Is it possible to get back deleted files on your computer? How to recover a deleted file on your computer and phone - all methods

Hello.

Not long ago I had to recover several photos from a flash drive that was accidentally formatted. This is not an easy matter, and while we were able to recover most of the files, we had to get acquainted with almost all popular programs for data recovery.

In this article I would like to provide a list of these programs (by the way, all of them can be classified as universal, since they can recover files both from hard drives and from other media, for example, from an SD memory card or flash drive USB).

The result was a rather small list of 22 programs ( further in the article, all programs are sorted alphabetically).

Website: http://7datarecovery.com/

OS: Windows: XP, 2003, 7, Vista, 8

Description:

Firstly, this utility immediately pleases you with the presence of the Russian language. Secondly, it is quite multifunctional; after launch, it offers you 5 recovery options:

Recovering files from damaged and formatted hard drive partitions;

Recovering accidentally deleted files;

Recovering files deleted from flash drives and memory cards;

Recovering disk partitions (when the MBR is damaged, the disk is formatted, etc.);

Recover files from Android phones and tablets.

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.file-recovery.net/

OS: Windows: Vista, 7, 8

Description:

A program for recovering accidentally deleted data or data from damaged disks. Supports work with multiple file systems: FAT (12, 16, 32), NTFS (5, + EFS).

In addition, it can work directly with a hard drive when its logical structure is damaged. In addition, the program supports:

All types of hard drives: IDE, ATA, SCSI;

Memory cards: SunDisk, MemoryStick, CompactFlash;

USB devices (flash drives, external hard drives).

Screenshot:

3. Active Partition Recovery

OS: Windows 7, 8

Description:

One of the important features of this program is that it can be run under both DOS and Windows. This is possible due to the fact that it can be written to a bootable CD (or flash drive).

This utility is usually used to recover entire hard drive partitions, rather than individual files. By the way, the program allows you to make an archive (copy) of MBR tables and hard disk sectors ( boot data).

Screenshot:

4. Active UNDELETE

Website: http://www.active-undelete.com/

OS: Windows 7/2000/2003/2008/XP

Description:

Let me tell you that this is one of the most versatile data recovery programs. The main thing is that it supports:

1. all the most popular file systems: NTFS, FAT32, FAT16, NTFS5, NTFS+EFS;

2. works in all Windows OS;

3. Supports a large number of media: SD, CF, SmartMedia, Memory Stick, ZIP, USB flash drives, external USB hard drives, etc.

Interesting features of the full version:

Support for hard drives larger than 500 GB;

Support for hardware and software RAID arrays;

Creating emergency boot disks (about emergency disks);

The ability to search for deleted files using a variety of attributes (especially important when there are a lot of files, the hard drive is capacious, and you definitely don’t remember the file name or its extension).

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.aidfile.com/

OS: Windows 2000/2003/2008/2012, XP, 7, 8 (32-bit and 64-bit)

Description:

At first glance, it is not a very big utility, and also without the Russian language (but this is only at first glance). This program is capable of recovering data in a variety of situations: software error, accidental formatting, deletion, virus attacks, etc.

By the way, as the developers themselves state, the percentage of file recovery with this utility is higher than many of its competitors. Therefore, if other programs cannot restore your lost data, it makes sense to take the risk of checking the disk with this utility.

Some interesting features:

1. Recovers Word, Excel, Power Pont, etc. files.

2. Can restore files when reinstalling Windows OS;

3. A fairly “strong” option for restoring various photographs and pictures (and on different types of media).

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.byclouder.com/

OS: Windows XP/Vista/7/8 (x86, x64)

Description:

What pleases us about this program is its simplicity. After launch, it immediately (and on the great and mighty one) prompts you to scan the disks...

The utility is capable of searching for a wide variety of file types: archives, audio and video, documents. You can scan different types of media (albeit with varying degrees of success): CDs, flash drives, hard drives, etc. It’s quite easy to learn.

Screenshot:

7. Disk Digger

Website: http://diskdigger.org/

OS: Windows 7, Vista, XP

Description:

A fairly simple and convenient program (does not require installation, by the way), which will help you easily and quickly recover deleted files: music, movies, pictures, photos, documents. The media can be different: from a hard drive to flash drives and memory cards.

Supported file systems: FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT and NTFS.

To summarize: a utility with fairly average capabilities will help mainly in the “simplest” cases.

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/free-data-recovery-software.htm

OS: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/Windows Server 2012/2008/2003 (x86, x64)

Description:

Excellent file recovery program! It will help in a variety of troubles: accidental deletion of files, unsuccessful formatting, partition damage, power failure, etc.

It is possible to recover even encrypted and compressed data! The utility supports all the most popular file systems: VFAT, FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS/NTFS5 EXT2, EXT3.

