it’ll be no surprise that is refreshingly easy to use, with an intuitive interface that makes file recovery as painless as possible. Select either the types of file you’re looking for (including documents, videos.
Music and pictures) and the drive where they were stored, then click ‘Scan’. There’s no ‘deep’ option, but scans are fast and turned up the files we were looking for. IObit Undelete gives you an estimate of recoverability (excellent or poor) to indicate whether restoration is likely to be successful. Hovering your mouse pointer over the eye icon on the right lets you preview the file if possible, and restoring it is as simple as checking the appropriate box, clicking ‘Recover’ and choosing where to save it.
IObit Undelete might not offer as much granular control as Recuva, but it’s quick, effective and easy to use – ideal if you’ve lost something important and panic is setting in. Highly recommended. Interface may be intimidating Our second favorite free file recovery tool is often overlooked. Scores major points because it's capable of recovering data from a wide array of drives, including 2TB+ drives rescued from a fried external drive enclosure with proprietary formatting (it's a long story). DMDE may not be the simplest tool to use, but it's one of the most effective, and will help you with the basics. DMDE works by letting you select a drive and then identifies all mountable partitions, with the most obvious choices highlighted.
If successful, you're then shown a File Explorer-like view to browse the drive and recover what data you need from it. There are restrictions on the way you can recover data from the free version, but there's no limit to how much you recover. If you want a simpler and faster recovery process, just upgrade to the Express or Standard edition. Help files are limited are a handy pair of file recover tools that come as a set.
Don't be fooled by the name – PhotoRec recovers far more than just photos. It works with a wide range of file systems and media, from hard drives to CD/DVD, USB flash drives and memory cards, and there are builds for Mac and Linux, giving you flexibility to recover data from a different computer if necessary. It also has deep knowledge of over 200 file formats, which helps with reconstructing lost files, and comes packaged with TestDisk, which can be used to recover partitions. The main complication is the user interface – it's a command line affair, with no mouse support. At first glance this appears complicated, but the program steps you through the process via a series of menu screens, and because it mounts the target drive in read-only mode, there's no danger of data being lost if you take a wrong turn – you can't write data to the drive you're recovering from, for example.
Can be sluggish One of the most frightening data loss experiences is when an entire drive or partition goes missing. Often this can be traced to an accidentally deleted partition or one where the partition header has corrupted. If the issue is this simple, getting the partition back can be done quickly and easily without leaving Windows using. Just fire it up, select the drive containing your lost partition, then choose whether to scan the entire disk or just a portion of it (say the part where your missing partition should be).
Choose between full and quick scans, then sit back and let the program do its work. Don't panic if it appears to become non-responsive, just be patient and eventually it'll list all detected partitions on the drive. Select all of them – including your missing partition – and click 'Finish' to restore it. You can also double-click a partition to view its file contents – perfect for verifying it's the one you're after.
When it comes to choosing the best data recovery software for recovering deleted or lost files from storage media like PC hard drives, USB sticks, memory cards, etc., we're bound and determined to find out which provider is offering the most value. Five major components make up a great file recovery program in our opinion, and those are 1) Security, 2) Quality, 3) Ease of use, 4), Compatibility, and 5), Technical support. We'll cover why these five factors matter in this review later, but here are the top recovery programs that won the test and earned our trust in 2017. Please note: these programs are for Windows PCs only. If you use an Apple Mac computer, see the we've reviewed. Also, check out our recommended tools to retrieve files from, or phones and tablets.Below, you'll find our expert reviews, but you can also click the links above to get the software and start retrieving your lost files right away.
Why We Chose These Five Criteria? Security.
Whether it contains malware. This is always the number one thing we check to make sure a downloadable file (in.exe format) does not include any malicious process. We ran and to test whether the program is safe to use. We also uploaded the downloadable file to Valkyrie — an advanced file verdict system for threats analysis. Whether it performs safe operations. If the software is free of virus and malware, we then install the application on our PCs and start testing.
The next thing about security we check is whether the application only performs read-only procedures during the scanning process. This is important because you don't want any third-party software to write extra content to the disk drive from which you want to recover your files. Quality.
Supported file types. If you accidentally formatted a hard drive or a digital media card, you want all your files (pics, video, songs, etc.) back, right? Therefore, the file rescue tools should support recovering as many types of file types as possible, so you don't have to try other alternatives. Supported storage devices. We'd have to admit it, many programs actually don't support recovering files from external devices. Therefore, they are useless if you need to get files back from a flash drive or an external HDD. We all know these days file loss happens more often on removable media than on PCs.
Time required to complete the scan. We understand the anxiety even panic, when users realize they've deleted something important to their life or work. Obviously, you don't want to spend the whole day simply waiting for a drive scanning process to complete. The program should perform high-speed scanning, or offer flexile scanning modes for end users to choose. File preview & quality. When the scan process is over, the program should be able to allow users to preview thumbnails of found files, because this helps you to quickly check if they are the items you want to bring back. Also once they are recovered, quality of recovered files should be identical to the originals.
