Developed by Piriform, Recuva can recover permanently deleted files, which have been marked as free space by the operating system.

This free data recovery software can work on hard drives, USB flash drives, memory cards, MP3 players, and other storage devices supported by FAT and NTFS file systems. The app comes in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. After the developer joined a bigger enterprise, the app has not been updated in several years.

In addition, Recuva is available in installable and portable form. The portable version has the advantage of not having to risk the possibility of overwriting the data still on a hard drive, and therefore losing extra megabytes due to its own deployment.

Recuva is a freemium app, meaning that its functionality can be enhanced by acquiring a commercial license.

Features:

• Unlimited free data recovery with the standard version;
• Deep scan mode for hard to find files;
• It’s available in a portable version.

Superior file recovery

Recuva can recover pictures, music, documents, videos, emails or any other file type you’ve lost. And it can recover from any rewriteable media you have: memory cards, external hard drives, USB sticks and more!

Deep scan for buried files

For those hard to find files, Recuva has an advanced deep scan mode that scours your drives to find any traces of files you have deleted.

Securely delete files

Sometimes you want a file gone for good. Recuva’s secure overwrite feature uses industry- and military-standard deletion techniques to make sure your files stay erased.