What is the best free file recovery software for Windows 10/11? Read and check these 5 free data recovery software for Windows 10/11 in this post.
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.
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.
| Software | Easy GUI | Recovery Rate | Speed | Compatibility | Price | Total Score |
| MyRecover | β | High | 2–40 min | Windows 11/10/8/7/Server | Freemium | β β β β β |
| Recoverit | β | High | 2–50 min | Windows & Mac | Freemium | β β β β β |
| Recuva | β | Relatively high | 2-60 min+ | Windows | Freemium | β β β β β |
| PhotoRec | β | Relatively low | 30-60 min+ | Windows /Mac/Linux/DOS | Freeware | β β β ββ |
| Windows File Recovery | β | Relatively high | 15-60 min+ | Only Windows 10 and above | Freeware | β β βββ |
Supported by AOMEI Tech and its sophisticated team, MyRecover 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, with no upper limit.
Step 1. Download MyRecover 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. The combined scanning method of Quick Scan and Deep Scan will scan 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 x files" to begin the recovery process.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Based on capability (features), usability (GUI & operation), Compatibility (supported devices, files systems, operating systems, etc.), and speed, we recommend these 5 best free file recovery software for Windows 10 & 11 for you. 1. MyRecover Free 2. Recoverit 3. Recuva 4. PhotoRec 5. Windows File Recovery Some of them are freemium, while some are open source and totally free.
Firstly, try inbuilt tools like File History, Previous Versions, Backup & Restore, etc. All these tools require backups made in advance. Without backups, try freeware and freemium like MyRecover, PhotoRec, Windows File Recovery, etc.
On Windows PC, when deleting a file, it gets logically deleted; physically, it stays where it was until new data come to overwrite it. Thus, before overwriting, we can say that the files are still not “deleted”. Therefore, avoiding using the affected drives can improve the data recovery rate.
As mentioned above, avoiding overwriting is a contributory factor in recovering files. In the Windows file system, the space used by a deleted file is designated as free space, implying that the file can still exist and be recovered. That implies if you want to improve or maximize the chances of recovering a file, you’d better avoid or minimize using your computer as soon as possible. Thus you can recover permanently deleted files in Windows 10, and 11 successfully.
This post introduces 5 types of the best free file recovery software for Windows 10/11. Among all the eligible apps, MyRecover 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?