3 Best Data Recovery Software for External Hard Drives

“Does anyone know how to recover data from an external hard drive? I lost all the data on my hard drive and was wondering if anyone knows how to do a data recovery or if anyone knows of any data recovery software that does a good job?”

If you have accidentally lost data from your external hard drive like the user in the case, then you may also want the best data recovery software for external hard drives to help you to get your lost data back with ease. With a professional data recovering software, you can not only recover data from external hard drive, but also from USB flash drive, SD card, etc.

3 best data recovery software for external hard drives

For this, we prepared the 3 best external hard drive recovery software in this article. Next, each of them will be introduced in detail. You can make a decision to pick the most suitable one for yourself.

Choice 1. MyRecover (Easiest)

The first one is the easiest among the 3 free external hard disk recovery software  - MyRecover. You can use it in Windows 11/10/8/7 and Windows Server. With a clear graphical user interface, you can recover data with just a few clicks in MyRecover.

Compared with the latter two data recovery tools, MyRecover has many advantages as follows:

● User-friendly: Newcomers can also restore their files easily with a clear interface and simple operating steps.
● Functionality: You can recover files from SSD/HDD/USB/SD card.
● Full scanning: Quick Scan and Deep Scan can help you find all deleted or lost files.
● All data loss situations: It can recover files from formatted hard drive, malware or virus attack, manual deletion, etc. successfully.

After knowing something about such a reliable data recovery tool, you can click on this Download Software button to download and install MyRecover on your PC. Then follow the 3-step guideline to recover data from your external hard drive easily.

1. First, connect your external hard drive to your computer correctly. Hover the mouse over the drive saved deleted files before, and click Scan to scan.

2. You can see your deleted files and other missing files from the external hard drive after Quick Scan/Deep Scan finishes automatically.

3. Check the scanning result and you can choose a new location to store your recovered files. At last, click on the Recover X files button to recover data from your external hard drive via the free recovery software for external hard drive.

Choice 2. Windows File Recovery

The second option is another best data recovery software for external hard disk provided by Microsoft official support, which only supports Windows 10/11 now. Windows File Recovery is a command-line tool so if you have command-related expertise, you can use it easily. But if you do not know anything about the command line, you need to learn some basic knowledge about it before or you can consider Choice 1 directly.

To use Windows File Recovery, you need to learn the basic command template: winfr source-drive: destination-drive: [/mode] [/switches]

And please check your File system: Go to This PC and right-click on your external hard drive to choose Properties.

Then please select the correct mode using the file system according to the table below:

1. Go to the Microsoft Store to click Get and then install Windows File Recovery on your PC.

2. Then, find Windows File Recovery in the Windows menu, and click Run as administrator under it.

3. Input the proper command line and press Enter, for example, input winfr D: E: /extensive /n *paper*, which means recovering the paper file from D drive to E drive and using the extensive mode. You can replace the D with the letter of your external hard drive. Click Y to continue. When the process is done, you can go to the destination to check your recovered files.

Choice 3. WinfrGUI (Windows File Recovery GUI)

Since Windows File Recovery does not have a graphical user interface, it is not easy for general users. But there is a free tool with Windows File Recovery graphical user interface - WinfrGUI. With an intuitive interface, you can recover your data easily.

With the help of it, you can recover deleted files from USB/SSD/HDD/memory cards in the file system including NTFS/FAT32/exFAT/ReFS. It can save you much time and effort in learning basic knowledge about the command line.

Now, let’s see how to recover files from your external hard drive via this best free data recovery software for external hard drive easily:

1. Select your external hard drive to scan, and select a location to restore files.

2. Choose a scan mode from Quick Scan and Deep Scan. Besides, you can determine the file type in Advanced settings.

3. Finally, please press the Start Recovery button to recover files from your external hard drive without effort.

Wrapping things up

There are 3 best data recovery software for external hard drives on Windows systems. If you are using a computer based on Windows 10/11 and you know a lot about command line, you can consider using Microsoft Windows File Recovery. If you are using older Windows operating systems and you are a newcomer to computers, MyRecover is the easiest choice for you.