Sees and allows you to scan a wide variety of media: IDE/ATA, SATA, SCSI, USB, external hard drives, Fire wire (IEEE1394), flash drives, digital cameras, floppy disks, audio players and many other devices.

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.krollontrack.com/data-recovery/recovery-software/

OS: Windows 95/98 Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista/7

Description:

One of the best programs for data recovery, which will help in case of a simple error during deletion, and in cases when you no longer have to rely on other utilities.

Separately, it is worth saying that the program allows you to successfully find 255 different types of files (audio, video, documents, archives, etc.), supports FAT and NTFS systems, hard drives (IDE/ATA/EIDE, SCSI), floppy disks (Zip and Jazz).

Among other things, EasyRecovery has a built-in function that will help you check and evaluate the condition of the disk (by the way, in one of the articles we previously discussed the issue).

The EasyRecovery utility helps to recover data in the following cases:

Accidental deletion (for example, when using the Shift button);
- Viral infection;
- Damage due to power outage;
- Problems creating partitions when installing Windows;
- Damage to the file system structure;
- Formatting the media or using the FDISK program.

Screenshot:

10. GetData Recovery My Files Professional

Website: http://www.recovermyfiles.com/

OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7

Description:

Recover My Files is a pretty good program for recovering various types of data: graphics, documents, music and video archives.

In addition, it supports all the most popular file systems: FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS and NTFS5.

Some features:

Supports more than 300 data types;

Can recover files from HDD, flash cards, USB devices, floppy disks;

A special function for recovering Zip archives, PDF files, autoCad drawings (if your file fits this type, I definitely recommend trying this program).

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.handyrecovery.ru/

OS: Windows 9x/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/7

Description:

A fairly simple program, with a Russian interface, designed to recover deleted files. Can be used in a variety of cases: virus attack, software failures, accidental deletion of files from the recycle bin, formatting a hard drive, etc.

After scanning and analysis, Handy Recovery will give you the opportunity to view the disk (or other media, for example, a memory card) just like in a regular Explorer, only along with “normal files” you will see files that have been deleted.

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.icare-recovery.com/

OS: Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2000 pro, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

Description:

A very powerful program for recovering deleted and formatted files from various types of media: USB flash cards, SD memory cards, hard drives. The utility can help recover a file from an unreadable disk partition (Raw) if the MBR boot record is damaged.

Unfortunately, there is no support for the Russian language. After launch, you will have the opportunity to choose from 4 masters:

1. Partition Recovery - a wizard that will help you recover deleted hard drive partitions;

2. Deleted File Recovery - this wizard is used to recover deleted file(s);

3. Deep Scan Recovery - scanning the disk for existing files and files that can be recovered;

4. Format Recovery is a wizard that will help you recover files after formatting.

Screenshot:

13. MiniTool Power Data

Website: http://www.powerdatarecovery.com/

OS: Windows XP / Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8

Description:

Quite a good file recovery program. Supports several types of media: SD, Smartmedia, Compact Flash, Memory Stick, HDD. It is used in a variety of cases of information loss: be it a virus attack or erroneous formatting.

The good news is that the program has a Russian interface and you can easily figure everything out. After launching the utility, you are offered several wizards to choose from:

1. Recovering files after accidental deletion;

2. Restoring damaged hard drive partitions, for example, an unreadable Raw partition;

3. Recovering lost partitions (when you don’t see that there are partitions on your hard drive at all);

4. Recovery of CD/DVD discs. By the way, it’s a very useful thing, because... Not every program has this option.

Screenshot:

14. O&O Disk Recovery

Website: http://www.oo-software.com/

OS: Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP

Description:

O&O DiskRecovery is a very powerful utility for recovering information from many types of media. Most deleted files (if you did not write other information to disk) can be recovered using the utility. Data can be reconstructed even if the hard drive has been formatted!

The program is very easy to use (besides, there is a Russian language). After launch, the utility will prompt you to select the media to scan. The interface is designed in such a style that even an unprepared user will feel quite confident; the wizard will guide him step by step and help recover lost information.

Screenshot:

Website: http://rlab.ru/tools/rsaver.html

OS: Windows 2000/ 2003/XP/ Vista/Windows 7

Description:

Firstly, this is a free program (considering that there are too many free programs for data recovery, this is a compelling argument).

Secondly, full support for the Russian language.

Thirdly, it shows very good results. The program supports FAT and NTFS file systems. Can recover documents after formatting or accidental deletion. The interface is designed in a minimalist style. Scanning is started with just one button (the program will select the algorithms and settings independently).

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.piriform.com/recuva

OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8

Description:

A very simple program (and also free), designed for an untrained user. Using it, step by step, you can recover many types of files from various media.

