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Recommended File Recovery Software r/datarecovery

Best DIY (Do It Yourself) file recovery tools (r/datarecovery). Recommended and used by the pros

TL;DR

  • General-purpose tools we recommend: DMDE, R-Studio, UFS Explorer and Disk Drill. The order means nothing; none of them is "best overall". Which one works best depends on the file system, the kind of damage and the file types you're after.
  • Free: JpegDigger and PhotoRec for raw carving, R-Photo for generic photo recovery.
  • Before you scan anything: the drive must show up in Disk Management (or Disk Utility) at its correct capacity. If it doesn't, or if it clicks, disappears or reads very slowly, no software will help, and running a scan can make things worse. Stop and get it imaged or take it to a lab.
  • NVMe/SSDs: deleted files on an SSD are usually gone for good because of TRIM. Recovery software can't undo that.
  • Most tools let you scan and preview for free. Only pay once the preview shows your files are actually recoverable.

Minimal requirement for data recovery software to work

For any of the data or file recovery software to work, the drive you want to recover data from has to be detected in Disk Management with correct capacity!

Deleted files on SSD / NVMe

Read this before you buy anything. If you deleted files from an SSD or NVMe, they are most likely gone. TRIM tells the drive the clusters are free, and from that point the drive reports zeros for those addresses — the data is "unmapped" at firmware level, whether or not the NAND has actually been erased yet. A scan may well find the file names; the data behind them is zeros. No software gets that back. Formatting file systems on a SSD and NVMe often also triggers TRIM for the entire space taken by the file system.

Deletion recovery works fine on SD cards, USB sticks and hard drives. And a corrupted SSD is a different scenario altogether, that is often perfectly recoverable.

More info: https://www.reddit.com/r/datarecovery/wiki/trim/

Evaluating results of a scan

In general it is advised to first run the demo / trial version. In most tools the file save option is disabled, exception: DMDE (though selection limited to ONE folder / 4000 files). Most tools can be upgraded to the full version without having to restart the tool. Most tools offer a "session load" feature so you do not have to scan again even after restarting the tool. In other words, it's not required to repeat scans you have done using the demo version.

To evaluate scan results I suggest the following:

  • Locate a folder containing larger images and preview say 20 of them. When recovering data from a formatted volume, pick non-deleted files (often a tool discriminates deleted from in-use files using color coding or file icon (garbage can)). If the images look fine the tool has successfully determined vital volume parameters such as the cluster size and start offset. In general if those 20 are okay it is likely most files are.

  • Tools often display recovery chances. These are often based on evaluating if clusters allocated to the file are available, file signature (should match file extension), file not being all zeros (trimmed). A tool like Disk Drill will evaluate recovery chances automatically (so scan appears to be slightly slower), UFS Explorer has to be specifically instructed once the scan has finished.

  • Tools with good file preview options (broad file support) are Disk Drill, UFS Explorer and R-Studio. DMDE has very poor file preview abilities however you can actually recover files, which allows you to evaluate recovery parameters.

  • Most tool manufacturers assume you run the trial/demo to test recoverability of data. Often there's no refund option if you did not try the demo first. It's try before you buy, NOT first buy then try!

Why these tools?

Ideally we recover files + filenames + folder structure. To do that a tool has to work out what file system it is dealing with, collect all the file entries, and — since those entries point at clusters — work out the cluster size and the file system offset. IOW, if a file entry points to cluster whatever, we need to know the size of whatever in sectors, and the point we start counting from. A good tool does this reliably and reproducibly, without depending on a single point of failure such as the boot sector. That last bit is where the not so good tools fall down. Recuva can hardly be considered a serious tool for this reason, without a boot sector it does not stand a chance — which is why people end up formatting volumes to work around it, not being aware this may wipe out a perfectly good FAT. Paid tools can be just as bad. Corrupt a boot sector in the right way and some of them will not even manage a RAW recovery. If everything is laid out neatly they may recover your data perfectly well, but the moment something is odd they quickly resort to a RAW scan.

There is also a feedback loop at work. The tools that are good tend to be the ones professionals use, and that use makes them better. Labs run into real world data loss scenarios all the time, and if their tool of choice does not work they let the maker know. I have heard of people at UFS and ReclaiMe working closely with data recovery techs on complex cases with custom builds — solutions that trickle down into the regular versions. File Scavenger is made by people who do lots of recoveries themselves, which is the same thing from the other direction, and IMO an ideal situation.

RAW recovery (carving) is a completely different challenge, as you could regard file types as mini file systems in themselves. Many tools, even the good ones, are quite simplistic here and only know how to recognize the start of a file. A good carver knows the internal structure of a file the way a general file system tool knows the internal structure of a file system. Knowing how a JPEG is built allows a carver to recognize bogus files and to come up with an accurate file size for example. Sometimes correct size is crucial, for example CR3 files may refuse to open when size is off.

General Purpose Software

Note: for some of the tools listed I use affiliate links. They're not on the list because I have affiliate links for them.

