To use a personal computer is to put yourself at risk of data loss. Even if you make regular backups to an external drive or the cloud, there are a number of scenarios where you may lose your files, such as system crashes, power outages, virus attacks, hardware malfunctions, and human error. The good news is that accidentally or maliciously deleted files can be recovered. The bad news is that professional data recovery services can be extremely expensive. In some cases—such as mechanical hard drive failure or physical damage—taking your hard drive to a professional is the only option. For situations where the hard drive is physically functioning, but has a logical fault, you can often get your data back at a fraction of the price by using do-it-yourself data recovery software.
The best DIY file recovery programs are not free—but they can often get you the same results as a walk-in professional data recovery service (like Geek Squad) for a much lower price and without handing your data over to a third party. Thousands of users successfully recover their data using DIY data recovery software every day. But be warned: your mileage may vary.
There are a number of factors that affect your chances for a successful DIY file recovery. The most important is the cause of your data loss. DIY file recovery software is meant for hard drives or USB drives with logical failures—corrupted file systems, accidental deletion, reformatting, etc. If your hard drive has physical damage, then DIY data recovery software will do more harm than help and may even make recovery by a professional impossible.
The second biggest factor is the software you use. When it comes to finding do-it-yourself data recovery software on the web, there is certainly no dearth of choice. There are scores of programs to choose from, with a few popular programs rising to the top of the list. These recommendations typically come from anecdotal or one-time user experiences. In many cases, the reviewers and commenters have only used one or two programs before making their recommendations.
While user reviews are important, we decided to dig deeper. We took the most popular DIY data recovery programs and ran them through a rigorous battery of tests so we could get a thorough comparison of exactly what each is capable of. Although the reviewers working in our data recovery lab are data recovery professionals by trade, this review is designed for everyday personal users. After reading our comparison, you should have a clear idea of which do-it-yourself data recovery software is best for your needs.
Tested Software
For our DIY data recovery software comparison, we established a few criteria:
- No free file recovery software. Though attractive for obvious reasons, free software usually lacks the features and performance necessary for successful file recovery. For example, Recuva, a widely-used free file recovery program, doesn’t recover folder names and structure.
- No intrusive file recovery programs. That is, programs that attempt to recover data by correcting errors directly on the disk where the lost files reside. Although this approach is faster and doesn’t require additional disk space to store recovered files, a failed recovery using this method seriously deteriorates chances for a successful file recovery during subsequent attempts, quite often making it impossible.
- No professional data recovery software. The high price and steep learning curve for professional data recovery software make it unsuitable for DIY users. For home use, data recovery software shouldn’t cost more than US $50 to $70.
Our DIY file recovery software comparison is an annual review. Each year, we re-evaluate the top contenders and consider newcomers as well. We’ll also highlight features that have changed since our last review.
- 2023
- 2022
- 2021
- 2020
- 2019
- 2018
- 2017
- 2016
- 2015
- 2014
Do-It-Yourself File Recovery Software Tested and Evaluated in 2023
For the 2023 update of our DIY file recovery software comparison, we kept the scope of our tests the same as 2021 and earlier.
We renewed the list of products as follows:
-
Removed two DIY programs: SFWare Data Recovery and Wise Data Recovery, primarily because of their poor file recovery performance.
-
Included two completely new programs which are highly advertised online:
Reviewed Version: Version: 7.3
Prices: Price: US$ 49.95 to US$ 599.00
Host operating systems: Windows 11, 10, 8.1/8, 7, Vista, Server
Support for data recovery hardware: No
SysTools Hard Drive Recovery Tool
Reviewed Version: 4.0.0.0
Prices: Price: US$ 39.00 to US$ 299.95
Host operating systems: Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, Server 2016, 2012 R2, 2008.
Support for data recovery hardware: No
We also continued to test and evaluate the programs which were included in our 2021 annual review:
Reviewed Version: 15.8.1
Prices: Pro: US$ 69.95 (Month Subscription), US$ 99.95 (1-Year Subscription), US$ 149.95 (Lifetime License) Technician: US$ 299.00 (1-Year Subscription), US$ 399.00 (1-Year Subscription), US$ 499.00 (Lifetime License)
Host operating systems: Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, Server 2019, 2016, 2012, 2008, 2003
Support for data recovery hardware: no
Reviewed Version: 6.7 build 180011
Prices: US $54.99
Host operating systems: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10
Support for data recovery hardware: no
Reviewed Version: 9.16
Prices: US $24.95
Host operating systems: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, XP(SP3)
Support for data recovery hardware: no
Reviewed Version: 5.2.817
Prices: 5.2.817
Host operating systems: Windows 11, 10, 8.1/8, 7, Vista, XP, Server 2019, 2016, 2012, 2008
Support for data recovery hardware: no
Reviewed Version: 8.16
Prices: US$ 39.95 to US$ 79.95
Host operating systems: Windows 11, 10, 8/8.1, 7, Vista, XP, Server 2019, 2016, 2012, 2008, 2003
Support for data recovery hardware: no
Reviewed Version: 7.3.8
Prices: US $39.99 (1-Year License, 1 computer, 29.99 with discount), US$ 59.99 (1-Year License, 5 computers, 39.99 with discount).
Host operating systems: Windows 10, 8/8.1, 7, Vista, XP, Server 2016, 2012, 2008, 2003, 2000
Support for data recovery hardware: no
For your convenience, we consolidated the results of our evaluation and tests into an interactive table below. You can click the column title to expand the column into a full tab to see more detailed results of the evaluation or test. Some tabs also include additional test / evaluation descriptions and brief conclusions.
Interface and Features Ratings
| Product | File recovery features | Localization Support | Demo version restrictions | File preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R-Undelete | 5.1 | 5.7 | 5.5 | 6.0 |
| Disk Drill | 5.1 | 5.8 | 4.5 | 5.5 |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 3.2 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 5.5 |
| DiskInternals Uneraser | 4.3 | 5.0 | 3.0 | 6.0 |
| Raise Data Recovery | 3.4 | 5.7 | 4.0 | 5.0 |
| Speed Data Recovery | 3.2 | 4.3 | 4.5 | 4.5 |
| SysTools Hard Drive Recovery Tool | 2.4 | 5.8 | 3.0 | 4.0 |
| TogetherShare Data Recovery | 2.7 | 1.7 | 5.5 | 3.0 |
File recovery performance Ratings
| Product | Deleted files | Emptied Recycle Bin | Disk re-format | Damaged partition | Deleted partition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R-Undelete | 6.0 | 6.0 | 5.5 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 5.7 | 5.3 | 5.3 | 5.6 | 5.5 |
| Raise Data Recovery | 5.3 | 5.3 | 5.2 | 5.6 | 5.5 |
| Speed Data Recovery | 5.5 | 4.8 | 5.1 | 5.8 | 5.5 |
| Disk Drill | 5.0 | 5.5 | 5.3 | 5.3 | 5.5 |
| TogetherShare Data Recovery | 4.3 | 4.0 | 5.2 | 5.6 | 5.5 |
| DiskInternals Uneraser | 3.5 | 4.8 | 3.4 | 0.0 | 3.0 |
| SysTools Hard Drive Recovery Tool | 2.7 | 5.0 | 2.9 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
For our 2023 DIY file recovery program review, we added three programs: TogetherShare Data Recovery, SysTools Data Recovery, and DiskInternals Uneraser. First two programs showed the worst results both in file recovery features and performance, and they are likely to be removed from the next year’s review. The final one, DiskInternals Uneraser, has great recovery features but, since it totally failed in tests for data recovery from damaged partitions, it showed very poor data recovery performance overall. It looks like it cannot recover data from disks without healthy partitions.
R-Undelete still holds the first place as it was in all our previous tests, but the second place has changed. Disk Drill replaced EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard because the latter failed tests for data recovery from emptied Bin. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard has now moved to the forth place. Raise Data Recovery remains in third place.