Recuva scans the disk (or flash drive) quite quickly, and then displays a list of files that can be recovered. By the way, files are marked with markers (well-readable, which means it’s easy to recover; medium-readable - the chances are small, but there are; poorly readable - there’s little chance, but you can try).

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.reneelab.com/

OS: Windows XP/Vista/7/8

Description:

A very simple program for data recovery. Mainly intended for the recovery of photographs, pictures, and some types of documents. At least, it shows itself better than many other programs of this kind.

This utility also has one interesting feature - creating a disk image. It can be very useful, backup has not yet been canceled!

Screenshot:

18. Restorer Ultimate Pro Network

Website: http://www.restorer-ultimate.com/

OS: Windows: 2000/XP/ 2003/Vista/2008/ 7/8

Description:

This program dates back to the 2000s. At that time, the Restorer 2000 utility was popular, and by the way, it was not bad at all. It was replaced by the Restorer Ultimate program. In my humble opinion, the program is one of the best for recovering lost information (plus Russian language support).

The professional version of the program supports recovery and reconstruction of RAID data (regardless of the complexity level); It is possible to restore partitions that the system marks as Raw (unreadable).

By the way, using this program you can connect to the desktop of another computer and try to restore files on it!

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.r-tt.com/

OS: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7/8

Description:

R-Studio is probably the most famous program for recovering deleted information from disk/flash drives/memory cards and other media. The program works simply amazing; it is possible to recover even those files that I did not “dream of” before launching the program.

Possibilities:

1. Supports all Windows operating systems (except: Macintosh, Linux and UNIX);

2. It is possible to restore data via the Internet;

3. Support for just a huge number of file systems: FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, NTFS5 (created or modified in Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/Win7), HFS/HFS (Macintosh), Little and Big Endian variants of UFS1/UFS2 (FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD/Solaris) and Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 FS (Linux);

4. Possibility of restoring RAID disk arrays;

5. Creating disk images. Such an image, by the way, can be compressed and written to a flash drive or other hard drive.

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.ufsexplorer.com/download_pro.php

OS: Windows XP, 2003, Vista, 2008, Windows 7, Windows 8 (full support for 32 and 64-bit OS).

Description:

A professional program designed for data recovery. Includes a huge set of wizards that will help in most cases:

Undelete - search and restore deleted files;

Raw recovery - search for lost hard drive partitions;

Restoring RAID arrays;

Functions for recovering files during a virus attack, formatting, repartitioning the hard drive, etc.

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.wondershare.com/

OS: Windows 8, 7

Description:

Wondershare Data Recovery is a very powerful program that will help you recover deleted, formatted files from your computer, external hard drive, mobile phone, camera, and other devices.

It’s nice to have the Russian language and handy instructors who will guide you step by step. After starting the program, you are given 4 wizards to choose from:

1. File recovery;

2. Raw recovery;

3. Recovering hard drive partitions;

4. Resumption.

See screenshot below.

Screenshot:

22. Zero Assumption Recovery

Website: http://www.z-a-recovery.com/

OS: Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/7

Description:

This program differs from many others in that it supports long Russian file names. This is very convenient when restoring (in other programs you will see “kryakozabry” instead of Russian characters, as in this one).

The program supports file systems: FAT16/32 and NTFS (including NTFS5). Also noteworthy is support for long file names, support for multiple languages, and the ability to restore RAID arrays.

A very interesting digital photo search mode. If you are restoring graphic files, be sure to try this program, its algorithms are simply amazing!

The program can work in case of virus attacks, incorrect formatting, erroneous deletion of files, etc. Recommended to have on hand for those who rarely (or don't) back up files.

Screenshot:

That's all. In one of the following articles I will supplement the article with the results of practical tests, which programs were able to recover information. Have a great weekend and don't forget to back up so you don't have to restore anything...

Quite often, PC users are faced with an unpleasant situation when they need to recover deleted files from their hard drive that were erased by mistake or accident. The system marks such data as “zero”, after which other information can be written on top of it. If you write other data and the user fills up the free disk space, the original files will be lost forever.

Therefore, today we will tell you how to recover data from a hard drive or flash drive and whether it is possible not to lose it forever!

What not to do and what is better to do:

• Under no circumstances should you install programs or save files to the disk on which the deleted files were located - this will increase the chances of their successful recovery.
• For further work, it is recommended to use an external drive.

You can turn to specialists to extract data, but their work is usually too expensive. Doing the restoration yourself is also quite possible. In order not to encounter this problem, read about what may indicate that.

Programs for recovering deleted files

R.Saver

There are special programs for recovering deleted files, the best of them is R.Saver. For the most part, these programs are suitable not only for working with computer disks, but also for external media. You can download the program to recover deleted files using the button below

There is a possibility that the information will only be partially restored, but you will have to come to terms with this. To get the best results from the program, you should install it on an external drive, run it from there and follow the instructions.

