Best free data recovery software

1. Restoration File Recovery Freeware
2. Download Restoration File Recovery Tool
3. Download Free File Recovery Software
4. Restoration Software Free

Read on for our detailed analysis of each app

Unlike most file recovery tools, Recuva can recover files from damaged or newly formatted drives. Greater flexibility means greater chance of recovery. Deep scan for buried files. For those hard to find files, Recuva has an advanced deep scan mode that scours your drives to. File undelete utility Restoration is an easy to use and straight forward tool to undelete files that were removed from the recycle bin or directly deleted from within Windows. Upon start, you can scan for all files that may be recovered and also limit the results by entering a search term or extension.

There's nothing worse than discovering that you've lost files, either because you accidentally deleted them, or even because of a harddrive failure. It happens to most people at some point, and afterward you quickly learn the need to set up some form of sturdy backup solution.

However, even backups can fail for some reason or another, but whether it's your first time or if it's happened before it's still a horrible situation to face.

While there are paid-for file recovery solutions available there are also some free ones that might be worth trying out first.

After all, if you just accidentally deleted some files you needed instead there's a good chance you'll be able to recover them from your harddrive and that free data recovery software options might work for you.

Even still, note that some free data recovery utilities, while well-meaning, may not be powerful enough to do the job for more serious problems. So we've put together the best on the market so you can try and see which one works best for you.

In the meantime, consider backing up to the cloud with one of these cloud backup solutions, to provide better redundancy in future.

• We’ve also rounded up the best disk cloning software

• Want your company or services to be added to this buyer’s guide? Please email your request to desire.athow@futurenet.com with the URL of the buying guide in the subject line.

1. Recuva

Flexible free data recovery software for any emergency

One of the best things about Recuva is the wealth of ways to use it: manual scanning, wizard-driven scanning, and via the context menu.

For anyone who feels as though they need a little help using the software, the wizard is on hand to provide guidance, but there is also the option of taking manual control of the scanning and recovery process. The scan can be customized to look in particular locations, or for particular types of files, and Recuva uses a traffic light guide to how likely it is that you'll be able to recover an item intact.

You also have the option of right clicking a folder or the Recycle Bin if you know you have deleted a file from a particular location. It's all very easy, and the results speak for themselves.

Upgrading to Recuva Professional adds the ability to work with virtual hard drives, access to premium support, and automatic software updates. These are nice additions, but the free version of Recuva will be plenty for most users.

2. Wise Data Recovery

Intuitive data recovery software to get you out of sticky situations

When it comes to ease of use, it's hard to beat Wise Data Recovery. Although this free data recover software doesn't have a wizard-led interface, there are no complicated configuration settings to worry about either.

Tracking down recoverable data is a simple matter of selecting the drive you want to check and clicking 'Scan'. Alternatively, you can use keywords to search for recoverable files so you don’t have to wade through quite so many results.

Whichever route you choose, recoverable data is presented in an Explorer-like tree structure that makes it easy to tell where it was originally stored. Like all the best free data recovery software, Wise Data Recovery uses a traffic light system to indicate the health of files (and therefore how likely it is that you'll be able to recover them intact, and there's a file preview feature so you can identify files that have been detected.

You can recover individual files, or entire folders at once, but selecting numerous files in several locations means performing several operations.

3. PC Inspector File Recovery

Recover data from lost partitions if the interface doesn't put you off

PC Inspector File Recovery goes further than many data recovery tools in that it will detect partitions that have been lost, even if the boot sector or file system has been damaged or deleted. This could be a real life-saver in an emergency, potentially helping you get data back even if your hard drive is not visible within Windows.

Beginners might find the terminology and design of PC Inspector File Recovery intimidating, and even some more advanced users may find the workflow a little confusing to start with. Take some time to learn your way around it, and you'll find a powerful data recovery program – but one that seems to get better results with FAT and FAT32 drives.

4. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free

Finding recoverable data with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free is very simple: select a drive or folder and wait for a few minutes while it completes its scan.

You can browse through the recoverable data using a Windows Explorer style interface and filter them by type or opt to search for specific files. Data recovery is effective, but the Deep Scan option is very slow, so you'll need to be patient.

The installation of this software is a mixed experience. The installer, importantly, advises not to install to the same drive that you want to recover data from because this could overwrite data and render it unrecoverable. It also, sadly, tries to enrol you in a customer experience improvement program, without explaining what this entails.

It's worth noting that the free version only allows for the recovery of up to 2GB of data, so it's not going to be suitable for all circumstances, but it will be enough to get you out of most sticky situations.

5. TestDisk and PhotoRec

A powerful and flexible data two-part recovery toolkit

Presented as a pair of tools rather than a single integrated solution, TestDisk and PhotoRec together can recover data from both lost partitions and files.

