Free file recover programs

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. 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. If you give feedback about the software to Microsoft, you give to Microsoft, without charge, the right to use, share and commercialize your feedback in any way and for any purpose. You will not give feedback that is subject to a license that requires Microsoft to license its software or documentation to third parties because Microsoft includes your feedback in them.

These rights survive this agreement. The software may collect information about you and your use of the software and send that to Microsoft. Your opt-out rights, if any, are described in the product documentation. Some features in the software may enable collection of data from users of your applications that access or use the software.

If you use these features to enable data collection in your applications, you must comply with applicable law, including getting any required user consent, and maintain a prominent privacy policy that accurately informs users about how you use, collect, and share their data. You agree to comply with all applicable provisions of the Microsoft Privacy Statement.

The software is licensed, not sold. Microsoft reserves all other rights. Unless applicable law gives you more rights despite this limitation, you will not and have no right to : a work around any technical limitations in the software that only allow you to use it in certain ways; b reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the software; c remove, minimize, block, or modify any notices of Microsoft or its suppliers in the software; d use the software for commercial, non-profit, or revenue-generating activities; e use the software in any way that is against the law or to create or propagate malware; or f share, publish, distribute, or lend the software, provide the software as a stand-alone hosted solution for others to use, or transfer the software or this agreement to any third party.

You must comply with all domestic and international export laws and regulations that apply to the software, which include restrictions on destinations, end users, and end use.

Microsoft is not obligated under this agreement to provide any support services for the software. The software may periodically check for updates, and download and install them for you. You may obtain updates only from Microsoft or authorized sources. Microsoft may need to update your system to provide you with updates. You agree to receive these automatic updates without any additional notice. Updates may not include or support all existing software features, services, or peripheral devices.

This Section applies if you live in or, if a business, your principal place of business is in the United States. If you and Microsoft have a dispute, you and Microsoft agree to try for 60 days to resolve it informally. Instead, a neutral arbitrator will decide. Class action lawsuits, class-wide arbitrations, private attorney-general actions, and any other proceeding where someone acts in a representative capacity are not allowed; nor is combining individual proceedings without the consent of all parties.

You and Microsoft agree to these terms. This agreement, and any other terms Microsoft may provide for supplements, updates, or third-party applications, is the entire agreement for the software. If you acquired the software in the United States or Canada, the laws of the state or province where you live or, if a business, where your principal place of business is located govern the interpretation of this agreement, claims for its breach, and all other claims including consumer protection, unfair competition, and tort claims , regardless of conflict of laws principles, except that the FAA governs everything related to arbitration.

If you acquired the software in any other country, its laws apply, except that the FAA governs everything related to arbitration. If not, you and Microsoft consent to exclusive jurisdiction and venue in the Superior Court of King County, Washington for all disputes heard in court excluding arbitration. This agreement describes certain legal rights. You may have other rights, including consumer rights, under the laws of your state, province, or country.

Separate and apart from your relationship with Microsoft, you may also have rights with respect to the party from which you acquired the software. This agreement does not change those other rights if the laws of your state, province, or country do not permit it to do so. For example, if you acquired the software in one of the below regions, or mandatory country law applies, then the following provisions apply to you: a Australia. You have statutory guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law and nothing in this agreement is intended to affect those rights.

SoftPerfect can be counted as one of the best undelete software for recovering your deleted, lost or corrupted files. After recovery, you can easily restore your files on any drive or device either be it your hard drive, floppy disk, USB hard drivers, USB flash drive, CF cards, SD cards or maybe some other.

Further, your data is encrypted as well as compressed during the restoration process. Moreover, this tool is available freely. Restoration is another file recovery software that is completely portable and totally lightweight which you can use very easily for recovering your programs on Windows PC. Further, you can easily sort your recovered data either with the file names, size of the files or as per the modification date of your documents.

You can also search here for your empty files as well. This data recovery tool is easily available for you on Windows app store which you can easily download and launch on your device. Further, this is a command-line app that allows you to recover all your deleted files from pen drives, local hard discs and from your SD cards as well. Here you can easily target keywords, file names, extensions or even file paths for recovering your files and documents.

Generally rated 4. Top 10 Best Free File Recovery Software for Windows 10 If you are looking for the best free file recovery software for Windows 10, on this page we will show you top 10 best free recovery software for you. Theo Lucia. Puran File Recovery Windows 2. Recuva Windows 3. Stellar Data Recovery Windows, Mac 5. Disk Drill Windows, Mac 6.