Ease of Use Usability is another factor we take into account in evaluating whether a recovery software is worth trying. Because end users of this kind of computer programs are usually not tech-savvy. The easier and simpler the software interface is designed, the better a user is able to handle it. A program does not have to be well-decorated with fancy icons, but it has to offer a decent UX (User Experience). Given the complex nature of backup and recovery, some instructions or warnings should be given before users intend to select or click any buttons. Also, software crash is unacceptable, though it's hard to develop a bug-free program.
At the end of the day you get everything ready, you don't want to see the software doesn't work as it's advertised due to frequent crashes. This is also an indicator whether a piece of software is poorly developed or truly great, which is surely worth exploring in our tests. Windows Compatibility This factor directly reflects if the software is being maintained and kept up-to-date.
Not only an outdated program has compatibility issue running on latest Windows operating system (as of 2017, it's Windows 10), but we suspect it would have security concerns as well. Bottom line - a good PC file recovery software should be compatible with common Windows OS, including the latest Windows 10. Technical Support Backup and recovery may sound easy, but it's actually very hard because the process involves lots of advanced computer expertise. A well-designed computer program usually costs a team of developers hundreds (if not thousands) of hours coding. It's common that end users may have questions or encounter issues during the process. It would be of great help if the developers/providers can extend their support via email, live chat, or by phone, etc.
Also, we give more weigh to those programs that offer troubleshooting tips and tutorials on their official websites. What Is The Best Data Recovery Software in 2017?
We've tested dozens of recovery software and come up with the following seven best options. Due to the nature of data backup and restore, and the complexities of data loss scenario you're facing, your results may vary. Also, it's worth noting again, that if your PC has crashed or is unable to start, we recommend. 1. Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery.
Is our top choice thanks to its comprehensiveness and great support. It features recovery of nearly 300 file types (Outlook emails included) from any NTFS, FAT and ExFAT based storage devices. The best part is that with Stellar Phoenix, you can save and resume a scan image, which means you don't have to sit in front of your PC waiting for the scan to complete if the partition is large (e.g.
File Recovery Program Corrupted Hard Drive
A 1TB external drive); Instead, you can save scan progress and resume whenever you want. Stellar Phoenix offers excellent technical support via knowledge articles, emails, chats, and phone calls. Secures the second place of our best data rescue software recommendations. It's nearly as powerful as Stellar Phoenix, as reflected in these three standard modes: Recover Files, Recover Drives, and Recover Photos, which are li sted on the main interface of this program.
We highly recommend photographers and videographers to try this rescue tool if you have some specific media files to recover from your digital camera (memory card). Remo offers tons of useful information such as tech specifications and video tutorials on their site. If you have any questions or concerns, you can also send an email or have an online chat with their support team. Is also one of the best recovery programs for Windows. It was primarily designed for advanced users to rescue inaccessible files from RAID storage or damaged media, but the recent upgrades also make it perfect for basic users to recover files deleted from PC or external drives as well as from raw, corrupted or non-mounting partitions. We put it in the third place because we still think it's more suitable for professional use.
If you are a computer technician and wants to rescue files for a client, you won't go wrong with EaseUs. Is another great option. Like its name indicates, it's a tool aimed at recovering deleted or lost files from disk drives (e.g. USB key, external HDD, etc.).
Munsoft, the maker, claims that the program supports recovering about 100 file types. Compared to the above recommendations, it's less powerful. But the program stands out in its multi-language support. It's one of the few tools that incorporates five languages (English, French, Spanish, German, Turkish) into its interface, which makes it a breeze if you are a non-English speaker. They offer customer support via emails.
File Recovery Programs Free
Claims it's capable of recovering 550+ file formats (documents, photos, videos, audio, emails, archives, etc.) from both internal PC hard drive and external storage devices. While it's unrealistic for us to prepare so many files to test, we tried our best. We are not impressed by this program because it froze on scan and the remaining time wasn't accurate.
What we like about it is its ease of use. It has a friendly guide once you launch the program, until you come to this four modes (see the image above). Wondershare offers many useful help tutorials, and their customer service (via emails) is prompt and professional. Is another nice solution. What we like about the program is its user interface design which makes the scan and recovery process simple. The three main recovery modes are self-explanatory: Deleted File Recovery, Deep Scan Recovery, and Lost Partition Recovery.
It's a good program, though not as powerful as its competition, as it failed to retrieve JPEG images in our test. Learn more from. Nevertheless, we recommend it if you need to recover documents or rescue documents from problematic hard drives. Disclaimer: this best data recovery software review is primarily based mostly on (1) our experience in using and testing the programs and (2) the expertise of the experts with whom we consult and (3) the information provided by the manufacturers. We strive to test each feature of the recommended tools above, but we are unable to test them all due to the complex nature of disk backup and restoration. As such, please remember that these recommended tools are our opinions, and we encourage to contact technical support of respective providers or computer technicians to handle your data rescue needs if you are not skilled or comfortable to deal with the situation.