I’ve arranged these programs according to how user-friendly they were and how valuable their features were. For our top picks, start at the top and work your way down the list if you have other ideas.

1 Recuva

What We Like

• Lots of advanced options
• A wizard walkthrough makes it easy to use
• Works on most Windows operating systems

Review of Recuva

Without a doubt, Recuva is the greatest free data recovery software program out there. Although it has many optional complex features, it is also incredibly simple to use. I often suggest it to others who are interested in purchasing one of these products.

It is capable of retrieving data from memory cards, BD/DVD/CDs, external drives (such as USB drives), and hard disks. You can even restore files from your iPod using this software!

It’s simple to undelete a file just as to delete one! If you need to recover a file, I strongly advise you to try Recuva first.

You may undelete files from Windows 11, 10, 8 & 8.1, 7, Vista, and XP with this free program from Piriform. I used v1.53 to test file recovery on Windows 11.

Download for Windows

2 Wise Data Recovery

What We Like

• Scans for deleted files quickly
• There’s a portable option

What We Don’t Like

• Can’t recover more than 2 GB of data
• Doesn’t show a file’s chance of usability before undeleting it
• Recovery doesn’t retain the original folder structure

A very easy-to-use free undelete tool is called Wise Data Recovery. I appreciate how swiftly the application installed and completed its PC scan. On a variety of USB devices, including memory cards and other removal devices, it can search for erased files.

Using the program’s fast search feature, you may quickly and easily look for deleted items it has detected. Depending on how thorough you want to go, you can choose between a quick and comprehensive scan.

Before attempting to undelete a file, most tools tell you how recoverable it is. Unfortunately, this application does not accomplish that. Additionally, it stops you from erasing data larger than 2 GB.

Download For:

Windows

Mac

3 EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard

What We Like

• You can back up the scan results to restore files later without having to rescan the whole drive
• Works on Windows and macOS
• Lets you sort files by file type, date it was removed, and name
• Browse folders like you would in File Explorer
• Supports previewing files prior to restoration

What We Don’t Like

• Only 2 GB of data can be recovered
• No portable version

Another excellent program for undeleting files is the EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. With only a few clicks, file recovery is quite simple to accomplish.

The fact that this program’s user interface is organized similarly to File Explorer is my favorite feature. Although it might not be everyone’s preferred method of displaying files, most people are accustomed to using this highly familiar interface.

Files from hard drives, optical drives, memory cards, iOS devices, cameras, and pretty much anything else that Windows recognizes as a storage device can be restored with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. Partition recovery is another feature!

It should be noted that EaseUS’s program can only restore 512 MB of data in total before requiring an upgrade (up to 2 GB if you utilize the program’s share button to post about the software on social media).

That limitation nearly prevented me from including this software, but because most scenarios require considerably less undeleting than that, I’ll overlook it. Nevertheless, you will only find use for this software a few times, or even fewer if the file is large. Thankfully, this list offers close to twenty other possibilities!

Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7; macOS 14 through 10.9; Windows Server 2022, 2019, 2016, 2012, 2008, and 2003 are all supported by Data Recovery Wizard.

Download For:

Mac

Windows

4 Disk Drill

What We Like

• Organizes deleted files by category for easier viewing
• Lets you filter the results by size and/or date
• Supports a quick scan and a deep scan mode
• Works with several different file systems

What We Don’t Like

• Lets you recover only 500 MB of data
• Has to be installed (no portable version)

In addition to its many functions, Disk Drill is a great free data recovery application because of its extremely straightforward layout, which makes it nearly difficult to use incorrectly.

Disk Drill claims to be able to retrieve data from “virtually any storage device,” including memory cards, iPods, USB devices, internal and external hard drives, and more.
It can perform partition recovery, preview files before recovery, pause and resume scans, back up an entire drive, filter files based on size or date, run a quick scan instead of a full scan for quicker results and save scan results for later import to recover deleted files.

Naturally, the 500 MB recovery restriction is the main issue I have with it. That is a modest amount, particularly if you have a lot of items to retrieve.

The most recent version is compatible with macOS 10.15 and later, as well as 64-bit versions of Windows 11 and 10. Older versions are compatible with Windows XP through Windows 8.

Download For:

Windows

Mac

5 Windows File Recovery

What We Like

• Microsoft-approved method
• Works with internal and external drives, including SD cards
• Lots of options

What We Don’t Like

• Requires Windows 11 or 10
• Works over the command line
• Must restore to a different drive

Microsoft offers a data recovery tool as well, albeit it’s not as user-friendly as the majority of these other apps. You have to put out everything you wish to accomplish because this one runs over the command line. But it’s still quite simple.

Use Windows File Recovery, which can be found and opened by searching for it in the Start menu, to undelete files in this manner. After you see the page shown above, you may use a command similar to this one to recover PNG images from the Downloads folder on your C drive and move them to the Images folder on a disk named E:

 winfr C: E:\Images /n \Users\jonfi\Downloads\*PNG

Only Windows 10 and Windows 11 users can download this tool.

Download for Windows