Recuva - an easy way to recover deleted files

The free Recuva program is one of the most popular means of recovering data from a USB flash drive, memory card, hard drive or other drive in NTFS, FAT32 and ExFAT file systems with a good reputation (from the same developers as the well-known CCleaner utility).

Every day, users install and uninstall various programs. In some cases, for various reasons, a system crash occurs and some data may disappear.

The most important data on our computers are documents, photos, audio and video archives. To avoid losing important data, it is recommended to make regular backups. If data is lost and there is no backup, then Recuva comes to the rescue. This is a free program to recover deleted files.

When you delete a file from the disk, only the record about it in a special table is deleted (it contains the file name and its actual address on the disk). The sectors containing the deleted file are overwritten with new information and after a while the data is irretrievably lost. In order to avoid overwriting data and their final loss, it is recommended not to perform any file operations on the disk (writing or copying data). I recommend installing Recuva on your computer right now.

Recuva Key Features:

Restore files on your computer.
Recuva will recover deleted files on your computer, flash drive, camera or iPod.
Recovery from damaged or formatted drives. Even if you have formatted the drive so that it looks empty, Recuva will still be able to find files on it.
Recover deleted messages.
Recover deleted music from iPod.
Recovery of unsaved Word documents. If you created a Microsoft Word document and didn't save it, Recuva will help you recover Word documents from temporary files.
Availability of the Deep Scan function. Recuva can find most files in one minute.
Securely delete files you want to permanently delete.
Want to protect deleted files? Recuva also allows you to permanently remove all traces of deleted files.
Availability of a portable/portable version.
Multilingual: 37+ languages.

The process of recovering deleted files using Recuva

After starting the software, the recovery wizard will automatically open, and if you close it, the program interface or the so-called advanced mode will open.

Note: if Recuva started in an unknown language, close the recovery wizard by clicking the Cancel button, go to the Settings - Languages menu and select the desired language.

The differences are not very noticeable, but: when restoring in advanced mode, you will be able to preview the supported file types (for example, photo), and in the wizard - just a list of files that can be restored.

Cost Recuva: $0

File recovery time: 10 minutes

Necessary:

Windows computer

Recuva Software

How to use Recuva

On the first screen, click Next, and then specify the type of files you want to find and recover.

Indicate the location where these files were located - it may be some folder from which they were deleted, a USB flash drive, hard drive, etc.

Turn on (or not turn on) in-depth analysis. I recommend turning it on - although in this case the search takes longer, but it may be possible to recover more lost files.

Wait for the search to finish (on a 16 GB USB 2.0 flash drive, it took about 5 minutes).T

Select the files you want to recover, click the Restore button and specify a save location. Important: do not save the data to the same drive from which the recovery takes place.

Files in the list may have a green, yellow, or red label depending on how well they are saved and how likely it is to recover them. However, sometimes files marked in red are restored successfully, without errors or damage, i. they cannot be skipped if there is something important in them.

How to use Recuva in advanced mode

Select the drive on which you want to find and recover data.

I recommend going to Settings and turning on deep analysis.

Click the Analyze button and wait for the search to complete.

A list of found files is displayed with a preview option for the supported types (extensions).

Mark the files that you want to recover and specify the location to save (do not use the drive from which the recovery takes place).

I tested Recuva with a flash drive with photos and documents formatted from one file system to another and with another USB drive from which all files were simply deleted (not in the trash).
If in the first case there was only one photo, in the second - all the data that was on the flash drive before deletion and, despite the fact that some of them were marked in red, all they have been successfully restored.

Download Recuva:

Download Recuva

If you want to recover files now, download Recuva from the link above.

Recuva can recover iPod files and RAW digital photos. This software will help you recover your files from damaged and formatted drives, recover deleted emails, unsaved Word documents and other file types. The program is suitable for both experienced users and beginners - all file recovery operations are carried out in an understandable step-by-step mode. You can use the quick recovery mode or, in difficult cases, apply the deep disk scan mode. With Recuva, you can not only recover files, but also permanently delete them from the disk.

How to Recover files on sd card after formatting

Launch the application.
Select the type of files you want to recover.
Indicate the possible location of the lost files.
Start the scanning process. If you wish, you can enable the Deep Scan mode.
Wait for the operation to complete.
Locate and restore the necessary files.

If there are many detected files, you can try to find the files you need using the search function. But this is only if you remember the name of the files to be restored. To do this, you will need to go into advanced mode (button on the top right).

The difference between full and fast disk formatting

During a quick format, the OS writes empty information to the boot sector and file system table. All space on the memory card is marked as unallocated and can be freely used by other applications.

With full formatting, zeros are written to disk sectors. Unfortunately, you will not be able to recover files from jammed sectors.

Functions Recuva:

Recuva works great with sd cards and flash drives. You can connect a memory card to a computer and work with it like a regular hard drive.
The Deep Scan option increases the chances of finding hard-to-reach files.
Recuva supports FAT / NTFS, Ext 3-4, and all operating systems.
Recuva is free - when you save the recovered files, you are not asked to purchase a license. There is no limit on the volume of saved files, there are no limitations in functionality.

System requirements for installing Recuva

Recuva is not demanding on system resources: any Windows operating system from 2000 onwards. (XP, Windows 7, versions 10 and 11, 25 MB of free disk space. By default, the program may prompt you to install additional options to improve usability, such as Yahoo Toolbar. But, you can refuse it if you do not need it .

Here are a lot of reviews about Recuva, which are also linked from the official Recuva website.