Overall Rating
| Product | Rating | Conclusions |
|---|---|---|
| R-Undelete | 5.8 | The program has the first/second-best interface among all tested programs and it scores best for both its feature set and recovery performance. In fact, it’s shown the best results for all file recovery tests. Overall, it is the best choice for home users. Its strong points are: The best file previewer, the best file recovery features (including versatile file search and mark capabilities, estimation of chances for successful recovery, and disk S.M.A.R.T. monitoring), the best file recovery performance, and relaxed demo restrictions. In addition, it has a shredder to wipe out sensitive files. Its weak points are: Insufficient localization support (only 9 interface languages) and the lack of support for popular non-Windows file systems. |
| Disk Drill | 5.3 | A program with a good basic wizard interface, good localization, average demo restriction, average file previewer, excellent recovery features, and good recovery performance. Its strong points are: A good localization (18 interface languages), good file search and mark capabilities, disk imaging, and S.M.A.R.T monitoring. Overall, Disk Drill shows good recovery performance for emptied Bin and after disk reformat. Its weak points are: No support for ReFS (a new Windows file system), and a relatively poor performance for data recovery from damaged NTFS partitions. |
| Raise Data Recovery | 5.1 | A program with an excellent wizard interface (first/second best), average localization and demo restrictions, a very good file previewer, average recovery features (except its file system set), and the second-best score for file recovery performance. Its strong points are: An excellent file system set (all file systems for Windows and Mac and most popular file systems for Linux), a very good file previewer, and a very good recovery performance for emptied Bin as well as deleted and damaged partitions. Its weak points are: Insufficient localization support (only 9 interface languages), no disk imaging support, poor file search and mark capabilities, and no S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 5.0 | A program with a good basic wizard interface, excellent localization, the softest demo mode restrictions, a very good file previewer, good recovery features, and a very good recovery performance in everything except for recovery from emptied Bin. Its strong points are: A good file system set (all file systems for Windows, and most popular file systems for Mac and Linux), the softest demo mode restrictions (up to 2GB of free recovery), versatile file search and mark capabilities, a versatile disk scan parameter set, a good file recovery performance for files deleted without Bin and from formatted disks. Its weak points are: No disk imaging support, no S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, no logging capabilities, and a very poor file recovery performance for emptied Bin. Also, the APFS file system would be a very good addition to the Mac file systems. |
| Speed Data Recovery | 4.8 | A program with a good basic wizard interface, very poor localization, average demo restrictions, an average file previewer, a very mediocre file recovery feature set, and average recovery performance. Its strong points are: A good file recovery performance for deleted and damaged partitions. Its weak points are: A very poor localization (only the English interface language), no logging capabilities, and no S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. |
| TogetherShare Data Recovery | 4.4 | A program with a good basic wizard interface, poor localization, very soft demo restrictions, a very poor previewer, poor recovery feature set, and average recovery performance. Its strong points are: A good recovery performance for deleted and damaged partitions. Its weak points are: A very poor localization (only the English interface language and the program didn’t recognize non-European characters). It has no disk imaging, no logging capabilities, and no S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. |
| DiskInternals Uneraser | 4.0 | A program with a good basic wizard interface that can be switched to the Explorer style, very poor localization, an excellent file previewer, relatively strong demo restrictions, and very good recovery feature set. Its strong points are: Two types of interfaces (wizard and Explorer), an excellent file previewer, excellent file system set (all file systems for Windows and Mac and most popular file systems for Linux and Unix), good raw file recovery, very good disk imaging capabilities, very good file recovery parameters, and very good logging. Its weak points are:: relatively poor localization (only 3 interface languages), relatively strong demo restrictions (only file preview), No S.M.A.R.T. capabilities, poor file recovery performance, especially for damaged partitions (a total failure). |
| SysTools Hard Drive Recovery Tool | 3.2 | A program with a good basic wizard interface, very good localization, relatively strong demo restrictions, an average file previewer, very poor recovery feature set, and very poor file recovery performance. Its strong points are: A very good localization (18 interface languages). Its weak points are: No disk imaging, no logging capabilities, no S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, very poor recovery performance for deleted files, disk reformat, and deleted/damaged partitions (a total failure). |
Do-It-Yourself File Recovery Software Tested and Evaluated in 2022
For the 2022 update of our DIY file recovery software comparison, we kept the scope of our tests the same as 2021 and earlier.
We renewed the list of products as follows:
-
Removed two DIY programs: SFWare Data Recovery and Wise Data Recovery, primarily because of their poor file recovery performance.
-
Included two completely new programs which are highly advertised online:
Reviewed Version: 1.2.30
Prices: from US$ 23.96 to 55.96 (with 20% discount)
Host operating systems: Windows 11, 10, 8.1/8, 7, Vista, XP (SP2+)
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 4.0.0.0
Prices: from US$ 45.95 to US$ 299.95
Host operating systems: Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, XP
Support for data recovery hardware: No
We also continued to test and evaluate the programs which were included in our 2021 annual review:
Reviewed Version: 14.5
Prices: Pro: US$ 69.95 (Month Subscription), US$ 99.95 (1-Year Subscription), US$ 149.95 (Lifetime License) Technician: US$ 299.00 (1-Year Subscription), US$ 399.00 (1-Year Subscription), US$ 499.00 (Lifetime License)
Host operating systems: Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, Server 2019, 2016, 2012, 2008, 2003
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 6.7.180009
Prices: US$ 54.99
Host operating systems: Windows 11/10/8/8.1/7/Vista/XP
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 9.4
Prices: US$ 24.95
Host operating systems: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, XP (SP3)
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 4.4.606
Prices: Pro: US$ 54.95, Enterprise: US$ 589.95
Host operating systems: Windows 11, 10, 8.1/8, 7, Vista, XP, Server 2019, 2016, 2012, 2008
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 7.3.1
Prices: US$ 39.99 (1-Year License, 1 computer, US$ 29.99 with discount), US$ 59.99 (1-Year License, 5 computers, US$ 39.99 with discount).
Host operating systems: Windows 10, 8/8.1, 7, Vista, XP, Server 2016, 2012, 2008, 2003, 2000
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 3.6.1
Prices: from US$ 69.95 to US$ 499.95
Host operating systems: Windows 11, 10, 8/8.1, 7, Vista, XP, Server 2016, 2012, 2008, 2003, 2000
Support for data recovery hardware: No
For your convenience, we consolidated the results of our evaluation and tests into an interactive table below. You can click the column title to expand the column into a full tab to see more detailed results of the evaluation or test. Some tabs also include additional test / evaluation descriptions and brief conclusions.
Interface and Features Ratings
| Product | File recovery features | User Interface | Localization Support | Demo version restrictions | File preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R-Undelete | 5.1 | 6.0 | 5.7 | 5.5 | 6.0 |
| Disk Drill for Windows | 4.9 | 5.0 | 5.8 | 5.0 | 5.5 |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 3.1 | 5.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| Raise Data Recovery | 3.5 | 6.0 | 5.5 | 4.5 | 5.0 |
| Speed Data Recovery | 3.2 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 4.5 |
| iBeesoft Data Recovery | 2.7 | 5.0 | 5.8 | 4.0 | 4.5 |
| Aiseesoft Data Recovery | 2.7 | 5.0 | 5.3 | 4.0 | 3.0 |
| iBoysoft Data Recovery | 2.8 | 5.0 | 3.7 | 5.5 | 3.0 |
File recovery performance Ratings
| Product | Deleted files | Emptied Recycle Bin | Disk re-format | Damaged partition | Deleted partition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R-Undelete | 6.0 | 6.0 | 5.4 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5.2 | 5.6 | 5.8 |
| Speed Data Recovery | 5.5 | 5.5 | 4.9 | 5.8 | 5.9 |
| Raise Data Recovery | 5.5 | 5.3 | 5.1 | 5.6 | 5.8 |
| Disk Drill for Windows | 5.0 | 5.5 | 5.1 | 4.8 | 5.9 |
| iBoysoft Data Recovery | 4.7 | 4.5 | 4.9 | 5.9 | 5.3 |
| iBeesoft Data Recovery | 5.0 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.6 | 5.3 |
| Aiseesoft Data Recovery | 4.5 | 4.5 | 2.8 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
For our 2022 DIY file recovery program review, we added two programs: iBeesoft Data Recovery and Aiseesoft Data Recovery. Unfortunately, they showed the worst results in both file recovery features and performance, so they are likely to be removed from next year’s review.
The top two programs in our test remain the same: R-Undelete still holds first place, just as it was in all our previous tests. Next follows EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, with the second-best scores for its file recovery features and performance. Disk Drill for Windows has slightly improved its performance, moving it to third place. (Please note that the scores for the second to sixth programs are very similar, so even the slightest improvement may change the position of the program in our review). Raise Data Recovery remains at third place. Speed Data Recovery showed the third results in file recovery performance, but its inferior set of recovery features reduced its overall score.