Free, but very effective, R.Saver can:

• recover deleted files from a flash drive or disk;
• reconstruct damaged file systems;
• return data after formatting;
• recover deleted files using signatures.

At the end there will be a list of other programs for recovering deleted files from your computer.

We will check how R.Saver recovers files after standard deletion from storage media. To do this, let's take an ordinary USB flash drive with the NTFS file system, create a separate folder on it, save several different documents into it, and then delete them.

In the main program window, call up the context menu and select “Search for lost data.”

In the next window, click “No”, since we deleted the data manually and not by formatting.

We wait until the scanning process is completed.

After scanning, we will see the deleted folder, and inside it – our documents.

Determine the save location, click “Select”.

That's all.

Recuva

One of the most promising products. The program is free, Russified and does not cause any difficulties in learning.

Recuva will find deleted files from your computer or external media and immediately resuscitate them. After downloading and installing it on your computer or external drive, you should do the following:

• After starting the recovery wizard, mark all the data that should be restored;
• Mark the section or folder where the lost data was;
• After this, scanning of the marked folders and searching for deleted files begins. The in-depth scanning function will take longer, but show better results;
• Recuva will then retrieve the lost data from your hard drive or external storage device. For external media, the sequence of actions will be the same as for a hard drive;
• The program highlights all found data in different colors. Green - which were completely removed, yellow - which were partially restored, red - which remained deleted with the loss of all information.

At the final stage, you need to mark the folder where all the files will be saved.

R-Studio

Paid, but professional program. In demo mode, it allows you to recover documents no larger than 256 KB in size. It will return all data accidentally lost or missing after formatting or a virus attack from the hard drive or removable media. The list of supported versions includes all popular versions of Windows.

A practical interface and advanced functionality with additional features will delight the most demanding users. How to recover deleted files using R-Studio - the algorithm of actions after downloading will be as follows:

• In the main R-Studio window, you need to select the disk/partition from which recovery will be performed and click “Scan”.

• After scanning, you need to click “Show disk contents”, mark everything that can be recovered, and then click “Recover those marked...”

The program will be able to bring back to life not only individual documents, but also entire partitions on the hard drive.

Starus File Recovery

The program will find and return missing data to your computer or external storage device in a short time. It is shareware.

• Before starting the search, you will need to install Starus File Recovery and start scanning from the place where the data was deleted.
• After recovery, when the user is shown a message about the successful operation, the program will offer a preview function for sorting.
• Mark the files you need and where to save them. You can write data to a CD, flash drive, virtual image, or (if there is a large amount of information) send it via FTP connection.

Have a great day!

(for example, when deleting files from Windows Explorer, you pressed the Shift+Del keys). Chances are that the files are still on the hard drive - you just need to find them.

To successfully recover lost files, you need to follow some steps. Don't despair - you don't have to be an IT expert to do this, and you also don't have to pay hundreds of dollars to a specialist to recover your information. The R-Undelete utility is intended primarily for novice users. It uses the same technologies as our professional data recovery utility R-Studio, while its user interface is quite user-friendly and easy to use, making the program an ideal solution for most users when recovering deleted files.

But before you download R-Undelete (or any other file recovery utility), it is imperative that you understand and adhere to a few important rules:

First of all
First of all, you need to minimize the information stored on your computer's disk. To understand why this is needed, let's consider what happens when files are deleted - both accidental and intentional. In reality, Windows does not immediately delete data. When data is deleted, the disk sectors where they were located are marked as “deleted” and become available for recording information by other applications (programs). Therefore, all your data, including information about file names, can partially or completely remain on the disk, and therefore can be recovered.

However, there is always a chance that Windows will need this disk space to write new data. And if the sectors where the “deleted” data was located are overwritten, then it will no longer be possible to restore them.

Therefore: the sooner you start the data recovery process, and the less data is written to the disk, the higher your chances of recovering .

So our main recommendation is this: do not use the computer on which the lost files were located. If you are downloading something to the system drive, then cancel the download. Do not run programs, create (save) any files, or use the Internet until you have recovered the data. If possible, do not even turn off or restart the computer, since Windows constantly writes information to the system disk during the process of turning on/off the computer.

Leave your computer on but don't use it. If you have another computer, then use it - download the R-Undelete utility onto it and copy it to removable media, for example, a USB flash drive or CD-RW

If you have an R-Undelete registration key, write it down or save a copy of it in a text file on removable media.

If you do not have a registration key, you can run R-Undelete in demo mode. In this mode, all data recovery operations are available, including searching for files and scanning the disk. The only limitation is that in this mode you cannot save recovered files larger than 256 KB. This allows you to evaluate the possibilities of data recovery before purchasing a license. If the lost files are found, you can immediately buy a license, enter the received registration key into the registration field of the program and immediately restore the files without losing what has already been done.

