Best Data Recovery Programs for Windows
You probably have tried many free recovery programs, but unfortunately didn’t work for you. And you start searching on internet to find the best data recovery programs .
Don’t worry, you came to the right place. We have put together a list of the top data recovery programs for Windows, that can help you in cases you lost files and can recover the data back on your PC.
Recuva is a data restoration program designed to recover lost files on Windows computers. It’s available in both a free and a paid professional version and can come in handy if you discover that you have inadvertently deleted files from your machine.
The software is easy to use and provides a Wizard to guide the user through the process of selecting data recovery options.
Recuva can recover pictures, music, documents, videos, emails or any other file type you’ve lost. And it can recover from any rewriteable media you have: memory cards, external hard drives, USB sticks and more!
While only available for Windows users, Recuva gets the job done.
Support file types include:
- Documents: Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF
- Images: BMP, JPEG, JPG, GIF, PNG, TIFF and RAW
- Audio: AAC, M4A, MP3, OGG, MP1, MP2, AIF, WAV and WMA
- Videos: AVI, FLV, 3GP, MOV, MPG, MP4 and WMV
- Documents: DOC, DOCX, ODG, ODP, ODF, ODT, ODS, PPT, PPTX, PDF, XLS and XLSX
- Archives: 7Z, CAB, BZIP2, GZIP, RAR, TAR, WIM, X2, and ZIP
For recovery emails, the program can support Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Windows Mail to recover deleted emails from.
Recuva can be used to recover files from the following file systems:
- Windows: FAT 12, FAT 16, FAT 32, NTFS, NTFS5, NTFS + EFS.
- Removable Storage: ExFat
Free version:
There’s actually a free version with no limits on how much data you can recover. It’s no wonder Recuva has been generating a bit of attention since they enter the market.
Pro version:
The program offers extremely affordable packages that give you access to feeatures like data retrieval function, Wizard and Advanced, the deep scan, and secure overwriting. The program allows access to a data retrieval system that doesn’t cost hundreds of dollars, but will still get the job done just the same.
Strengths:
- User-Friendly.
- Universal: The program uses Windows software to run, and this is a software that is available on most computers.
- Affordable Price.
- Fast and Efficient.
- Easy Download and Installation.
- The program has the capability to recover all types of files.
- Secure Overwriting.
Weaknesses:
- Not always reliable to recover files.
- Some files may appear to be unrecoverable.
- No help functions built into the program.
Photo credit: Minitool
MiniTool Partition Recovery can recover not only deleted files, but an entire partition. It is very easy to use for basic operation, and it is mainly focused on its partition level recovery approach, which is good for the less experienced users.
The software is allows you to recover lost data in an easy recovery process. This app works for Windows and Mac computers.
This professional Data Recovery program recover files lost due to deletion, damages, formatting or disk or drive, inaccessibility to the disk partition, hidden files, virus attack. This software has the ability to recover files from hard drives, USB drives, CD, DVD, IDE/SATA/SCSI hard drives, and other storage drives.
Support file types include:
- CAD: DWG, DXF, DWF, IFC, STL
- Images: JPEG, JPG, JPE, BMP, TIFF, TIF, GIF, PNG, EMF, WMF, WEBP
- Documents: DOC, DOCX, ODG, ODP, ODF, ODT, ODS, PPT, PPTX, PDF, XLS and XLSX
- Others: HTM, HTML, MHTML, MHT, XHTML,MSG, PST, OFT, EML, PSD: PSD, EPS: PS, EPS
MiniTool can be used to recover files from the following file systems:
- Windows: FAT 12/16/32, exFAT, NTFS, NTFS5, Ext 2/3/4
- Mac: HFS+
- Others: ISO9660, and UDF
Free version:
MiniTool Partition Wizard offers a free edition for various products. Free version can recover up to 1GB. It provides a 30-days money-back guarantee for licensed products. MiniTool Partition Wizard Free helps users to manage disks and partitions, check file system, align SSD partition, migrate OS to SSD, clone disk, convert MBR to GPT, etc.
Pro version:
The pricing starts at $39 for Partitition Wizard. Power Data Recovery price starts at $69. Photo Recovery price starts at $49. Mobile Recovery price starts at $49 for iOS devices and at $39 for Android Devices.
Strengths:
- Undeleted Recovery.
- Recover lost data from CD or DVD drives.
- Digital Media Recovery from digital media devices such as digital cameras and camcorders.
- Damaged Partition Recovery.
- Lost Partition Recovery.
Weaknesses:
- When scanning data, this tool will not be able to skip a broken sector of your drive.
- It doesn’t provide information during scan or data retrieval process.
Photo credit: Disk Drill
Disk Drill is one of the best and top rated data recovery programs in the market. Its excellent features, quick speed, tremendous data recovery ability and ease of use, make it the most demanding data recovery software.
The Deep Scan feature can reconstruct lost data from bits and pieces making it possible to recover files in conditions when file recovery would otherwise be considered impossible.
Support file types include:
- Documents: Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF
- Images: JPEG, PNG, RAW, Photoshop, Illustrator
- Audio: MP3, WAV, AIFF, AAC, Ogg
- Videos: MPEG-4, QuickTime, AVI, WMV
- Archives: Zip, Gzip, RAR, Stuffit
Disk Drill can be used to recover files from the following file systems:
- Windows: FAT, NTFS
- Mac: HFS, HFS+
- Removable Storage: ExFat
Free version:
Disk Drill recovery software is available in several editions. The most popular is the freely available Basic package for personal use. The Basic package enables users to preview files that are recoverable as well as recover previously protected data. The free package lets you recover deleted data up to 500MB per computer.