Overall Rating
| Product | Rating | Conclusions |
|---|---|---|
| R-Undelete | 5.8 | The program has the second-best interface among all tested programs. It’s very straightforward and intuitive, which allows inexperienced users to correctly choose a required course of action for their file recovery cases. It scores best for both its feature set and recovery performance. The program supports quite a diverse range of file systems, along with the ability to recover files from Windows computers. Its strong points include: excellent recovery performance as a result of the program being based on the data recovery engine of R-Studio; a reputable professional data recovery program, it has the best file previewer, relaxed demo limitations (free recovery from FAT/exFAT devices), and good disk imaging capabilities. Its file recovery features include versatile file search and mark capabilities, estimation of chances for successful recovery, and disk S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. In addition, it has a shredder to wipe out sensitive files. Its weak points include: lack of support for popular non-Windows file systems. |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 5.4 | A program with a good wizard interface, the second-best set of supported file systems, the best file previewer, and the second-best file recovery performance. Its strong points include: excellent localization (22 interface languages supported), the lightest demo mode restrictions (up to 2 GB of free file recovery), and the second-best set of supported file systems (which is enough to recover files from Windows, Mac, and Linux systems). It showed the second-best results for almost all our test cases: the emptied Recycle Bin, files deleted without the Bin, formatted disks, and deleted partitions. The weak points are: lack of basic features, including disk imaging, file recovery logging, and S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. |
| Disk Drill for Windows | 5.2 | A program with a standard wizard interface, the second-bestset of supported file systems, the second-best set of file recovery features, and the sixth-best file recovery performance. Its strong points include: the second-best localization (18 interface languages supported), second-best file previewer, and excellent file recovery features like disk imaging, file search/mark capabilities, and detailed operation logging. Moreover, this is the second program in our tests that has S.M.A.R.T. monitoring The program won the sixth place in recovery performance, although it showed one of the best results for deleted partitions. Its weak point is: poor results with damaged partition recovery. |
| Raise Data Recovery | 5.2 | A program with the best wizard interface, the largest set of supported file systems, the best set of recovery parameters, and the fourth-best file recovery performance. Its strong points include: the best set of supported file systems (which includes not only common Windows, Mac, and Linux file systems, but several advanced platforms like ReFS/ReFS3, APFS, and ReiserFS), a wide set of recovery parameters, and detailed operation logging. The recovery performance of the program is the best for emptied Recycle Bin, files deleted without the bin, and deleted partitions. Its weak points are: the lack of disk imaging or S.M.A.R.T. monitoring and rather poor performance with deleted partition recovery. |
| Speed Data Recovery | 5.0 | A program with a standard wizard interface, the fourth-best set of supported file systems, average file recovery features, and the third-best file recovery performance. Its strong points include: It’s the second program in our tests that has imaging capabilities. The weak points are: limited localization (only English is supported) and a lack of file recovery logging or S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. |
| iBoysoft Data Recovery | 4.7 | A program with a standard wizard interface, a very weak set of supported file systems and file recovery features with the fifth-best file recovery performance. Its strong point includes: the second-best results for damaged partition recovery. The weak points are: limited localization (its GUI is only in English) and this is the only program in our tests that didn’t recognize non-Latin characters. Only basic Windows file systems are supported, it has a very poor file previewer and a very poor set of file recovery features. There is also a lack of file recovery logging and S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. |
| iBeesoft Data Recovery | 4.5 | A program with a standard wizard interface, an average previewer, average set of recovery parameters and features, average set of supported file systems, and the seventh-best file recovery performance. The weak points are: limited localization (English-only GUI), very strict demo restrictions, the poorest performance for file recovery from emptied bin, and a lack of file recovery logging or S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. |
| Aiseesoft Data Recovery | 3.5 | A program with a standard wizard interface, an average previewer, the worst set of recovery parameters and features, the worst set of supported file systems, and the last place score for file recovery performance. The weak points are: the worst set of recovery parameter and file recovery performance along with a lack of file recovery logging or S.M.A.R.T. monitoring features. |
Most DIY data recovery users are facing a specific, one-off data loss situation. Our evaluation and test results are designed to help you choose a file recovery program that will meet your immediate needs. If you’re not sure which features you need, start with the top-rated program and attempt a data recovery in the demo mode for free. Each of the DIY data recovery tools we reviewed have a free demo version, so you can try as many as you’d like before making an investment. If you are a bit more experienced and know what kinds of features you need, you can take a look at our detailed test results and see which program is best-suited to the data recovery scenario you face. In our experience, some DIY programs perform very well in one area but fall short in others. Depending on your needs, a program with a middling overall rating might do the trick for you, even if the top-rated program does not.
If you are looking for a data recovery tool to purchase ahead of time, then you should check out our professional data recovery software evaluation. Professional software, while more expensive, provides more features and better file recovery performance across all the different tests we perform.
Do-It-Yourself File Recovery Software Tested and Evaluated in 2021
For the 2021 update of our DIY file recovery software comparison, we kept the scope of our testing nearly the same as for 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017, except one point: we removed the Regions feature because none of the program we tested supports it. We also decided to carry out the tests when the disks were logically disconnected from the operating system to prevent the system from “repairing” their file system. Such “repair” seriously reduces chances for successful file recovery.
We renewed the list of products as follows:
-
Removed four DIY programs: Restorer Ultimate because there’s no new version available, and Recuva, Premium Recovery Software and Ontrack EasyRecovery because of their poor file recovery performance.
-
Included four programs:
Reviewed Version: 5.1.8
Prices: Pro: 1 month/1 system: US$ 59.95 (US$ 29.97 with discount), 1 year/1 system: US$ 89.95 (US$ 44.97 with discount).
Host operating systems: Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 7.0.6
Prices: 1 year/1 system: US$ 29.95, Lifetime: US$ 39.00 (5 systems)
Host operating systems: Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP Windows Server 2016/2012/2008/2003.
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 1.0
Prices: US$ 69.00
Host operating systems: Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP Windows Server 2008/2003
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 3.5
Prices: Standard edition: US$ 69.95, Professional edition: US$ 199.00, Technician edition: US$ 299.00.
Host operating systems: Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP Windows Server 2019/2016/2012/2008/2003
Support for data recovery hardware: No
We also continued to test and evaluate the programs that were included in our 2020 annual review:
Reviewed Version: 13.5
Prices: Pro:** US$ 69.95** (1 month subscription), US$ 99.95 (1 year subscription), US$ 149.95 (lifetime license). Technician: US$ 299.00 (1 year subscription), US$ 399.00 (2 year subscription), US$ 499.00 (lifetime license).
Host operating systems: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10, Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016/2019
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 6.6 build 175721
Prices: US$ 54.99
Host operating systems: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 4.1.551
Prices: Pro: US$ 105.00, Enterprise: US$ 590.00.
Host operating systems: Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP, Windows Server 2019/2016/2012/2008
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 8.9
Prices: US$ 24.95 General License [LTS]
Host operating systems: Windows XP SP3/Vista/7/8/8.1/10 (32/64 bit)
Support for data recovery hardware: No
For your convenience, we consolidated the results of our evaluation and tests into an interactive table below. You can click the column title to expand the column into a full tab to see more detailed results of the evaluation or test. Some tabs also include additional test / evaluation descriptions and brief conclusions.
Interface and Features Ratings
| Product | File recovery features | User Interface | Localization Support | Demo version restrictions | File preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R-Undelete | 5.0 | 6.0 | 5.7 | 5.5 | 6.0 |
| Disk Drill for Windows | 4.8 | 4.5 | 5.8 | 5.0 | 4.5 |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 3.0 | 4.5 | 5.8 | 5.5 | 5.0 |
| Raise Data Recovery | 3.5 | 6.0 | 5.7 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| Speed Data Recovery | 3.4 | 4.5 | 5.3 | 5.5 | 3.5 |
| iBoysoft Data Recovery | 2.5 | 4.5 | 3.4 | 5.5 | 4.5 |
| SFWare Data Recovery | 3.9 | 4.5 | 5.3 | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| Wise Data Recovery | 2.8 | 4.3 | 4.1 | 2.5 | 3.0 |
File recovery performance Ratings
| Product | Deleted files | Emptied Recycle Bin | Disk re-format | Damaged partition | Deleted partition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R-Undelete | 5.8 | 5.8 | 5.7 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| Speed Data Recovery | 5.3 | 5.3 | 5.3 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| Raise Data Recovery | 5.5 | 5.3 | 5.1 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 5.3 | 4.8 | 5.6 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| iBoysoft Data Recovery | 4.7 | 4.3 | 5.0 | 6.0 | 5.5 |
| Disk Drill for Windows | 5.0 | 4.8 | 4.6 | 4.6 | 5.5 |
| SFWare Data Recovery | 4.8 | 4.3 | 4.4 | 3.9 | 6.0 |
| Wise Data Recovery | 5.8 | 4.8 | 3.0 | 2.1 | 0.0 |
For our 2021 DIY file recovery program review, we added four programs: Wise Data Recovery, Speed Data Recovery, SFWare Data Recovery, and iBoysoft Data Recovery. One of them, Speed Data Recovery, showed very impressive results in file recovery performance (the second-highest score). And another one, SFWare Data Recovery, is the only program in our review that allows its users to add and edit their own file types for raw file recovery.