Below we discuss in detail the process of recovering deleted files from an external exFAT disk R-Undelete. In this example, we will restore a folder (and all the files in it) called "Photos" that was deleted from the "MyVacation" folder.

Let's delete the "Photos" folder to the Recycle Bin (to demonstrate R-Undelete's data recovery capabilities only - you do not need to delete any files from your computer to study this tutorial).

Here you can see the "Photos" folder in the trash...

To enlarge the image, click on it.

Regardless of how the files were deleted, you need to recover them using R-Undelete. Next, let's look at how this can be done.

Installation of R-Undelete
Download, install and run R-Undelete. If you are going to recover files from your system drive, install R-Undelete on external removable media to avoid overwriting lost files. See webpage for more complete information.

Recovering Deleted Files Using R-Undelete
Select the drive where the deleted files were located. In our example, this is the external drive E:\.


To enlarge the image, click on it.
Hover over this drive and click Show files. R-Undelete will begin searching for files on the disk. This may take some time, depending on how large your hard drive is.

After R-Undelete finishes searching for deleted files, view the files found on the external drive


To enlarge the image, click on it.

Now you need to find the files that you want to recover. To do this, R-Undelete gives you several options:

By sorting by file type
R-Undelete sorts files into the most common types and places them in the appropriate bookmarks. For our case, the corresponding tab is “Pictures”. This tab has an additional option for displaying files - "Tiles". Click on this tab, select Tiles and their size:


To enlarge the image, click on it.

By manually searching for individual files or groups of files:
You can find files by searching them manually. To do this, click on the Search button, specify a file name or file mask, click on the Start button, and only the corresponding files will be shown.

To enlarge the image, click on it.
Files are searched on the current bookmark. Select the All tab to search all files.

For more detailed instructions on sorting and manual searching, see the R-Undelete help pages: and.

View files:
You can use the built-in file viewer to evaluate the chances of successful file recovery or to find the file you need to recover. Right-click on the file to view it.


To enlarge the image, click on it.

Close the viewer to return to the remaining files.

Deep Scan
If a quick search doesn't find your deleted files, you can try a deep scan. During this procedure, R-Undelete deeply analyzes all data on the disk, including parsing information about files and searching for files based on their signatures. You can read more about the Deep Scan procedure and file signatures on the R-Undelete help page: .

Click the Deep scan button


To enlarge the image, click on it.

R-Undelete will begin scanning. The scanning process can be monitored while the disk is being analyzed.


To enlarge the image, click on it.

During scanning, additionally found files are automatically added to the corresponding bookmark. In this case, all settings for searching and marking files will be reset.

Depending on your hardware, scanning times may vary, even during the process, and can be quite long for large drives. The deep scan can be interrupted and then resumed by pressing the Resume scan button.

When deleted files are found, mark them for recovery:


To enlarge the image, click on it.

When all the necessary files are marked for recovery, a sufficiently large amount of space on another drive should be available to save them.

Never save recovered files to the same location as they were, or you may lose them completely!

Choose how you want to save files: either in file type folders or in an actual folder structure.

After all the necessary preparations have been made, click on the Recover button to begin file recovery. Wait while R-Undelete recovers the files and evaluate the results.


To enlarge the image, click on it.

After the recovery is complete, the folder with the recovered files will automatically open.


To enlarge the image, click on it.

The recovery session is now complete. Go to the Disks panel to start the next session or click the Exit button to exit the program.

Upgrade R-Undelete Home to R-UNDELETE
The free version of R-Undelete Home allows the user to evaluate how the program recovers files from NTFS and ReFS file systems, for which it has full functionality for saving files smaller than 256KB. Regardless of this limitation, all recovered files can be viewed in the built-in viewer to assess the chances of their recovery before you upgrade the home version (R-Undelete Home) to recover files from NTFS and ReFS drives.

You need to purchase a license for R-UNDELETE if you want to recover files from NTFS and ReFS drives. Moreover, R-UNDELETE can recover files from any volumes visible to the operating system. This could be software or hardware RAIDs, Windows Storage Spaces, etc.

This can be done on the fly, even while performing file recovery operations, and the program does not need to be restarted. For more information, see the R-Undelete help page: .

Conclusion
You can see that recovering files using R-Undelete is quite easy even for a novice user. Using this utility will not damage your hard drive or affect the performance of your PC. Therefore, it is quite reasonable to try using this program before turning to the services of specialists.

If you have lost valuable files, do not rush to become depressed: recovering information from your hard drive is possible, and you can do it yourself.

A file deleted from the hard drive actually remains on the same sectors of the disk. In the file table it is marked “zero”. As long as this information is not overwritten, the files are recoverable.

The most important thing is to choose the right tool. We have selected the best programs for hard drive data recovery. In this review, we will list the necessary functions of the programs and briefly describe how they work.

