18 Mar in Business trends
EDITOR’S NOTE: Each Data Recovery Software mentioned in this article is free to download. Please note that this article has recently been updated for 2021, in which some of these Data Recovery Software may be subject to limitations and/or require the purchase of a full version in order to be used. We thank you for your understanding.
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OOPS! Did you just delete an entire week’s work by accident? Nothing to worry about, the 7 free data recovery software on this list can retrieve anything that’s been lost or corrupted. Don’t waste hundreds of dollars on data recovery at the shop. These programs cost nothing and are almost as good as having your own private IT department.
“Make sure to back up your data” – that boss you never listened to
Table of Contents
READ FIRST: Data Recovery Software Basics
Maybe you forgot to back up an important file. Maybe the storm of the century left your office looking like Waterworld. Or maybe a cyber-attack took everything you held dear.
Don’t worry, there are tools that can dig deep into the architecture of your lost universe and retrieve these sacred scrolls of knowledge. Or, ya know, just recover that photo of you and your team members out last week.
Jokes aside, data loss is a serious problem. According to the Ponemon Institute, the average lost data file (when containing sensitive information) costs $225. If your hard drive is physically damaged, it could cost up to $1,000 to recover ANY data. Don’t you wish you’d just scheduled a weekly data backup now?
These programs can retrieve just about anything from a hard drive, disk, flash drive, or any other storage device even if you have 0 clue what you’re doing. That’s why we had to share these 7 file recovery software.
NOTE: These are all data recovery tools with FREE versions, however, most offer premium versions that may require payment in order to access their loads of upgraded features. We thank you for your understanding.
The #1 for 2021 – Stellar Data Recovery
Move over all other data recovery software, there’s a new #1 for 2021.
Meet Stellar Data Recovery, the absolute best software for recovering lost files or precious data. Whether you’re an individual or a business, we’ve all experienced some sort of panic when it comes to potentially losing crucial files.
Stellar Data Recovery is built for personal or enterprise needs. Available for Mac and Windows.
Just take a quick gander at their user-friendly interface and all of the ways Stellar offers to recover your files from various sources:
Furthermore, there’s a plethora of file types that this software will recover:
Stellar Data Recovery’s FREE version allows users to fix up to 1GB without needing to pay. That’s a lot of data, or PDF documents perhaps, that you could possibly recover for no cost.
Recover your data in 3 easy steps! Stellar free data recovery software can’t be beat if you are looking for an easy way to recover your data. After you launch the software, simply select the storage drive & file type (if you wish), scan the drive, and save the recovered files.
What can Stellar Data Recover provide your business? Well, these following features of course:
- Recover up to 1 GB lost or deleted data on Windows, absolutely free
- Recovers lost or deleted documents, email data files, videos, photos, etc.
- Retrieve data from PC, laptop, hard drive, and USB stick
- Recover files lost due to drive formatting or corruption
Want more product information? We thought so! Click here.
Or, try Stellar Data Recovery today with a FREE download.
#2 – EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard: Second to Stellar Data Recovery
No options to configure? Everything basically taken care of for you? These are qualities that the best data recovery software reflect.
Easy-to-use
EaseUS presents you with scannable drives, guides you with an intuitive interface, and gives you the option to preview all recoverable files from an Explorer-like window. Data recovery with this program is a smooth experience as we tested.
Tailor-made and robust data recovery utility
- Recover data from internal and external HDD, SSD, SD card, USB flash drive, Camera, and video player, etc
- Equip with two scanning modes to retrieve lost data after deletion, format, device damage, system error, virus attack, etc
- Recover lost data including documents, multimedia files, images and photos, emails, database data and program files, etc.
- Support to scan a single partition or a whole hard drive where data gets lost
Additional feature
Its newly updated version 13.0 has included the file repair feature to fix damaged and corrupt photos and video files of Canon, Go Pro, and DJI devices.
Free version
The FREE version supports all kinds of data recovery from any data loss situation with a limited data recovery amount. You only get 500MB of recovery by default (To gain another 1.5 GB, you need to share it via SNS within the program ). The free version is suitable for document recovery.
Pro Version
The PRO version provides full functionality, allowing a user to recover files without any restrictions. If the size of data exceeds 2GB, the PRO version is your best choice.
The only downside is that we can’t see the recover-ability of the file without previewing it. For the average person, this is perfectly fine. Fast, clean, simple, intuitive—what else could you ask for in a data recovery program?