The first two best programs in our test remain the same: R-Undelete still remains the top-rated product as it was in 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017. Next follows EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. Raise Data Recovery has greatly improved its file recovery performance, which has moved it to the third place in our review.
One the other hand, Disk Drill for Windows has disappointed us once again. Although it boasts the second-best file recovery features, its file recovery performance leaves much to be desired. This stands in contrast with its Mac version, which won second place in our 2021 Mac file recovery review.
Overall Rating
| Product | Rating | Conclusions |
|---|---|---|
| R-Undelete | 5.7 | The program has the second-best interface among all tested programs. It’s very straightforward and intuitive, which allows inexperienced users to correctly choose a required course of action for their file recovery cases. It scores best for both its feature set and recovery performance. The program supports quite a diverse range of file systems; enough to recover files from Windows computers. Its strong points include: excellent recovery performance, a result of the program being based on the data recovery engine of R-Studio; a reputable professional data recovery program. It has the best file previewer, relaxed demo limitations (free recovery from FAT/exFAT devices), S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, and good disk imaging capabilities. Its file recovery features include versatile file search and mark capabilities, estimation of chances for successful recovery, and disk S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. Its weak points include: support for popular non-Windows file systems would be a great plus. |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 5.2 | The program has a basic wizard interface. It showed the third-highest score for its feature set and the fourth-highest score in file recovery performance. Its supported file systems are enough to recover files from Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. Its strong points include: excellent localization (20 interface languages supported), its demo limitations aren't very impressive (up to 20 GB of free file recovery), it has a good file previewer, disk scan, file search, and mark capabilities. It showed very good recovery for files deleted without bin and after disk format. Its weak points include: the lack of disk imaging, file recovery logging, and S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. |
| Raise Data Recovery | 5.1 | The program has the best wizard interface among all tested programs. It's very logical, straightforward and clear, with comments and tips for every step of the file recovery process. It showed the fourth-highest score for its feature set and the third-highest score for file recovery performance. The program has the largest set of supported file systems which makes it possible to recover files not only from Windows computers, but from Mac, Linux, and many NAS systems. Its strong points include: decent results in all file recovery tests and a good set of file recovery parameters. Its weak points include: relatively stringent demo version limitations, the lack of disk imaging capabilities, and S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. |
| Speed Data Recovery | 5.0 | The program has a basic wizard interface. It showed the fifth-highest score for its feature set and the second-highest score in file recovery performance. The program supported the set of tested file systems, which is enough to recover files from Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. Its strong points include: excellent file recovery performance in all tests. Its demo mode limitations are quite relaxed and its disk imaging capabilities are quite good. Its weak points include: an English-only user interface, the lack of file recovery logging, and S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. |
| Disk Drill for Windows | 4.9 | The program has a good basic wizard interface. It showed the second-highest score for its feature set and the sixth-highest score for recovery performance. The program supported a large set of file systems to recover files from Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. Its strong points include: soft demo limitations (0.5 GB of free recovery), good localization support (18 interface languages), very good file search and mark capabilities, disk imaging, logging, and S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. Its weak points include: relatively poor file recovery performance, especially for file recovery from damaged partitions. |
| iBoysoft Data Recovery | 4.6 | The program has a basic wizard interface. It showed the sixth-highest score for its feature set and the fifth-highest score for file recovery performance. The program supported only the Windows file system. Its strong points include: relatively weak demo limitations (1.0 GB of free recovery), a relatively good file previewer, and a good file recovery performance for damaged partitions Its weak points include: poor localization support (English-only interface language and it didn’t recognize non-European characters), lack of disk imaging, recovery logging, and S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. |
| SFWare Data Recovery | 4.3 | The program has a basic wizard interface. It showed the seventh-highest score for its features and file recovery performance. The program supported a diverse set of file systems to recover files from Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. Its strong points include: excellent raw file recovery features, ultimately letting users add/remove/edit their own file types. It has good imaging capabilities and recovery parameters. It performed quite well in file recovery from deleted partitions. Its weak points include: relatively stringent demo limitations, weak file previewer, and poor overall recovery performance. |
| Wise Data Recovery | 3.3 | The program has a basic wizard interface. It showed the least-highest scores for its features and file recovery performance. It supported a diverse set of file systems to recover files from Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. Its strong points include: an outstanding number of interface languages (41 supported) and good performance in file recovery for files deleted without Recovery Bins. Its weak points include: It couldn’t recover non-European characters. It also showed very poor recovery results and unimpressive overall performance. It completely failed recovery from deleted and damaged partitions since it cannot work with hard disks without existing partitions. |
Most DIY data recovery users are facing a specific, one-off data loss situation. Our evaluation and test results are designed to help you choose a file recovery program that will meet your immediate needs. If you’re not sure which features you need, start with the top-rated program and attempt a data recovery in the demo mode for free. Each of the DIY data recovery tools we reviewed have a free demo version, so you can try as many as you’d like before making an investment. If you are a bit more experienced and know what kinds of features you need, you can take a look at our detailed test results and see which program is best-suited to the data recovery scenario you face. In our experience, some DIY programs perform very well in one area but fall short in others. Depending on your needs, a program with a middling overall rating might do the trick for you, even if the top-rated program does not.
If you are looking for a data recovery tool to purchase ahead of time, then you should check out our professional data recovery software evaluation. Professional software, while more expensive, provides more features and better file recovery performance across all the different tests we perform.
Do-It-Yourself File Recovery Software Tested and Evaluated in 2020
For the 2020 update of our DIY file recovery software comparison, we kept the scope of our tests the same as for 2019, 2018, and 2017.
We renewed the list of products as follows:
-
Removed two DIY programs: Wondershare Data Recovery because there’s no new version available, and Systweak Advanced Disk Recovery because of its poor file recovery performance.
-
Included three programs:
Reviewed Version: 2.5.0.0
Prices: Free, Pro: US$19.95
Host operating systems: Windows 7/8/1010/8/7/Vista/XP (both 32 and 64 bit)
Support for data recovery hardware: No
This is still the most popular file recovery program on the Internet. We tested this program in 2018 with quite average results, but considered the possibility that performance may have improved.
Reviewed Version: 2.6.1100.16880
Prices: Pro: US$ 89.00 (+ US$ 29.00 for lifetime upgrade), Enterprise: US$ 499.00 (+ US$ 99.00 for lifetime upgrade).
Host operating systems: Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista and XP
Support for data recovery hardware: No
We tested the Mac version of this program in 2019, and it showed a quite good performance, so we decided to include its Windows version in our review.
Reviewed Version: 13.0.0.0
Prices: Home: US$ 79.00 (the annual license, Professional: US$ 139.00, Technician: US$ 499.00)
Host operating systems: Windows 10, and all previous Windows versions starting from Windows 95
Support for data recovery hardware: No
We also continued to test and evaluate the programs which were included in our 2019 annual review:
Reviewed Version: Version 12.8
Prices: Pro: US$ 69.95 (1 month subscription), US$ 99.95 (1 year subscription), US$ 149.95 (lifetime license). Technician: US$ 299.00 (1 year subscription), US$ 399.00 (2 year subscription), US$ 499.00 (lifetime license).
Host operating systems: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10, Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016/2019
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 6.6 build 175721
Prices: US $54.99
Host operating systems: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10, Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 10.2 build 822021
Prices: US$ 29.99 (US$ 49.99 for the Pro version, US$69.99 for the Pro Network version)
Host operating systems: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10, Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 6.22
Prices: €19.95 (app. US$23.94) General License [LTS]
Host operating systems: Windows XP SP3/Vista/7/8/8.1/10 (32/64 bit)
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 3.7
Prices: €85.54
Host operating systems: Windows 7/8/10
Support for data recovery hardware: No
This program is a rebranding of Seagate File Recovery we tested in years 2019, 2018, and 2016. It scored #3 in 2016, but showed quite unimpressive results in 2018 and 2019. Seagate Technology PLC is a well-known hard drive manufacturer and has all the capabilities to strongly improve its performance, so we decided to give it one more chance.
For your convenience, we consolidated the results of our evaluation and tests into an interactive table below. You can click the column title to expand the column into a full tab to see more detailed results of the evaluation or test. Some tabs also include additional test / evaluation descriptions and brief conclusions.