2. TestDisk – recovery of deleted HDD partitions (Windows / Mac OS / Linux)

TestDisk is a program for data recovery and . Supports file systems FAT, NTFS, ext2, etc. Works only from the command line; detailed documentation will help you understand the commands.

It makes sense to use the program in cases where data has been lost

• as a result of errors in the file table,
• in the presence of bad blocks
• if you accidentally delete a HDD partition.

In such cases, other utilities such as Recuva or PhotoRec may not be able to cope.

With TestDisk you can restore boot sectors, fix tables in FAT, Master File Table - in general, fix errors on your hard drive, which are often the reason for deleting files.

If the operating system does not boot and/or you are running Linux, you can make a byte-by-byte copy of the HDD partitions and restore files safely, avoiding overwriting.

If TestDisk did not help or seemed complicated, test PhotoRec (see below), since the programs are distributed in a common archive.

3. PhotoRec – recovery of photos and videos on your hard drive (Windows, Linux, Mac OS)

PhotoRec is a cross-platform program for recovering data from disk. Searches by file signatures and works best at finding deleted images and videos.

In total, PhotoRec covers about 300 file types and 480 file extensions. Data recovery is carried out both on the hard drive and removable media – flash drives, memory cards.

You can download the program for free for desktop. Major file systems are supported, including NTFS, FAT, exFAT, ext2/3/4, partially ReiserFS, etc.

Included with the program is the TestDisk console utility. Let us remind you that it is designed to recover deleted partitions, correct the boot record on the disk and other errors on the HDD.

Note. Despite the fact that data recovery on the disk takes place in read mode. When saving files, you must specify a directory on another drive - otherwise the deleted data will be overwritten.

4. Diskdigger for PC

Diskdigger exists in desktop and mobile editions. We will be looking at the Windows version. It supports HDD, SSD, SD cards and USB flash drives and virtual disks (VHD/VDI, etc.) connected to the computer.

The program offers you to choose one of two scanning options – Dig deep or Dig Deeper.

Accordingly, the Dig deep method is suitable for recovering files on a hard drive, deleting files to the Recycle Bin, deleting any data in the FAT, exFAT and NTFS file system.

The Dig Deeper recovery method will be extremely useful in more complex cases involving the deletion of information. This method involves searching for files by signatures, bypassing the file system. Scanning in Dig Deeper mode will take much longer than Dig deep.

It should be noted that the desktop version of Diskdigger has a user-friendly interface and allows you to flexibly configure the search for files on the HDD. It is convenient to use previews when restoring and saving results as a list or thumbnails. In general, Diskdigger is designed for photo, audio and video recovery, similar to PhotoRec.

5. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard (Windows)

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is an excellent, although not free, program for recovering deleted files from the HDD. However, 500 MB can be restored without purchasing the full version. To do this, just download the 30-day trial version of the product on the website.

Scenarios in which the EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard will be useful:

• Deleting files bypassing the Recycle Bin (via Shift+Delete)
• Removing an entire HDD partition
• Quickly format your hard drive
• File corruption, or bad blocks
• Hard disk partition is defined as raw

The program interface is simple; beginners will find the step-by-step setup wizard useful. It allows you to select file types, scan type (Quick Scan / Deep Scan). As the scan progresses, you can view the results in a convenient preview window.

That's why EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is great for image and video recovery.

Data Recovery Wizard supports data recovery from hard drive, SSD, memory card, USB flash drive.

The list of supported operating systems includes Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP, Server 2008 and 2003, 2000 and older.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery supports more than 300 file extensions, suitable for recovering deleted partitions on HDD/SSD, ignores read errors. The description states that the main file systems for searching files are FAT, NTFS and ExFAT. However, Phoenix Windows Data Recovery can go around and detect files regardless of the file system type. To do this, use a signature search, which is activated by the Deep Scan option.

The Technician version of the program will be indispensable if the files were in a RAID archive and one of the array disks failed. Other versions of the program also have useful backup add-ons. However, for home use, the Home or Professional versions will be optimal (cost from $60 to $100).

7. Minitool Power Data Recovery – a program for recovering files from a hard drive

Minitool Power Data Recovery is a program for recovering data on damaged, faulty hard drives, emergency hdds - those that are not detected on the computer.

Some features of the utility:

• Power Data Recovery recovers entire disks, works with large dynamic disks (> 1 TB), RAID arrays,
• when scanning, it bypasses errors, cyclically reads data, bad blocks, switches the head to a “sparing” mode when reading information from the disk,
• works with FAT 16/32 file systems,
• The “deep scan” option allows you to find deleted files that are not detected during normal scanning,
• Free recovery of 1024 MB of any data.

