Recuvafor Windows

You're sitting at your desk, stunned at what just happened. Your most valuable files have been deleted. You don't know how or when. You just know that they're gone. Do you panic? No... not when you have Recuva. The undeletion program can recover all your digital files. Images, music, documents, videos. You name it. Recuva can find it! By the same token, the software can also securely delete recovered files. Imagine you viewed your company's most important files on your personal computer. Using Recuva will make sure those documents are erased once and for all. If this sounds all too familiar to you, check it out. 

Small yet superior freeware program

Windows uses the Master File Table or MFT entries to organize the files left in your hard drive. With just this, it can recover your files in two ways.

Recuva knows when a file is deleted, where it lives on the hard drive and how much storage it takes up. If you accidentally delete a file, your best bet is to run Recuva as soon as it happens. Doing so will help prevent any other issues that may occur when your PC begins to reuse or overwrite entries marked as deleted.

Deep scan process

A deep scan process will look at both the Master File Table and your hard drive, essentially trying to match the missing document to the thousands of existing file headers. This process takes a long time, going through every nook and cranny of your computer.

File recovery made simple

Losing valuable and important information is always a stressful experience. It's really comforting then, that Recuva offers extremely simple guides for you. Beginning with Wizard mode, it is a basic but necessary process for recovering files. Here, it will ask you the file's type and location. If you haven't recovered your file by then, it will run a deep scan process along with the progress of the search. You can also opt to use the Advanced mode if you want Recuva to run a more detailed search of your file.

Piriform offers three Recuva plans. The free option only offers Advanced File Recovery. It's not a plan that will restrict you, considering you can retrieve an unlimited number of files. The Recuva Pro offers Advanced File recovery, Virtual Hard Drive Support, and Automatic Updates. It's worth investing in it if you're constantly working with large and important files.

Recuva boasts that it can recover every file format in your PC, hard drive, and USB. This includes Microsoft Office files, Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird and Windows Live emails, Canon RAW or .CRW image files , NTFS, FAT, exFAT-formatted drives . However, there are situations wherein your files are long gone; overwritten Files, corrupted files, files deleted by another app, like CCleaner, extremely small-to-zero-byte length files.

Where can you run this program?

Recuva works on NTFS, FAT, and exFAT format drives, as well as the earliest versions of Windows: Windows 7 (all editions, including 64-bit), Windows Vista (all editions, including 64-bit), Windows XP (Home, Professional, Media Center, Tablet Edition, 64-bit), Windows 2003 and 2008 Servers (all editions).

Is there a better alternative?

TestDisk is an open source software for both experts and novices. Its aim is to recover lost partitions and make non-booting disks bootable again. There are few alternatives that match its features in the sector.

Our take

Recuva packages its compelling technology and processes in a simple and clean program. It could have been the go-to application for any user, had it not left all its compatibility to Windows 7 and older. If Piriform doesn't update their compatibility, Recuva will be lost to an aging operating system.

Should you download it?

Yes. In fact, you should download it now. Downloading and installing Recuva after you've lost your data can create a lot of temporary information and make it harder for the program to recover the file.