Interface and Features Ratings
| Product | File recovery features | User Interface | Localization Support | Demo version restrictions | File preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R-Undelete | 4.5 | 6.0 | 5.7 | 5.5 | 6.0 |
| Restorer Ultimate | 5.8 | 5.0 | 5.7 | 4.0 | 6.0 |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 2.7 | 4.5 | 5.8 | 5.5 | 5.0 |
| Ontrack EasyRecovery | 3.4 | 4.5 | 5.3 | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| Recuva | 3.3 | 5.0 | 6.0 | 5.5 | 3.0 |
| Disk Drill for Windows | 4.1 | 4.5 | 4.3 | 5.0 | 4.5 |
| Raise Data Recovery | 3.1 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| Premium Recovery Software | 3.4 | 4.5 | 3.5 | 3.0 | 4.0 |
File recovery performance Ratings
| Product | Deleted files | Emptied Recycle Bin | Disk re-format | Damaged partition | Deleted partition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restorer Ultimate | 5.7 | 6.0 | 5.6 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| R-Undelete | 5.7 | 6.0 | 5.6 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 5.3 | 5.8 | 5.5 | 5.6 | 6.0 |
| Raise Data Recovery | 5.5 | 3.8 | 5.0 | 5.6 | 6.0 |
| Disk Drill for Windows | 4.5 | 5.0 | 4.2 | 5.1 | 5.0 |
| Ontrack EasyRecovery | 4.8 | 5.5 | 4.8 | 2.3 | 6.0 |
| Premium Recovery Software | 4.3 | 2.3 | 3.7 | 3.6 | 4.8 |
| Recuva | 4.5 | 5.0 | 4.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
For our 2020 DIY file recovery program review, we added three programs: Disk Drill because we tested this program for Mac, and it showed quite good results, Recuva, as the most popular file recovery on the internet, and Ontrack EasyRecovery Professional. The first one showed quite decent results. R-Undelete greatly improves its recovery performance and remains the top-rated product as it was in 2019, 2018 and 2017. Then follow Restorer Ultimate, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, Raise Data Recovery, and the rest. Seagate Recovery Suite was rebranded as Premium Recovery Software, so we decided to give the program one more chance to improve its performance, however unfortunately our expectations again fell short.
Overall Rating
| Product | Rating | Conclusions |
|---|---|---|
| R-Undelete | 5.7 | The program has an easy-to-use yet flexible user interface, a very good localization support, an excellent file previewer, and good combination of file recovery features. No demo mode restrictions for file recovery from FAT/exFAT disks (most USB sticks, memory cards, etc.). The program supports file recovery from all Windows file systems and can recover files using raw file search. File recovery features include versatile file search and mark capabilities, estimation of chances for successful recovery, and disk S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. R-Undelete is based on the data recovery engine of R-Studio, a reputable professional data recovery program, which results in the excellent file recovery performance, especially from emptied Bin and deleted/damaged partitions. All of this makes its overall score highest in our rating. Recommended for inexperienced users who have never (or occasionally) performed data recovery tasks before. |
| Restorer Ultimate | 5.6 | The program has a very exhaustive wizard interface that allows almost all file recovery parameters to be specified, a very good localization support, and an excellent file previewer. Its excellent file recovery features include support for all Windows and many other file systems, user-defined raw file types, estimation of chances for successful recovery, disk S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, and a versatile disk imaging module. The program always shows the top-level file recovery performance, especially from emptied Bin and deleted/damaged partitions. While all this makes Restorer Ultimate suitable for advanced users, As a program that balances between professional and DIY software, it can effectively handle almost all file recovery tasks and rivals many professional data recovery programs, but these complex parameters and features can confuse inexperienced users and make file recovery more difficult for them. That is why only advanced IT professionals can fully take advantage of all its file recovery capabilities. Other programs are more optimized for automatic recovery without any manual adjustment. All of this together with quite strong demo restrictions moved this program to the second score. |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 5.2 | The program has a very good wizard interface, localization support, and previewer. In addition, its demo restrictions are minimum: free file recovery of up to 2 GB of data. File recovery is supported for all windows and HFS+ (Macintosh computers) file systems, and can be performed using raw file recovery. Its file search and mark capabilities are good, but it has also some weak points: the lack of disk imaging, logging, and S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard showed a very good file recovery performance (ranked third), especially for deleted and reformatted partitions. |
| Raise Data Recovery | 4.8 | The program has the second-best user interface, very good localization support, and a good file previewer and demo restrictions. The list of supported file systems includes almost all Windows (except ReFS), Apple’s HFS+/APFS, and many other file systems. It also supports raw file recovery. Program’s file search and mark capabilities are good, but lack of disk imaging and S.M.A.R.T. monitoring spoils the overall impression of its features. Its file recovery performance is generally good (ranking fourth), especially for deleted and damaged partitions, with one exception: file recovery from an emptied Bin, although the results of this test are much better than those in Year 2019. Nevertheless, this program is definitely worth looking into, especially if you need to recover files from non-Windows computers. |
| Ontrack EasyRecovery | 4.7 | The program has a decent wizard interface, good localization support, a very good previewer, and unrestricted file recovery for files up to 1 GB total in the free version. The list of supported file systems includes almost all Windows (except ReFS). Linux’ Ext2/3/4 and Apple’s HFS+ can be added in its Toolkit. It also supports raw file recovery with predefined and custom-specified file types. Program’s file search and mark capabilities are good, and it also supports S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. Weak points are the lack of disk imaging and logging. The program’s file recovery performance is relatively good (ranking sixth), especially for emptied Bin and deleted partitions. At the same time, it showed very poor performance for damaged partition recovery (failed to recover from damaged FAT32 and exFAT partitions). |
| Disk Drill for Windows | 4.6 | The program has a good wizard Interface, a good localization support, a good previewer, and unrestricted file recovery for files up to 0.5 GB total in the free version. The list of supported file systems includes almost all Windows (except ReFS). Linux’ Ext2/3/4 and Apple’s HFS+. It also supports raw file recovery. Program’s file search and mark capabilities are very good, and it also supports disk imaging, logging, and S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. The program’s file recovery performance is quite good (ranking fifth), especially for emptied Bin and deleted/damaged partitions. |
| Recuva | 3.7 | The program has a very good wizard interface, the best localization support, and an average previewer. Demo restrictions are very good: files can be recovered in the free version, but not the folder structure. The list of supported file systems includes all Windows file systems except ReFS. It also supports raw file recovery. Program’s file search and mark capabilities are good, and it also supports disk imaging and logging. A weak point is the lack of S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. The program’s file recovery performance is not very good (ranking seventh). It showed good results for emptied Bin, but completely failed two tests: recovery from damaged and deleted partitions. |
| Premium Recovery Software | 3.6 | The program has a good wizard interface, poor localization support (only the English interface), worst demo mode restriction, and average file previewer. The list of supported file systems includes all Windows file systems except ReFS. It also supports raw file recovery. Program’s file search and mark capabilities are good, and it also supports logging and S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. A week point is the lack of disk imaging. The program’s file recovery performance is very poor (ranking eighth, the last one). Its only test with some decent results is file recovery from deleted partitions. The rest is very unimpressive. Moreover, it could not perform file recovery from an emptied Recycle Bin on the NTFS file system. We do not recommend this program. |
Most DIY data recovery users are facing a specific, one-off data loss situation. Our evaluation and test results are designed to help you choose a file recovery program that will meet your immediate needs. If you’re not sure which features you need, start with the top-rated program and attempt a data recovery in the demo mode for free. Each of the DIY data recovery tools we reviewed have a free demo version, so you can try as many as you’d like before making an investment. If you are a bit more experienced and know what kinds of features you need, you can take a look at our detailed test results and see which program is best-suited to the data recovery scenario you face. In our experience, some DIY programs perform very well in one area but fall short in others. Depending on your needs, a program with a middling overall rating might do the trick for you, even if the top-rated program does not.
If you are looking for a data recovery tool to purchase ahead of time, then you should check out our professional data recovery software evaluation. Professional software, while more expensive, provides more features and better file recovery performance across all the different tests we perform.
Do-It-Yourself File Recovery Software Tested and Evaluated in 2019
For the 2019 update of our DIY file recovery software comparison, we kept the scope of our tests the same as for 2018 and 2017.
We renewed the list of products as follows:
- Removed two DIY programs: Active@ UNDELETE because it is now included in the list of professional data recovery programs, and Recuva because of its poor file recovery performance.
We planned to include Ontrack EasyRecovery Home in our tests, but discovered that it is now based on the Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery engine.
- Included two new programs which are highly advertised online:
Reviewed Version: 2.5.0.0
Prices: US$ 39.95 with a discount (US$ $49.95 regularly)
Host operating systems: Windows 7/8/1010/8/7/Vista/XP
Support for data recovery hardware: Now
A completely new program for our tests.
