Best free file recovery windows

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.

Tree View and Detailed View are the two viewing perspectives you can choose from. You can also preview files, which sounds nice, but all it does is restores the data to a temporary folder and then opens it. This tool takes a snapshot of your entire computer, places all the data in one file, and then lets you work through that file to find deleted data that you want to restore. This is very handy because after the image file has been made, you don't need to worry that new data written to your hard drive will replace any important deleted files.

There's a nice search option in this program that lets you search by file location, type, size, and attributes. Something we really didn't like is that the recovery process doesn't tell you if a file is in a good state of being recoverable, like most of the other software in this list. However, we also tested v3. Similar to some of the others in this list, this data recovery program is completely free to use, but you're limited to recovering just 2 GB of data.

If you need to undelete a large video file, or lots of data, you're better off picking something else from this list. That, or pay for the full edition. The program itself is free from ads and simple to understand. The start screen has you choose a hard drive or folder to recovery files from, or you can pick the Desktop or Recycle Bin.

The website says that it supports over one thousand file types, so there's a good chance it includes all the normal files you're needing to undelete. It can recover deleted files from a wide variety of devices beyond your typical hard drive, including cameras, memory cards, and music players. A few things worth mentioning that we like: the search tool is instant, you can sort the column headings to find the largest deleted files and to group file types like to list all MP4s next to each other , and the settings let you define what to search for if not everything e.

We tested data recovery with this program in Windows 11, and it worked just as advertised. It's also said to run on Windows 10, 8, and 7. Unlike some file recovery programs from this list, this one needs to be installed to your computer before you're able to use it. This isn't the best way to work with this type of software because the install may overwrite your deleted files and make them less likely to be recoverable. Another downside to Power Data Recovery is that you can only recover 1 GB of data before you have to upgrade to a paid version.

However, we do like the fact that the program finds deleted files quickly and that you can recover files from both internal drives and USB devices, as well as easily undelete data from the desktop, Recycle Bin, or a specific folder. It's reportedly available for Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7. 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. It can recover up to 2 GB data. Recuva free data recovery software works in all loss scenarios such as accidental formatting, deletion, virus attack, corruption, etc.

This software offers pretty good chances at data recovery even though there is no progress on its updates. All types of documents, emails, photos, videos, archive files, and more can be retrieved using this free data recovery software. It also supports the secure wiping of data from drives and PCs using military standard deletion techniques. PhotoRec is an open-source multi-platform data recovery software.

This free file recovery software can extract lost or deleted videos, documents, archives, photos, and more. TestDisk is a companion data recovery software to PhotoRec.

It restores data from missing or deleted partitions. This free software works on loss scenarios such as accidental deletion, virus attack, formatting, etc. Recoverit Version 9. The software works in different data loss scenarios such as accidental partition formatting, file deletion, drive corruption, and more.

It restores photos, files, documents, photos, etc. It supports recovery for more than kinds of file types and formats. You may see a preview of your files before recovering them. However, the free version only offers data retrieval up to MB.

The software also lets you search the files specifically by type. It lets you limit searches by applying filter. You can search individually for music, images, videos, documents, etc.

Files of a specific extension can also be searched here. You can limit searches by applying size limit as well. It lets you search with exact file size, smaller than a files size, or greater than a file size. Scanning will list all deleted files and then you have to save selected files in a destination drive. Recovery Toolbox File Undelete Free is a freeware to search and save deleted files. It lets you restore your deleted files in 3 steps only.

Scanning a drive displays a list of deleted files from that drives. Selected, all, or good files can be restore to a destination drive and folder. Toolwiz File Recovery is a free and simple recovery tool. You can select a folder to scan to find all deleted files from them. It will search and list all deleted files. You just have to choose the files to save them in a destination folder.

It can find and restore even those files which were deleted due to viruses, hardware failure, malicious elements, and operating system crashes. Lazesoft Data Recovery is a free software to recover file system. It lets you run scan for all deleted files for a specific location. A list of all deleted files will be enlisted to recover after the scan.

Select files which you want to restore and save them in a destination folder. If you have a long list it gets difficult to find certain files to recover. In this case, you can apply filter based on file size, modified date, state, etc. It also displays preview of images, so you can select them by their preview as well. This file recovery program can search for accidentally deleted files from hard drive, formatted partition, emptied recycle bin, crashed disk, etc.

It helps you recover those file which are deleted due to system failure, virus, unexpectedly shutdown, etc. It is highly recommended to not to save files to the same drive from where the files are deleted. It is due to the fact that it will give erroneous result and corrupt files will be stored. Free File Recovery is another freeware to recover those files which were accidentally deleted from your PC.

It can recover deleted files from recycle bin, memory cards, mp3 players, floppy disks, etc. If files were deleted because of viruses, malware, bugs, crashes, etc.

You can scan and search a list of all files deleted from a hard drive. It lets you customize scan, so you can run a scan for specific file type.

Restore selected files to a destination folder after scan. Make sure that destination folder is not the same hard drive. This file recovery software can recover various files, such as music files, videos, documents, emails, etc. Puran File Recovery is a simple freeware to restore deleted files from a hard drive, memory card, pen drive, CD, DVD, and other storage devices. It scans a drive to recover deleted files from it.

It lets you recover various file types, such as: photos, videos, music, documents, etc. Scanning process provides you a list of deleted files. If you want to scan certain folder or file types then you can run a customized scan.

If you have no idea about file types and location then run a deep scan to find out all deleted files from a specified location. You have to pick files from the list which you want to recover. Save them in a destination folder to restore. You can preview a file before recovery; it will help you find exact files you are looking for. When you are prompted to allow the app to make changes to your device, select Yes. In the Command Prompt window, enter the command in the following format:.

There are three modes you can use to recover files: Default, Segment, and Signature. Default mode examples Recover a specific file from your C: drive to the recovery folder on an E: drive.

Recover jpeg and png photos from your Pictures folder to the recovery folder on an E: drive. Recover any file with the string "invoice" in the filename by using wildcard characters. Recover ZIP files zip, docx, xlsx, ptpx, and so on from your C: drive to the recovery folder on an E: drive.

Recovering files from non-NTFS file systems is only supported in signature mode. If you're not sure, start with the default mode. Signature mode extension groups and file types. Scans for files with specific file types. Separate multiple entries by using commas. For a list of extension groups and corresponding file types, see the table, "Signature mode extension groups and file types" in the section, "About modes and file systems".

If you see the following message: "Destination disk is full, please free up space before resuming: R esume, S kip file, or A bort", Free up drive space on the destination drive, and then choose one of the options. If you used default or segment mode, try again in signature mode if the file type is supported. It's possible that the free space was over-written, especially on a solid state drive SSD. Windows Apps Insider Preview More Regular mode examples Recover your Documents folder from your C: drive to the recovery folder on an E: drive.

PNG The source and destination drives must be different. The following information can help you decide which file system you have and which mode to use. Deciding which mode to use Use the following table to help you decide which mode to use. General syntax The following table summarizes what each advanced switch is used for.

All Destination-drive: Specifies the storage device and folder on which to put the recovered files. Summary of syntax and switches for general users. Summary of syntax and switches for advanced users. All Advanced syntax The following table summarizes what each advanced switch is used for. Segment Signature File extension filter list The following file types are filtered from results by default. Can you give some tips to help me use the correct syntax?

If a file or folder name has spaces, surround it with quotes.