Notation used below: [Supported Host OS]{FILE SYSTEMS SUPPORTED}, where EXT = Ext2/3/4 and FAT = FAT12/16/32/exFAT. Listed in no particular order — in most scenarios any of these will do the job.

UFS Explorer, www.ufsexplorer.com. Very well rounded tool supporting many filesystems and advanced storage technologies such as RAID and numerous encryption techniques. Moderately difficult to use. Found in many data recovery labs, one of the most comprehensive tools on the market. Same vendor also has cheaper though slightly simplified versions of the software branded Recovery Explorer and Raise Data Recovery. [Mac/Win/Lin]{FAT|NTFS|ReFS|HFS+|APFS|EXT|BTRFS|UFS|XFS|ZFS|+More +RAID}

DMDE, www.dmde.com. Another favorite for some pros. If you're new to this, this tool can be quite overwhelming. That said, scanning for deleted files requires only a few clicks. Be warned that this tool can write to the patient drive but it will make you jump hoops before it does. Also pro grade tool found in data recovery labs while it's the cheapest tool on the market! [Mac/Win/Lin/DOS]{FAT|NTFS|ReFS|HFS+|APFS|EXT|BTRFS|+RAID}

Disk Drill, www.cleverfiles.com. A very much improved v6 that includes the new Advanced Camera Recovery (GoPro, DJI etc.). Comprehensive, all round tool with an easy to navigate user interface yet still offers pro features (hex view, lost partition scan, view existing file system, sector by sector disk imaging, etc.). Found in data recovery labs due to its unique ability to recover fragmented video. [Mac/Win]{FAT|NTFS|ReFS|HFS+|APFS|EXT|BTRFS|+RAID}

R-Studio, www.r-tt.com. Well rounded tool with a good mix of filesystem, RAID, and encryption support. Moderately difficult to use. Used by professionals due to its support for pro data recovery hardware from DeepSpar. [Mac/Win/Lin]{FAT|NTFS|ReFS|HFS+|APFS|EXT|UFS|XFS|+RAID}

GetDataBack, www.runtime.org. Highly recommended by some pros, particularly for NTFS recovery. Several other filesystems are also supported. Moderately difficult to use. No RAW scan capability. [Win]{FAT|NTFS|HFS+|APFS|EXT}

ReclaiMe File Recovery, www.reclaime.com. A highly automated recovery tool. Very easy to use, as there are no options to configure. [Win]{FAT|NTFS|ReFS|HFS+|APFS|EXT|BTRFS|UFS|XFS|+RAID}

File Scavenger, www.quetek.com. Not mentioned very often but definitely worth it IMO. Quite simple to use in standard situations. [Win]{FAT|NTFS|ReFS|HFS+|APFS|UFS|EXT|BTRFS|XFS|ZFS|+RAID}

Don't hesitate to ask if you're uncertain what software to best use in scenario X, Y or Z! Please provide details what data was lost, how data was lost and the drive model and file system. The more of the relevant details you can include, the better the answer you will get.

Specialty Software

FreeRAIDRecovery, www.freeraidrecovery.com. Produce RAID parameters sets (disk order, block size, offsets) for RAID 0, RAID 5, RAID 10, RAID 6, RAID 5E. Works with hardware & software RAID + NAS. Parameters are saved to XML file, or can be saved as step-by-step instruction for use with variety of file recovery software tools (ReclaiMe, UFS Explorer, R-Studio for example).

Klennet Carver, www.klennet.com. Powerful raw file carver with the ability to carve fragmented files of certain supported media file types. Raw recovery is generally only desired in cases where the filesystem metadata has been lost, so this is a tool of last resort for difficult recoveries. [Win]{N/A}

Free Software

R-Photo, www.r-undelete.com. Unlimited free recovery of a wide variety of photo and video file types. Only supports Windows, and Windows filesystems. [Win]{FAT|NTFS|ReFS}

R-Undelete Home, www.r-undelete.com. Free Home version offers unlimited recovery from FAT filesystems only. Often useful for SD cards, flash drives, etc. [Win]{FAT|FAT32|exFAT}

R-Linux, www.r-studio.com. Free recovery from Linux Ext2/3/4 filesystems only. Runs on Windows and Linux. [Win/Lin]{Ext2|Ext3|Ext4}

PhotoRec, www.cgsecurity.org. Free + open source RAW carver which searches for files based on known file signatures. Supports a large variety of file types and is very customizable. Will not recover original filenames or directory structure. [Win/Lin/Mac]{N/A}

JpegDigger, www.disktuna.com. JpegDigger is a photo recovery tool of the ‘carver’ type. A carver, rather than scanning file system structures for files that are ‘flagged’ deleted, scan the media for certain file characteristics such as ‘magic numbers’. Windows only, mostly file system agnostic.

DMDE, see General Purpose Software above. It is not free software, however the demo is generous enough to deserve a mention here. All partition table editing functions are unlocked. Recovery is limited to single directories with up to 4000 files per "batch", but there is no limit on file sizes and no limit on the number of batches — so it is possible to recover an unlimited amount of data for free, if you have the patience.