Systweak Advanced Disk Recovery
Reviewed Version: 2.6.1100.16880
Prices: US$39.99
Host operating systems: Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista and XP (both 32 bit and 64 bit)
Support for data recovery hardware: No
We tested this program in 2016 with quite average results, but considered the possibility that performance may have improved.
We also continued to test and evaluate the programs which were included in our 2018 annual review:
Reviewed Version: 12.8
Prices: Pro: US $69.95 with a discount (US$ 89.95 regularly), Pro+ US$ 99.90 with a discount, (US$ 149.9 regularly), Technician US$ 299
Host operating systems: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10, Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 6.5 build 1170927
Prices: US $54.99
Host operating systems: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10, Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 10.0 build 820721
Prices: US $ 29.99 (US $49.99 for the Pro version, US $ 69.99 for the Pro Network version)
Host operating systems: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10, Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 6.18.5
Prices: €19.95 (app. US$ 23.94 ) General License [LTS]
Host operating systems: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 3.2.6.0
Prices: Premium: US$ 79 (1 install, 24 uses per year), Technician: US$ 99.00
Host operating systems: Windows 7/8/10
Support for data recovery hardware: No
We tested this program in 2016 and 2018. It scored #3 in 2016, but showed quite unimpressive results in 2018. Seagate Technology PLC, is a well-known hard drive manufacturer and has all the capabilities to strongly improve its performance, so we decided to give it another chance.
For your convenience, we consolidated the results of our evaluation and tests into an interactive table below. You can click the column title to expand the column into a full tab to see more detailed results of the evaluation or test. Some tabs also include additional test / evaluation descriptions and brief conclusions.
Interface and Features Ratings
| Product | File recovery features | User Interface | Localization Support | Demo version restrictions | File preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R-Undelete | 4.4 | 6.0 | 5.7 | 5.5 | 6.0 |
| Restorer Ultimate | 5.8 | 5.0 | 5.7 | 4.0 | 6.0 |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 2.7 | 5.5 | 6.0 | 5.5 | 4.5 |
| Raise Data Recovery | 3.1 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| Wondershare Data Recovery | 2.3 | 5.0 | 5.7 | 3.0 | 4.0 |
| Seagate File Recovery | 3.4 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 3.0 | 4.0 |
| Systweak Advanced Disk Recovery | 2.4 | 5.0 | 5.8 | 4.0 | 2.0 |
File recovery performance Ratings
| Product | Deleted files | Emptied Recycle Bin | Disk re-format | Damaged partition | Deleted partition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restorer Ultimate | 5.7 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| R-Undelete | 5.7 | 5.5 | 5.2 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 5.5 | 5.8 | 5.3 | 5.6 | 6.0 |
| Wondershare Data Recovery | 5.3 | 6.0 | 4.1 | 4.1 | 5.5 |
| Raise Data Recovery | 5.3 | 2.8 | 5.1 | 5.6 | 5.9 |
| Seagate File Recovery | 4.2 | 4.0 | 3.8 | 3.5 | 4.1 |
| Systweak Advanced Disk Recovery | 3.5 | 4.0 | 3.6 | 3.8 | 3.8 |
For our 2019 DIY file recovery program review, we added two new programs highly advertised on the internet: Wondershare Data Recovery and Systweak Advanced Disk Recovery. The first one showed quite decent results: a forth place score in file recovery performance was better than the results of Raise Data Recovery, and fifth in overall rating. On the other hand, Systweak Advanced Disk Recovery serves an example that mass advertisement does not always guarantee performance. R-Undelete remains the top-rated product as it was in 2018 and 2017. Then follows Restorer Ultimate, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, Raise Data Recovery, and the rest. We gave Seagate Recovery Suite another chance to improve its performance, since its vendor is a well-known hard drive manufacturer, however unfortunately our expectations fell short.
Overall Rating
| Product | Rating | Conclusions |
|---|---|---|
| R-Undelete | 5.6 | The program has an easy-to-use yet flexible user interface, the best among all other tested programs, and also the best combination of file recovery features, including a very powerful file previewer, disk S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, and no demo restrictions for FAT/exFAT disks (most USB sticks, memory cards, etc.). R-Undelete is based on the data recovery engine of R-Studio, a reputable professional data recovery program, which results in the excellent file recovery performance, although this year Restorer Ultimate pushed it to second place by a negligible margin. All of this makes its overall score highest in our rating. Recommended for inexperienced users who have never (or occasionally) performed data recovery tasks before. |
| Restorer Ultimate | 5.5 | Restorer Ultimate is a program that balances between professional and DIY software. It always shows the top-level file recovery performance (the best this year). It has an exhaustive wizard interface that allows almost all file recovery parameters to be specified. It also has a powerful file previewer, S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, user-defined raw file types, and a versatile disk imaging module. While all this makes Restorer Ultimate suitable for advanced users, these complex parameters and features can confuse inexperienced users and make file recovery more difficult for them. This program can effectively handle almost all file recovery tasks and rivals many professional data recovery programs. It can be used by users with any experience level, but only advanced IT professionals can fully take advantage of all its file recovery capabilities. Other programs are more optimized for automatic recovery without any manual adjustment. |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 5.2 | Great wizard interface and file recovery performance (ranked third), especially for deleted partitions and an emptied Recycle Bin. Their strongest points are localization support and minimum demo restrictions: free file recovery of up to 2 GB of data is a strong reason to pay attention to this program. Weak points are the lack of disk imaging and S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. |
| Raise Data Recovery | 4.7 | Although it has the second-best user interface, its file recovery performance leaves much to be desired. Ranking fifth, losing to our newcomer, Wondershare Data Recovery, and almost failed the file recovery from an emptied Recovery Bin test. This was strange because it’s the DIY version of Recovery Explorer, a well-known professional data recovery program, and had the second-best file recovery performance in 2017. It has the richest file system set (including Apple’s new APFS), but an average set of file recovery features (a weak file previewer, no disk imaging or S.M.A.R.T. monitoring). Nevertheless, this program is definitely worth looking into, especially if you need to recover files from non-Windows computers. |
| Wondershare Data Recovery | 4.5 | This program has a decent wizard interface and good localization support. Its file recovery performance is quite impressive for a new program on our list: the best performance in recovery from an emptied Recycle Bin, and its other test results are adequate. That is why it scored forth in file recovery performance, ahead of Raise Data Recovery, but its lack of many recovery features sets it back to fifth place overall. |
| Seagate File Recovery | 3.9 | This program has been showing poorer and poorer recovery results since it was completely redesigned and redeveloped in 2017. This year it scored only sixth in recovery performance, showing no impressive results at all and the weakest for file recovery from damaged partitions. Before its redevelopment, it was #3 in our 2016 tests. Given its strange license policy (24 uses per year), even its excellent S.M.A.R.T. monitoring features, and file search and mark capabilities cannot make up for its lack of performance. We do not recommend this program. |
| Systweak Advanced Disk Recovery | 3.8 | A program with a good wizard interface and localization support, but with incredibly poor recovery performance. It did not show good results in any test, with recovery of deleted files, from formatted and deleted partitions having the lowest scores in our tests. We cannot recommend this program. |
Most DIY data recovery users are facing a specific, one-off data loss situation. Our evaluation and test results are designed to help you choose a file recovery program that will meet your immediate needs. If you’re not sure which features you need, start with the top-rated program and attempt a data recovery in the demo mode for free. Each of the DIY data recovery tools we reviewed have a free demo version, so you can try as many as you’d like before making an investment. If you are a bit more experienced and know what kinds of features you need, you can take a look at our detailed test results and see which program is best-suited to the data recovery scenario you face. In our experience, some DIY programs perform very well in one area but fall short in others. Depending on your needs, a program with a middling overall rating might do the trick for you, even if the top-rated program does not.
If you are looking for a data recovery tool to purchase ahead of time, then you should check out our professional data recovery software evaluation. Professional software, while more expensive, provides more features and better file recovery performance across all the different tests we perform.
Do-It-Yourself File Recovery Software Tested and Evaluated in 2018
For the 2018 update of our DIY file recovery software comparison, we keep the scope of our tests the same as for the tests of 2016 and 2017.
We renewed the list of products to test in the following way:
-
We removed three DIY programs because of their low file recovery performance: Auslogics File Recovery, Ontrack EasyRecovery Home, Kernel for Windows Data Recovery.
-
We included two new programs:
Reviewed Version: 2.5.0.0
Prices: Premium: US$ 99 (1 install, 24 uses per year), Technician: US$ 249.99 with a discount (US$ $299.00 regularly), (5 installs, unlimited uses per year)
Host operating systems: Windows 7/8/10
Support for data recovery hardware: No
We already tested this program in 2016, and it won the third position. In 2017, the program seemed to have been discontinued, but now its vendor, Seagate Technology PLC, has released a totally new reincarnation of the program which is certainly worth testing.
