5 Best Free File Recovery Software for Windows 10, 11 [2025]

What is the best free file recovery software?

Today, people usually save their data on hard drives or cloud backups. Apart from that, you may also store your essential data on your USB or other electronic devices.

However, if you encounter the malfunction of a storage device, logical failure of storage devices, or accidental deletion, you may lose your files and folders.

Thankfully, many file recovery software and services make it possible to recover deleted files and folders on your computer.

Because deleted files might still be on your hard disk drives before overwriting, let’s have a closer look at the 5 data recovery software.

5 best free file recovery software for Windows 10 & 11

We have picked 5 eligible apps based on the consideration of usability, capability, compatibility, and speed. Detailed info on every free data recovery software in Windows 10/11 will be offered in the following sections.

Let's see the ranking and comparison first.

1. AOMEI FastRecovery Free
2. Recoverit
3. Recuva
4. PhotoRec
5. Windows File Recovery

Check comparison

Software	Easy GUI	Recovery Rate	Speed	Compatibility	Price	Total Score
AOMEI FastRecovery	✔	High	2–40 min	Windows 11/10/8/7/Server	Freemium	★★★★★
Recoverit	✔	High	2–50 min	Windows & Mac	Freemium	★★★★☆
Recuva	✔	Relatively high	2-60 min+	Windows	Freemium	★★★★☆
PhotoRec	✘	Relatively low	30-60 min+	Windows /Mac/Linux/DOS	Freeware	★★★☆☆
Windows File Recovery	✘	Relatively high	15-60 min+	Only Windows 10 and above	Freeware	★★☆☆☆

1. AOMEI FastRecovery

Supported by AOMEI Tech and its sophisticated team, AOMEI FastRecovery is reliable in data recovery.

It possesses advanced scanning tech and unique features applied to all-inclusive data loss situations. Using this app, all users can recover deleted/lost files from SSD/HDD/USB/SD card, etc., without difficulties.

It allows users to recover files for free at 500MB.

Pros:

• It offers good coverage of 1000+ types of data: MS Office files, Videos, Photos, Emails, Webpages, and Compressed files.
• Offer Quick Scan & Deep Scan to search for deleted and lost files on hard drives at high speed & recovery rate. 
• Available on Windows 11/10/8/7 and Windows Server. 
• Apply to comprehensive data loss situations: deletion, disk formatting, system crash, viruses, etc.

Cons:

• Lacks support for Mac and Linux.
• How to recover deleted files effortlessly using AOMEI FastRecovery?

How to recover deleted files effortlessly using AOMEI FastRecovery

 Step 1. Download AOMEI FastRecovery on the computer, then run it.

Step 2.  After loading the disk, hover the mouse over the disk/partition that includes your needed files. Then click Scan.

Step 3. It will automatically start Quick Scan to find all the deleted/lost files. While scanning, just sort/search/filter/preview/select files to recover as you like.

Step 4. Locate a new location to save your recovered data, and click "Recover" to begin the recovery process. 

2. Recoverit

Recoverit is freemium that allows users to recover data from Windows and Mac. In its Premium version, it offers some unique features like corrupted video repair.

Also, it allows users to recover data for free for 100 MB in total.

Pros:

• Support 1,000 recoverable data types.
• Recovery speed is relatively high.
• Provide advanced features like corrupted photo recovery and bootable disk in Premium version.

Cons:

• Only support 100 MB in total of free data recovery.
• Pop-up adds.

3. Recuva

Recuva supports data recovery from Windows PC/cameras/MP3 players. It provides a Recuva Wizard to guide users. With this clear and easy guide, users can easily choose what & where to scan and recover.

Pros:

• Its quick scan is fast.
• A simple and clear guide makes it easy to use.
• Recover files from damaged hard disks as well.

Cons:

• Full scan takes too long.
• Sometimes the filenames and paths will be lost.

4. PhotoRec

PhotoRec is a multi-platform open free data recovery software for Windows, Mac, Linux, Sun Solaris, etc. It features data recovery from severely damaged file systems.

Yet, it provides no intuitive and easy user interface. All operation has to be done with keyboards. In addition, users have to decide the file system, source drive, scanning mode, and destination drive on their own, which is challenging.

Many users need help with learning how to use PhotoRec to recover files.

Pros:

• Available on Windows/Linux/Mac OS/DOS/Sun Solaris, etc.
• Support FAT/NTFS/exFAT/ext2/3/4, etc.

Cons:

• No GUI.
• Difficult to learn and use.
• Filenames and directories will be lost.

5. Windows File Recovery

Windows File Recovery is a command-line software program from Microsoft without a graphical user interface.

It is now available for Windows 10 2004 and later, which can recover files from a local hard disk drive (HDD), USB flash drive, or memory card such as an SD card.

You can recover MP3 files, MP4 videos, PDF documents, JPG images, and typical office documents like Word, Excel, and PPT. However, recovery from cloud storage and network file sharing is disabled. 

Since there is no intuitive user interface, many users have problems and need to learn how to use Windows File Recovery to recover deleted files.

Pros:

• Support data recovery from corrupted hard drives.

Cons:

• No GUI.
• Difficult operation and command lines.
• Only support Windows 10 and above.
• Cannot keep filenames and directories.

FAQ

Wrapping up

This post introduces 5 types of the best free file recovery software for Windows 10/11. Among all the eligible apps, AOMEI FastRecovery will be the best choice for you since it is advanced, efficient, and easy to use.

As mentioned above, we can retrieve the deleted data before overwriting it. It turns out it is necessary to make regular backups. AOMEI Backupper, this free Windows backup software provides basic and advanced features to ensure data safety. You can also retrieve deleted files easily. That sounds great! Why not have a try?