If you have not thought of making regular backups with one of the cloning software recommended in a previous article (link to the article to be put online), our selection of the best data recovery software should interest you…
Quick tip before you start: NEVER save new data on your storage medium containing files to recover! You will therefore need to install the chosen software on a healthy computer before restoring the files on the faulty storage medium containing deleted files.
Recuva
One of the best free solutions to recover your files is obviously Recuva, from the publisher Piriform, already known for its world famous Ccleaner. Available only for Windows, Recuva is very simple to use since it guides you step by step through the different stages of recovering your files. Although it is very effective, it does not always allow you to recover 100% of the lost data, but it does tell you fairly precisely by a color code, which can be saved and which is beyond recovery.
Conversely, Recuva can also be used to permanently delete a file, without the possibility of restoring it.
>> Download Recuva
PC Inspector File Recovery
Free and in French, PC Inspector File Recovery does not just restore lost files from your hard drives, it automatically detects all connected storage media and partitions, whether damaged or empty, or not detected by Windows. Whether it is a removable hard disk, a USB key or a networked computer using NTFS or FAT12 / 16/32, PC Inspector File Recovery will identify them in order to recover the documents that can be saved . Accessible for more experienced users, PC Inspector File Recovery has a slightly less user-friendly interface than Recuva, resolutely geared towards novices and the general public.
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>> Download PC Inspector File Recovery
TestDisk & PhotoRec
TestDisk & PhotoRec is free software available on all Windows, Mac and Linux platforms, and can be used on command lines.
Not always very practical for the uninitiated, TestDisk & PhotoRec is nevertheless very effective since it allows you to recover lost partitions and to locate disks not detected by your operating system.
This software is also able to restore lost documents on camera memory cards, and other removable media.
>> Download Testdisk and Photorec
Disk Drill
Available in French and initially intended for MacOS, Disk Drill is now available for Windows and has the advantage of presenting a simple and refined interface, accessible to all. After a phase of analysis of your hard drive and your connected storage devices, Disk Drill presents itself as a file explorer and offers you to recover up to 500 MB of data for free and copy them to another medium. Beyond that, a paid Pro plan is available.
You thus have the possibility of navigating in your damaged storage space as if everything worked normally, and even of filtering the elements to recover according to their nature (image, video, document, archive…) but also to sort the results according to of their modification date.
Simple, efficient but paying, Disk Drill is one of the most effective solutions.
>> Download Disk Drill
Glary Undelete
If you do not know Glary Undelete, you may have already used Glary Utilities, a repair and optimization utility for your PC, from the same Glarysoft editor.
Also offering other free software for Windows, Glarysoft offers with Glary Undelete, the possibility of restoring recently deleted files on your hard drive but also on removable storage devices. Going perhaps further than its competitors, Glary Undelete is able to recover compressed or encrypted documents.
>> Download Glary Undelete
Wondershare Recoverit
Windows and MacOS compatible, Wondershare Recoverit guides you step by step towards solving your lost or deleted file problems. We appreciate its simple and ergonomic graphic interface, which makes it accessible to all, as well as its filters to precisely target the file or files to recover. Capable of restoring a large number of file types, this data recovery utility has a preview system, which can be used before starting the restoration process. Just select the folder, hard drive or other external storage device to start the scan. The files found are listed according to their type to more quickly target the deleted file you are looking for.
>> Download Wondershare Recoverit
Power Data Recovery Free Edition
Like all software in this selection, Power Data Recovery Free Edition allows you to restore files deleted inadvertently or because of a system error. Available for Windows systems from Windows 7 onwards, Power Data Recovery Free Edition offers the advantage of previewing more than 70 file types before proceeding with file recovery.
Quick analysis and free recovery of files up to 1 GB, this utility is ultra simple to handle and allows you to start the recovery of certain files by checking a simple box.
>> Download Power Data Recovery Free Edition
rstudio
RStudio is a complete and flexible utility, which facilitates the recovery of lost or deleted data. Compatible on Windows, MacOS and Linux, this software supports many file systems and restores many types of files (archives, encrypted documents, videos, etc.). From a first complete analysis of the selected hard disk, R-Studio graphically displays the detected elements which can then be recovered and saved on a local disk or connected remotely. Efficient and quick to use, it allows you to restore deleted files and whose recycle bin has been emptied, during a virus attack, a machine crash, when your partition has been formatted or in the event of a disk hard not detected by the system.
>> Download RStudio
Wise Data Recovery
Already known for its Wise Care 365 which brings together many tools for cleaning and optimizing your PC, the editor WiseCleaner also offers recovery software for deleted data: Wise Data Recovery. No matter how you lost your files, it restores most file formats to a wide variety of storage media and file systems. The free version of Wise Data Recovery only allows you to perform a quick scan of your hard drive to recover recently deleted files, but the pro paid version offers more in-depth analysis. This ergonomic and practical utility presents a file explorer interface and has a search box and file type filters, to find a particular document more quickly.
>> Download Wise Data Recovery
Easeus Data Recovery Wizard
Already known for its data backup software, EASEUS Todo Backup Home Edition, EaseUS also offers data recovery utilities.
For Windows, MacOS but also for Android and iOS, Easeus Data Recovery offers you to restore your files, whether they are accidentally deleted files, a recycle bin emptied by mistake, a system crash, formatting your hard drive, virus infection, etc.
Supporting more than 1000 file formats, the editor offers a free version of its software that can recover up to 2 GB. Beyond that, an unlimited Pro plan is offered.
>> Download Easeus Data Recovery
Stellar Data Recovery
Like all the utilities in this selection, Stella Data Recovery offers to restore any type of file, deleted or lost, on many storage media and file systems, regardless of how your files were deleted.
It also offers 2 analysis systems, one fast and the other more in-depth, as well as a very complete filter and file search tool.
A photo restore module on your smartphone is also included to recover photos that you may have accidentally deleted on your mobile.
>> Download Stella Data Recovery
RecoveRX
Edited by a storage media manufacturer, RecoveRx works under Windows (from Windows 7) and MacOS X (10.7 and newer) and allows you to restore files deleted by mistake. All types of digital files can be recovered: photos, videos, audio files, documents, etc. On any medium: memory card, USB key, SSD or external hard drives, etc. Completely free, it also supports full or quick formatting of storage media.
It is strongly recommended that you save your recovered files to a different storage space than the one being restored.
>> Download RecoverX