How to recover information from a hard drive

The program has a step-by-step data recovery wizard. After selecting Logical drive and clicking the Scan button, a list of Scan Results will be displayed. Files are sorted by File name, Size, Creation date.

Video on how to use Power Data Recovery:

8. Undelete Plus (Windows)

Undelete Plus is a shareware program for recovering deleted files. Supports recovery:

• office documents and mail,
• photo, video, mp3 audio,
• files after emptying the Windows Recycle Bin,
• system disk after formatting / reinstalling Windows.

Undelete Plus works on all versions of Windows and supports storage devices with the FAT or NTFS file system.

Similar to Recuva, the program determines the probability of recovery for found files. You can sort results by type, set filters by time and size.

9. Glary Undelete: recovering information from your hard drive

Glary Undelete is a free program for recovering deleted files from HDD, easy to use, with a convenient user interface.

Glary Undelete recovers files from hard drives, SSDs, any removable media devices - memory cards, USB flash drives, etc.

There are no settings, to get started you need to click Start. There is a filter by name/date/size. The sidebar allows you to group results by file extension. The probability of recovery for each file can be found in the “Status” column.

10. R-Studio - a popular program for recovering data from a hard drive

11. Puran File Recovery - a simple program for recovering from FAT/NTFS drives

This is not to say that Puran File Recovery stands out from other data recovery programs in the review. However, we list the main functional features of this free product.

Puran File Recovery works with Windows 8, 7, Vista, and XP. The application is available in portable form for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows, so it does not require installation. The program has a simple and fast interface.

FAT12/16/32 and NTFS file systems are supported. If the disk is deleted or has a raw format, the Full Scan option will detect the partition and then restore data from the hard disk in normal mode.

There are two modes for recovering data from HDD - fast and deep (byte-by-byte) scanning of deleted information. During deep scanning, Puran File Recovery does not simply search through records in the file table; it scans known patterns, trying to detect a particular format. By the way, the utility can recognize about 50 file types.

Found files are restored, preserving full paths and names (if possible). Before saving to disk, the user can sort the recovery results and familiarize themselves with the files in preview mode.

Other disk recovery programs

• (now "EASEUS Data Recovery"): professional recovery of damaged information in FAT and NTFS file systems.
• Data Rescue PC3: program for searching deleted files from Prosoft Engineering, supports FAT and NTFS file systems
• : a program for recovering files and SSD partitions for Windows and .
• FileSalvage: data recovery from disk, resuscitation of deleted/damaged information
• : works under Microsoft Windows 2000 and higher, supports FAT, NTFS and HFS file systems, RAID arrays.
• : Recovers damaged data on NTFS, HFS, FAT 16/32 partitions.

Answers to readers' questions

1. The lid of a Lenovo laptop was accidentally slammed shut. I don’t know whether it was because of this or not, Windows itself reinstalled itself and all the information from the Desktop disappeared. Then a window with a red Windows cross appeared. There it was suggested that we print out the instructions and save them on a flash drive, something about the hard drive and not use the computer until we restore the hard drive. What should I do, I would like to recover files on my hard drive :-)

2. There were files on the Desktop. They disappeared. I found only the names in MS Word. Please help me so that I can work with them as before.

Answer. The answer will be short. See programs for recovering data from a hard drive in the list above. Indicate in the list the system drive on which WIndows was installed. If you need to return some files from the Desktop, when scanning, specify “[system drive letter] > Users > [User name] > Desktop.

After reinstalling the system, photos and videos were not copied to the hard drive and, apparently, were deleted. Is it possible now to recover data from hdd for free?

Answer. The question is imprecise in its wording, but it is not difficult to answer. Use any recovery program mentioned in the article. Actually, before the data recovery process, it is highly undesirable to use the hard drive to write and read information, so if possible, install the software on another medium and do not work in the OS before you begin restoring data on the disk.

Yesterday I deleted the entire folder on my hard drive. There was 1 GB of content, there were many folders and other valuable data! I looked a few times and there was nothing there. Then I went and deleted the entire folder, but it turns out that there were my hidden photos and videos... How to recover data from a hard drive?

Answer. Almost any data recovery program is suitable for these purposes. For example, R-Studio, Minitool Power Data Recovery, Power Data Recovery or Recuva. In general, there is no shortage of such programs, choose any one, read the instructions on Softdroid and start recovery.

I uploaded files to the mail.ru cloud, after a few days the files disappeared. Before that I logged in from another device - the files were there! Is it possible to recover files for free?

Answer. Yes, recovering files from your hard drive is quite possible if you have synchronized files uploaded to the Mail.ru cloud with your PC. To do this, you need to use R-Studio, Minitool Power Data Recovery or other tools. After installing a file recovery program, point it to the drive where the synchronized cloud files were located. I assume you know the next steps.