#3 – Disk Drill – The Runner-Up
Disk Drill pops up on just about every software recovery list for good reason: It’s powerful and simple, and you don’t have to have a doctorate in theoretical physics to get your data back.
We love the simple and straightforward interface. Just scan a drive and you’ll be presented with recoverable options. That way, you scan images or files and preview them to make sure you’re recovering the right file. They even give you a nice tutorial in the beginning.
TIP: Use Disk Drill if you prefer a simpler interface with less complex options. It’s great for quickly recovering an accidentally deleted file.
#4 – Advanced Disk Recovery – The Ultimate Data Recovery Software
Lost data? Meet Advanced Disk Recovery:
Advanced Disk Recovery software is user-friendly and also very, very easy to use. Plus, it’s extremely effective at scanning Windows systems in just a few seconds.
Choose between a Quick Scan or Deep Scan, depending on how much data you’re looking to recover. Furthermore, after each scan, Advanced Disk Recovery will allow the user to review the files before they’re recovered.
This multi-award winning software can recover all kinds of files from hard drives, external drives, memory cards and more. It’s by far the ultimate data recovery software we’ve found and we’re impressed with its ease of use and how quickly you can easily scan your computer for precious lost data files.
If you’re worried about a data recovery scan that will overwrite your original data, you don’t have to. Thanks to Systweak’s Advanced Disk Recovery software, your lost or accidentally deleted files can be recovered and the process won’t affect any of your original or current files.
What we love: the fact that you can recover data files from CDs and DVDs. Now that’s pretty cool!
The (only!) downside? Advanced Disk Recovery is compatible with Windows, but not Mac.
That being said, Systweak has built a slew of quality products for a bunch of different devices (MAC, Android, iOS) so you’re sure to find not only data recovery software, but a bunch of useful apps that you can try for free!
Try Advanced Disk Recovery software with a FREE download and get an overlook of this impressive software to see first hand for yourself why this product is absolutely one of the best!
#5 – MiniTool Power Data Recovery FREE – Disk Drill’s Alternative
The free version of Power Data Recovery 8.6 by MiniTool Power Recovery comes in at #4 on this list of 5 file recovery software. Install, scan, and recover any lost file, FAST, and with no fuss during installation advice and simple, searchable scans.
Unlike basically every other entry on this list, you can have your data back in your hands in 3 easy steps. Select the location, scan it, and select the items you want to restore and it instantly saves them in a safe place. The scans are extremely fast and the results are easy to read.
The free version limits you to only 1GB of recovered data, though.
Honorable Mentions
There are plenty of other great data recovery programs to undelete those important files. We’d be remiss if we didn’t give them a shout out!
#6 – Recuva – Recover Anything From Anywhere
Need to get something off of a memory card, a USB stick, or even your iPod (if you still have one)?
Recuva is the answer.
It’s the super flexible, ultra deep scanning, do-it-all recovery tool that can recover anything from anywhere. The detailed interface is easy to use thanks to the recovery wizard. The deep scan takes you deep beneath the waves, trawling the depths of your lost data ocean and exposing you to rare and exotic species of data you had no idea existed.
If you don’t want to be whisked away to this fanciful world of imagination, you can limit the search to find something more specific. There’s a reason geeks love this tool—it’s the be all end all in recovery options.
We don’t recommend it for newbies, and be prepared to get YouTube-like ads every 3 minutes. Better ads then extortionist pricing, so it makes this list of 5 file recovery software.
#7 – UnDeleteMyFiles Pro
We couldn’t have a list about software that undeletes files if we didn’t mention a program called UndeleteMyFiles. This is actually one of the true FREE programs on the list.
It looks like it’s from 2004, but it has a lot of cool features like:
- Snapshot: Take a “snapshot” of your drive and retrieve files at your leisure.
- Secure file deletion: Delete files forever so nobody can recover them.
- Email recovery: Did you delete that email string with Grandma’s extreme political opinions? Time to bring back the horror!
A strong drawback is that there is no indication of the recoverability of the files.
Your files aren’t lost for good. Pick any of these 6 file recovery software and get them back fast! But if you really want to work even faster, get the best of the bunch: Stellar Data Recovery!
If you end up finding yourself recovering some PDFs, be sure to use Soda PDF to check them out.
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