Pro version:
You can grab the pro version (Mac, Windows) if you wish to recover the files without any restriction.The PRO version provides full functionality, allowing a user to recover files on various media without any restrictions. The commercial package is called Enterprise and it comes with a license with extended features and permissions such as enabling multiple simultaneous users to run the data recovery software as a commercial service.
Strengths:
- Very comprehensive file and partition recovery with variety of options
- Complete support for HFS, HFS+, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, EXT3 and EXT4
- Easy to use UI
- Data recovery is effective as verified in our tests
- Ability to protect your OSX drive from data loss by using snapshotting (Recovery Vault) and multiple copies of files (Guaranteed Recovery)
- Ability to view disk usage
- Ability to backup drives into DMG files
Weaknesses:
- Unintuitive filetype selection UI
- Mixed recovery results depending on file
- No preferences/settings to choose from
- Limited contact options
Photo credit: Stellar Data Recovery
Stellar Data Recovery offers a user-friendly interface, fast and thorough scans and a wide range of options. You can’t go wrong with choosing this solution.
The features include the ability to recover data from external hard drives, USB flash drives and damaged CDs or DVDs. The tool also supports cloning, which can be used to copy your entire file system.The software support operating systems: Windows, Mac or Linux.
Support file types include:
- Documents: Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF
- Images: JPEG, PNG, RAW, Photoshop, Illustrator
- Audio: MP3, WAV, AIFF, AAC, Ogg
- Videos: MPEG-4, QuickTime, AVI, WMV
- Archives: Zip, Gzip, RAR, Stuffit
Stellar Data Recovery can be used to recover files from the following file systems:
- Windows: FAT, NTFS
- Mac: HFS, HFS+
- Removable Storage: ExFat
Free version:
If you decide to go the free route instead, you can recover a maximum of 1TB of files, and no one file can be more than 25MB in size.
Pro version:
A typical Stellar license applies to a single device and is good for life. For IT professionals, there are toolkit licenses available.
- Standard: $49.99
- Professional: $79.99
- Premium: $99.99 (regularly $179.99)
- Technician: $199 (regularly $299)
- Toolkit: $299 (regularly $499)
Strengths:
- Performs recovery on a wide range of devices including hard disks, memory cards, smartphones, and USB drives.
- Simple to use and quick to download.
- An extensive list of helpful features that enable quick recovery of lost files.
- Preview feature that shows available files prior to attempting recovery.
Weaknesses:
- Relatively expensive
- No way to scan for specific files or file types
- Deep scan results weren’t great
- UI is pretty basic
- Scanning times were inconsistent
Photo credit: R-Studio
R-Studio is a family of powerful, cost-effective disk recovery software. Originally developed by R-Tools Technology, Inc. for experienced data recovery professionals, R-Studio has been redesigned as a scalable, user-friendly all-in-one data recovery tool.
R-Studio is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It can perform data recovery from local disks, removable disks, heavily corrupted disks, unbootable disks, or clients connected to LAN and Internet.
This is a high quality data recovery program but there is less search capability as compared to other products. There is need of user friendly interface so that users can be able to understand it very easily.
Devices Supported
- Windows
- Linux
- Mac
- Web-based
Support file types include:
- Documents: DOC/DOCX, XLS/XLSX, PPT/PPTX, PDF, HTML/HTM etc..
- Images: PG/JPEG, TIFF/TIF, PNG, BMP, GIF, PSD, etc..
- Audio: M4A, MP3, WAV, WMA, APE, MID/MIDI, OGG, AAC, RealAudio, FLV, MKV, MPG, M4V, WMV,APE and more.
- Videos: AVI, MOV, MP4, M4V, WMV, MKV, FLV, SWF, MPG, MPEG
- Archives: Zip, Gzip, RAR
R-Studio can be used to recover files from the following file systems:
- Windows: FAT/NTFS, ReFS/ReFS2+
- Mac: HFS/HFS+, APFS
- Removable Storage: ExFat
- Linux: UFS1/UFS2/Ext2FS/3FS/4FS
Lacks support for less common file systems, such as XFS, ZFS, JFS, Novell NWFS/NSS, VMware VMFS, ReiserFS.
Free version:
No free version available
Pro version:
R-Studio data recovery has a pricing plan for Disk Cloning and Backup, File Repair, and PC Privacy. The license can be purchased for a fixed price of $79.99.
Strengths:
- It supports recovering files from devices with unknown file systems, including DVD, floppy drive, USB drive, memory stick and more.
- It is capable of recovering file names and paths that were deleted to recycle bin.
- It allows you to customize your known file types hence let you find these files easier.
- Multiple OS supported: Windows, Mac, Linux, and web-based devices.
Weaknesses:
- Confusing interface
- R-studio doesn’t have a pause button
- The price is a bit expensive
Data loss is one of the worst problems one can have with their machine. That’s why it is important to choose the right tool to use when recovering your lost or deleted files.
Internet search will return hundreds of data recovery tools and it can be a real challenge to find a good tool.
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