My son's favorite game on the computer crashed. I wanted to download it for him again, but he doesn’t want to start it from the very beginning. It says "application error". Will data recovery programs help? Thanks in advance.

Answer. In theory, you can recover files (deleted game saves) using hard drive data recovery programs. To do this, find out where the saves of a particular game are stored, run a search for files, etc., everything as usual when restoring. However, it is not entirely clear how your saves were lost and in what circumstances this happened. It is quite possible that you do not need the help of data recovery programs, since many games store saves in a Windows user folder separate from the actual game application. Reinstall the game and see if you can open saves within the game.

The information has been erased. After recovering lost files, I have damaged files that I don’t know how to recover. The information is very necessary. How to recover a damaged file? Tell me the way out.

Answer. This information is not enough to answer your question correctly. If you restored files yourself and as a result received some of the information in a damaged form, this means that the deleted files have already been overwritten with new information, and this process is irreversible.

It is less likely that you used low-quality recovery software or selected the wrong scanning mode. However, we suggest that you try to recover damaged files again using .

There is no need to write files or install programs on the hard drive or USB flash drive that contains the information you want to recover. This is connected with the principle of deleting information, the fact is that when you click on the “delete” button, the information is not actually deleted, but only its header is erased, the file or folder itself remains, but the next time it is written to a disk or USB, it is replaced in the place where a deleted file or folder is located, new information is written, and the old information can no longer be restored.

Ways to recover a deleted file or folder.

1) Check cart

The first and simplest thing to do is check the Recycle Bin to see if there is a deleted file or folder there. To do this, click on the Recycle Bin shortcut on your desktop and if you see a file or folder there that you accidentally deleted, right-click on it and select "Restore". The data will be restored to the same location where it was before it was deleted.

If you are unlucky and you do not find the deleted file or folder in the trash, then you need to use one of the recovery programs described below

2) Use the free data recovery program Recuva.

First of all, go to the site Recuva and download the latest version of the program. Then you start the installation of the downloaded program, the installation process is very simple, the first step is to select the installation language.

Then we specify additional parameters (whether to create a shortcut on the desktop, whether to search for program updates...), you can leave them as default. Please note that if the deleted file was located on the disk where the operating system is installed (often drive C), then the Recuva program should not be installed on this disk, otherwise by installing it you may overwrite the file and it will not be possible to recover it. To select a different drive to install the program, click the button "Additionally" and specify a different installation path for the program.

After this, you will be asked to install the Google Chrome browser; if you do not want to install, uncheck the box.

After installation, the Recuva wizard will launch to help you recover your files or folder. I strongly recommend using the wizard, as it is more understandable and convenient. Click "Next"

Selecting the type of recovered file

Select the location where the file or folder was located.

Put a tick "Enable advanced analysis", press "Begin".

After this, the search for files will begin, this can take up to several tens of minutes, depending on many factors (computer power, disk or USB device capacity, disk speed, USB device, etc.).

After searching, you will see a list of files that can be recovered. If you want to get more detailed information about the files, you can click on the button "Go to advanced mode".

To restore a file, check the boxes next to them and click the button "Restore", then indicate where to restore the file and within a few seconds the file will be restored.

3) Using the paid program EasyRecovery.

I, like many, am for free software, but in this article I will describe file recovery using a paid program, since during my test recoveries this program saw more deleted files than Recuva (2385 files versus 2461). I would recommend using this program if the free one did not help. You will still not lose anything, since with this program you can find deleted files for free, but to restore these found files and folders you will need a license key.

So, first of all, download the latest version of the program EasyRecovery (in this example I will use the Home version). Install... the process is not complicated, we agree with everything and click "Next", let me remind you that the program must be installed on a volume (disk) from which you will not restore the file or folders, since you can overwrite the file or folder being restored. After installation, run the program, the first window to appear is the licensing window, which you can skip if you click "Run as a DEMO". The first EasyRecovery window appears in front of us, click "Continue".

In the next window, select the location where the file that needs to be restored is located.

The next step is to select a recovery script. If the file or folder was simply deleted, it is recommended to select "Deleted File Recovery", if the hard drive/USB flash drive has been formatted, you must select "Formatted Media Recovery".

After this, an information window will appear in which all the specified search settings are indicated, if you have not confused anything, click "Continue".

The search for files will begin, this process may take quite a lot of time, depending on the volume size of the hard drive or USB device, the power of the computer, etc. After the entire disk or USB flash drive is scanned, all deleted files will appear in front of you, divided into groups depending from expansion. If you click on a file and try to open the file (Open) or save it (Save as), you will be prompted to enter a license key; without it, the file will not be restored.

I hope this step-by-step guide helped you recover your files and folders, saving a lot of time and possibly money. In the future, I recommend using backup of important files, if possible, store important files on several media or at least in different folders.