5 Best Free File Recovery Software for Window [2025]

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. The deleted files might still be on your hard disk drives before overwriting. Let’s have a closer look at the 5 best free file recovery software for Windows and how to recover deleted files.

5 best free file recovery software for Windows

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 will be offered in the following sections.

1. AOMEI FastRecovery 🏆

Supported by AOMEI Tech and its sophisticated team, AOMEI FastRecovery is safe & reliable to use in data recovery. All users can recover deleted/lost files from SSD/HDD/USB/SD card, etc., without difficulties.

It possesses advanced scanning technology and unique features for various data loss scenarios. Also, it provides users with some flexible and hassle-free features to simplify this process. What's more, it's read-only and does not write any data to your devices, causing data overwriting.

Pros:

• Covers more than 1,000 data types
• Quickly scan any disk in 3-5 seconds for deleted files.
• Search, filter, and preview files.  
• Recover deleted or lost files while scanning.
• Available on Windows 11/10/8/7 and Windows Servers. 
• Recover files for free up to 500 MB.
• Support advanced features like partition lost recovery, PC crash recovery, etc.

Cons:

• Lacks support for Mac and Linux.

2. Recoverit

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

Pros:

• Support 1,000 recoverable data types.
• Recovery speed is relatively high.
• Particularly excelling in video recovery and photo recovery
• Suppport file preview 
• Recover deleted or lost files while scanning
• Provide advanced features like corrupted photo recovery and bootable disk in the Premium version.

Cons:

• Only supports 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-source 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. Many users need help with learning how to use Windows File Recovery, including the syntax and parameters.

Pros:

• Support data recovery from corrupted hard drives.

Cons:

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

Comparison between Windows file recovery software ⚖️

How to recover deleted files in Windows 10 & 11

Here we'll take AOMEI FastRecovery as an example to show you how to recover deleted files in Windows 10 & 11. This may vary in different software. 

Step 1. Download AOMEI FastRecovery on the computer. After loading the disk, hover the mouse over the disk/partition that includes your needed files. Then, click Scan.

Step 2. It will automatically start Quick Scan (about 3- 5s) to find all the deleted/lost files. While scanning, you can sort, search, filter, and preview files to recover as you like.

Step 3. Once confirmed, select the files you want and click Recover to begin the recovery process. Please select a new location to save your recovered data to avoid data overwriting. 

Try it if you're losing any data! With it, you can recover deleted files in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, and servers.

FAQs

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 fast, efficient, reliable and easy to use. Why not have a try?

Meanwhile, it turns out that it is necessary to make regular backups. AOMEI Backupper Standard, a free Windows backup software, provides basic and advanced features to ensure data safety. You can choose to backup only files, partition(s), OS, entire disk, etc.