Reviewed Version: 1.53.1087
Prices: Recuva FREE, Recuva Professional ($24.95 CAD, £19.95)
Host operating systems: Windows XP/Vista/7/8 (No support for Windows 10 stated on its site, but the program worked normally under Windows 10 during our tests).
Support for data recovery hardware: No
It's a very popular and highly praised free file recovery program.
We also continue to test and evaluate the programs which were included in our 2017 annual review:
Reviewed Version: Version 11.8
Prices: Pro: US $69.95 with a discount (US$ 89.95 regularly), Pro+ WinPE US$ 99.90 with a discount, (US$ 149.9 regularly).
Host operating systems: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10, Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 6.2 build 169731
Prices: US $54.99
Host operating systems: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10, Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 9.5 build 810195
Prices: US $29.99 (US $49.99 for the Pro version,US $69.99 for the Pro Network version)
Host operating systems: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10, Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 6.13
Prices: €19.95 (app. US $23.94) General License [LTS]
Host operating systems: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10
Support for data recovery hardware: No
Reviewed Version: 12.0.17
Prices: Standard: US$ 19.99, Professional: US$ 44.95, Ultimate: US $79.95
Host operating systems: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10, Windows Server 2003/2008
Support for data recovery hardware: No
For your convenience, we consolidated the results of our evaluation and tests into an interactive table below. You can click the column title to expand the column into a full tab to see more detailed results of the evaluation or test. Some tabs also include additional test / evaluation descriptions and brief conclusions.
Interface and Features Ratings
| Product | File recovery features | User Interface | Localization Support | Demo version restrictions | File preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R-Undelete | 4.4 | 6.0 | 5.7 | 5.5 | 6.0 |
| Restorer Ultimate | 5.8 | 5.0 | 5.7 | 4.0 | 6.0 |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 2.7 | 4.5 | 5.7 | 5.5 | 4.0 |
| Recuva | 2.3 | 5.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 3.0 |
| Raise Data Recovery | 3.0 | 5.5 | 5.1 | 4.0 | 3.5 |
| Active@ UNDELETE | 3.5 | 3.0 | 4.6 | 4.5 | 5.0 |
| Seagate Recovery Suite | 3.0 | 4.5 | 5.5 | 3.0 | 4.0 |
File recovery performance Ratings
| Product | Deleted files | Emptied Recycle Bin | Disk re-format | Damaged partition | Deleted partition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restorer Ultimate | 5.7 | 5.5 | 5.3 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| R-Undelete | 5.7 | 5.5 | 5.1 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 5.5 | 5.5 | 4.6 | 5.5 | 6.0 |
| Raise Data Recovery | 5.2 | 4.0 | 4.9 | 4.8 | 5.8 |
| Active@ UNDELETE | 3.5 | 4.5 | 3.7 | 4.9 | 5.8 |
| Seagate Recovery Suite | 3.7 | 3.5 | 2.1 | 2.4 | 3.8 |
| Recuva | 4.2 | 5.3 | 3.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
For our 2018 DIY file recovery program review, we removed three programs from our tests because of their poor performance and added two new ones. One of them is Seagate Recovery Suite, a reincarnation of Seagate File Recovery which we tested in 2016. The second is Recuva, a very known and often recommended free file recovery program. Unfortunately, none of them have shown good results. This may be expected from a free program, but not for software developed by one of the world’s leading technology companies. Otherwise, the score remains the same: R-Undelete remains the top-rated product as it was in 2017. Restorer Ultimate is the second-best, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is the third, and Raise Data Recovery is the forth.
Overall Rating
| Product | Rating | Conclusions |
|---|---|---|
| R-Undelete | 5.6 | The program now features a completely new wizard-like user interface. It’s intuitively comprehensible and straightforward yet flexible and allows its users to change the course of actions whenever necessary. The program is still based on the renewed data recovery engine of R-Studio, a reputable professional data recovery program, and this shows the best data recovery performance in our tests, especially for deleted and damaged partitions. In addition, it has a very powerful file previewer, S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, and no demo restrictions for FAT/exFAT disks (most USB sticks, memory cards, etc.). All that makes its overall score highest in our rating. Recommended for inexperienced users who have never or only occasionally performed data recovery tasks before. |
| Restorer Ultimate | 5.5 | Restorer Ultimate is a program that balances between professional and DIY software. It always shows the top-level file recovery performance. It has a complicated wizard interface that allows almost all file recovery parameters to be specified. It also has a powerful file previewer, S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, user-defined raw file types, and a versatile disk imaging module. While all this makes Restorer Ultimate suitable for advanced users, these complex parameters and features can confuse inexperienced users and make file recovery more difficult for them. This program can effectively handle almost all file recovery tasks and rivals many professional data recovery programs. It can be used by users with any experience level, but only advanced IT professionals can fully utilize all its file recovery capabilities. Other programs are more optimized for automatic recovery without manual interference from inexperienced users. |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 5.0 | A program with a good wizard interface and very good file recovery performance (ranked third), especially for deleted partitions. Free file recovery of up to 2 GB of data is a very strong reason to pay attention to this program. It has drastically improved its localization support, which is now among the best. Weak points are the lack of disk imaging and S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. |
| Raise Data Recovery | 4.6 | The program has the second-best user interface and the forth score for file recovery performance. This is quite surprising because it’s the DIY version of Recovery Explorer, a well-known professional data recovery program. It did quite well with deleted partitions but showed quite mediocre results in file recovery from an emptied Recovery Bin. Quite disappointing, as the program had the second-best file recovery performance in 2017. Although it has the richest file system set (including Apple’s new APFS), an average set of file recovery features (a weak file previewer, no disk imaging and S.M.A.R.T. monitoring) moves this program to the forth place. Still, this program is worth looking at, especially if you need to recover files from non-Windows computers. |
| Active@ UNDELETE | 4.2 | The program has a non-wizard interface more suitable for professional software than a DIY program. Its features include the second-best file system set, a good file previewer, S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, and decent file search capabilities. However, its file recovery performance is quite average, that is why the program scores # 5 in our list. |
| Seagate Recovery Suite | 3.5 | The program looks like it has been totally redesigned and redeveloped since its 2016 version. It has now a good wizard interface, excellent S.M.A.R.T. monitoring features, and file search and mark capabilities. On the other hand, its file recovery performance is very unimpressive, considering its developer is Seagate, a very well-known hard drive manufacturing company and the old version was #3 in our 2016 tests. |
| Recuva | 3.4 | An illustrative example of why we usually don’t include free, even highly esteemed programs in our reviews. It’s free and has an excellent localization support. The rest is unsatisfactory, including the worst file previewer, the lack of raw file recovery, and poor file recovery performance. Moreover, it completely failed two file recovery scenarios: deleted and damaged partitions. |
Most DIY data recovery users are facing a specific, one-off data loss situation. Our evaluation and test results are designed to help you choose a file recovery program that will meet your immediate needs. If you’re not sure which features you need, start with the top-rated program and attempt a data recovery in the demo mode for free. Each of the DIY data recovery tools we reviewed have a free demo version, so you can try as many as you’d like before making an investment. If you are a bit more experienced and know what kinds of features you need, you can take a look at our detailed test results and see which program is best-suited to the data recovery scenario you face. In our experience, some DIY programs perform very well in one area but fall short in others. Depending on your needs, a program with a middling overall rating might do the trick for you, even if the top-rated program does not.
If you are looking for a data recovery tool to purchase ahead of time, then you should check out our professional data recovery software evaluation. Professional software, while more expensive, provides more features and better file recovery performance across all the different tests we perform.
Do-It-Yourself File Recovery Software Tested and Evaluated in 2017
For the 2017 update of our DIY file recovery software comparison, we expanded the range of products we tested to include some notable and up-and-coming releases. We kept the scope of our tests the same as last year, except that we used a much more complex folder structure and increased the number of files in our tests. As such, you may notice some slightly different ratings than our last test.
We also removed several DIY programs:
- Seagate File Recovery was not reviewed in 2017 because it looks like its development has been discontinued.
- Undelete360, Data Rescue PC3, MiniTool Power Data Recovery, and Systweak Advanced Disk Recovery for their low file recovery performance in previous reviews.
We also included five new programs. The following programs are being reviewed for the first time in 2017:
Reviewed Version: 6.9.2
Prices: ~US$16.41 (14.95EUR), selectable during file recovery
Host operating systems: Windows XP Service Pack 3, Vista, 7,8, 8.1, 10, (32 and 64 bit).