TestDisk takes care of the partition side of things. The fact that it's a command line tool with no graphical interface might off-putting at first. If can set this to one side though, there's help on hand to guide you through the process of working with your drives. TestDisk offers support for so many file systems, it should cater for most eventualities.

PhotoRec is the component for recovering files. It's available with a command lint interface, but unlike TestDisk there's also a GUI for less confident users. It may not be as intuitive as some of the other recovery software in this listing, but it's effective.

PhotoRec is cross-platform and can be run as a portable app from a USB stick, which means you don't have to install it on your PC and risk accidentally overwriting the data you want to recover.

6. Stellar Data Recovery

Stellar Data Recovery is a free all-in-one data recovery software suite that offers a range of features. As with most programs, it can recover files of folders that have been accidentally deleted, even when emptied from the Recycle Bin.

However, additional options available include the ability to recover data from missing or lost partitions, not least due to having a corrupted harddrive. It can even recover data after a full system crash, even if the harddrive will no longer boot.

On top of this, Stellar Data Recovery can also recover files and folders that have been lost, deleted, or otherwise damaged by a computer virus or other malware.

Running the software is as simple as clicking 'select', then 'scan' then recovering the files you need. You can recover any file type, and even recover files from other storage media, such as USB drives and SD cards.

If this all sounds too good to be true then the caveat is that there's a 1GB limit for the free version of the software. To recover more you will need the standard edition which retails for $49.95 (£42) and allows unlimited data to be recovered.

Alternatively, there is a professional edition available which has advanced options, such as disk images and CD/DVD recovery.

• To avoid data loss, check out our guide to the best free backup software

Sooner or later, recovery will be a necessary task for every IT administrator. People lose data, either by accidental deletion or thanks to problematic partition tables. No matter how the data gets lost, you'll need a reliable tool to get the recovery job done. But you can't always rely on an installed tool and have to make use of a portable tool. Here are five tools that can help you with partition recovery and file recovery. All these tools are free and can be placed on a flash drive for portability.

Note: This list is also available as a photo gallery.

1: Portable Data Recovery

Portable Data Recovery (Figure A) is one of the Pendrive Apps and does a great job of recovering data from FAT, FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS partitions. It's less than 500K and can recover some compressed and encrypted files. Portable Data Recovery also includes a wipe tool that will allow you to permanently delete a file to protect deleted sensitive data. When you recover data, make sure you recover to a drive other than the one the data is recovered from.

Figure A

Portable Data Recovery

2: TestDisk

TestDisk (Figure B) is a partition recovery tool that can help you recover lost partitions and make bootable non-bootable drives. This is one of those tools you hope you never have to use, but when you do have to use it, you'll be glad you have it and hope it works. It does work well. However, the success of the tool depends upon how badly damaged the partitions are. TestDisk can fix a partition table, recover a deleted partition, rebuild or recover NTFS, FAT boot sectors, fix MFT, and undelete and/or copy files from NTFS, FAT, ext2, ext3 file systems.

Figure B

TestDisk

3: Recuva

Piriform's Recuva (Figure C) offers tons of features for a portable app of this nature. With it, you can undelete files, recover data from a damaged disk, recover deleted iPod music, and restore unsaved Word documents. Recuva also has an easy-to-use quick start wizard, can do deep scans, and can securely delete files.

Figure C

Recuva

4: Wise Data Recovery

Wise Data Recovery (Figure D

Restoration File Recovery Freeware

) allows you to recover Word documents, photos, email, audio, video, archives, and much more. What is unique about Wise Data Recover is that it will indicate the condition of the file to recover. You get immediate feedback after a scan indicating whether a file is Good, Poor, Very Poor, or Lost. Obviously, if a file is Lost, you won't be able to recover that file. But if the file is Good, you'll probably get that data back. The interface for Wise Data Recovery is clean and the app a snap to use.

Figure D

Wise Data Recovery

5: Restoration

Restoration (Figure E) allows you to easily restore files that were deleted from the Recycle bin or directly deleted from Windows. It lets you quickly scan upon app startup, limit search results with search strings (or extension), and securely wipe files beyond simple recovery. Restoration works with FAT, NTFS, and SD cards. Use caution when running this app, as it 'offers' to install third-party software. Pay close attention when running the executable.

Figure E

Restoration

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Your picks

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Data and partition recover is a tricky business. It's never a sure thing, so go into testing these apps with that in mind. Even if you're able to recover data, it's not always certain that it will be completely intact. Maybe you'll never need these tools. But if you do, it's good to know there are portable recovery apps available to use.

What portable recovery apps are in your toolkit? Share your favorite with other TechRepublic members.

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