Reviewed Version: 7.1.1.0
Prices: US$49.95
Host operating systems: Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP2 (32-bit only), 7, 8/8.1, 10 (32 or 64 bit)
Reviewed Version: 11.0.11
Prices: US$19.99 (Standard)
Host operating systems: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8/8.1, 10, 2003, 2008 Server
Reviewed Version: 11.5.0.3
Prices: US$79.00 per year
Host operating systems: Windows
Kernel for Windows Data Recovery
Reviewed Version: 14.0
Prices: US$49.00
Host operating systems: Windows 95, NT, 98, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8/8.1, 10 Windows Server 2008R2, 2003R2, 2008, 2012
We also continue to test and evaluate the programs which were included in our 2016 annual review:
Reviewed Version: 5.0 build 165150
Prices: US $54.99
Host operating systems: Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8/8.1, 10, 2003, 2008, 2012 Server
Reviewed Version: 9.1 build 809321
Prices: US $29.99 (US $49.99 for the Pro version)
Host operating systems: Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8/8.1, 10, 2003, 2008, 2012 Server.
For your convenience, we consolidated the results of our evaluation and tests into an interactive table below. You can click the column title to expand the column into a full tab to see more detailed results of the evaluation or test. Some tabs also include additional test / evaluation descriptions and brief conclusions.
Interface and Features Ratings
| Product | File recovery features | User Interface | Localization Support | Demo version restrictions | File preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R-Undelete | 4.4 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 6.0 |
| Restorer Ultimate | 5.7 | 4.5 | 5.5 | 4.0 | 6.0 |
| Auslogics File Recovery | 2.6 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 4.5 | 4.5 |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 2.6 | 5.0 | 3.5 | 6.0 | 4.0 |
| Active@ UNDELETE | 3.8 | 3.5 | 4.0 | 4.5 | 5.0 |
| Raise Data Recovery | 3.1 | 6.0 | 4.5 | 4.0 | 3.0 |
| Ontrack® EasyRecovery™ Home | 4.1 | 5.0 | 4.0 | 3.5 | 3.0 |
| Kernel for Windows Data Recovery | 2.5 | 5.0 | 4.0 | 3.5 | 4.0 |
File recovery performance Ratings
| Product | Deleted files | Emptied Recycle Bin | Disk re-format | Damaged partition | Deleted partition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restorer Ultimate | 5.3 | 5.3 | 5.3 | 6.0 | 5.9 |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 5.5 | 4.8 | 5.2 | 5.5 | 6.0 |
| R-Undelete | 5.3 | 5.3 | 5.0 | 6.0 | 5.0 |
| Raise Data Recovery | 4.8 | 4.0 | 5.3 | 5.9 | 6.0 |
| Active@ UNDELETE | 3.5 | 5.5 | 4.1 | 4.8 | 4.6 |
| Ontrack® EasyRecovery™ Home | 4.3 | 4.8 | 3.7 | 3.3 | 5.6 |
| Auslogics File Recovery | 4.0 | 2.5 | 2.8 | 4.0 | 5.9 |
| Kernel for Windows Data Recovery | 2.2 | 1.8 | 2.6 | 1.4 | 1.5 |
This year we added five new programs to our review and used a more complex file and folder structure for our data recovery tests. We were pleased that one of the new programs we tested — Raise Data Recovery—showed quite impressive results and ranked fourth overall and for file recovery performance. Except for Kernel for Windows Data Recovery, the other new programs also performed well. Although the newcomers show promise, our old programs, R-Undelete and Restorer Ultimate remained the top-rated products. But this year R-Undelete moved to the first place while Restorer Ultimate scored second-best.
Overall Rating
| Product | Rating | Conclusions |
|---|---|---|
| R-Undelete | 5.4 | A very good user interface coupled with a reach feature set. It includes all essential parameters, one of the best file previewers, and S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. It also has no demo mode restrictions for FAT disks (most USB sticks, memory cards, etc.) for home users. Its file recovery performance is very good, especially for damaged partitions. These strengths helped move this program to the first place in our rating. Recommended for inexperienced users who have only occasionally or never performed data recovery tasks before. |
| Restorer Ultimate | 5.3 | Restorer Ultimate has a complicated wizard interface that allows almost all file recovery parameters to be specified. While this makes Restorer Ultimate suitable for advanced users, these complex parameters can confuse inexperienced users and make file recovery more difficult for them. It also showed the best file recovery results, especially while recovering reformatted, damaged, and deleted partitions. This program can effectively handle almost all file recovery tasks and rivals many professional data recovery programs. It can be used by users with any experience level, but only advanced IT professionals can fully utilize all its file recovery capabilities. Other programs are more optimized for automatic recovery without manual interference from inexperienced users. |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 4.8 | A program with a good wizard interface and very good file recovery performance (ranked second), especially for deleted partitions. Free file recovery of up to 2 GB of data is a very strong reason to pay attention to this program. Weak points include the lack of disk imaging and S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. Also, its localization support remains poor: although several new interface languages were added since our last review, it still cannot recover Asian or Russian characters correctly. |
| Raise Data Recovery | 4.7 | The DIY version of UFS Explorer, a well-known professional data recovery program. Not surprisingly, it performed very well. The program has the best user interface and the third-best score for file recovery performance. It did especially well with deleted and damaged partitions. In addition, it has the richest file system set. However, an average set of file recovery features (a weak file previewer, few interface languages, no disk imaging and S.M.A.R.T. monitoring) moves this program to fourth place. Still, this program is definitely worth looking at. |
| Active@ UNDELETE | 4.3 | The program has an impressive user interface, but only average file recovery features. Highlights include its file previewer and support for disk images. But its file recovery performance is quite poor, mostly due to the lack of raw file search. It completely failed several file recovery tests. Still, it performed excellently in deleted partition recovery. |
| Ontrack® EasyRecovery™ Home | 4.1 | This program scored quite high in our previous review (#4 in our 2015 PRO Data Recovery Software). But this home version showed quite poor file recovery results, mostly because it crashed several times during raw file recovery. It also has very limited interface language support—it’s only available in English. Interestingly enough, its 2014 version had an outstanding interface language support. Still, it has a very good wizard interface and support for S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. It also performed excellently in two tests. |
| Auslogics File Recovery | 4.1 | The program has an impressive user interface, but only average file recovery features. Highlights include its file previewer and support for disk images. But its file recovery performance is quite poor, mostly due to the lack of raw file search. It completely failed several file recovery tests. Still, it performed excellently in deleted partition recovery. |
| Kernel for Windows Data Recovery | 2.8 | A low-scoring product, its most redeemable qualities are its user interface, versatile file search parameters, and its ability to recover all tested localized characters. However, it showed the worst file recovery performance in all tests. The only test in which the program showed excellent results was data recovery from a deleted NTFS partition. |
Most DIY data recovery users are facing a specific, one-off data loss situation. Our evaluation and test results are designed to help you choose a file recovery program that will meet your immediate needs. If you’re not sure which features you need, start with the top-rated program and attempt a data recovery in the demo mode for free. Each of the DIY data recovery tools we reviewed have a free demo version, so you can try as many as you’d like before making an investment. If you are a bit more experienced and know what kinds of features you need, you can take a look at our detailed test results and see which program is best-suited to the data recovery scenario you face. In our experience, some DIY programs perform very well in one area but fall short in others. Depending on your needs, a program with a middling overall rating might do the trick for you, even if the top-rated program does not.
If you are looking for a data recovery tool to purchase ahead of time, then you should check out our professional data recovery software evaluation. Professional software, while more expensive, provides more features and better file recovery performance across all the different tests we perform.
Do-It-Yourself File Recovery Software Tested and Evaluated in 2016
Each year, we test the top do-it-yourself file recovery utilities on the market and provide you with the results you need to choose the best tool for your needs. For 2016, we’ve made two important changes to the scope of our review in order to reflect the real world data recovery scenarios that you’ll face.
First, we’ve added tests that focus specifically on the exFAT file system. exFAT has become an increasingly popular file system for both hard disks and portable memory cards. Here’s why:
- Unlike FAT32, exFAT has no file size limit. FAT32’s 2 GB max file size was one of the file system’s biggest disadvantages.
- Unlike NTFS, exFAT is fully supported by all major operating systems: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, iOS, and Android.
- exFAT has better disk space management than the FAT32 file system, which is important for large hard disks and memory cards.
Commensurate with our increased focus on exFAT, we’ve given less weight to the FAT32 performance of each utility. For the 2016 DIY data recovery review, we’re limiting our FAT32 tests to only those pertaining to small memory cards.
Second, we’ve revised our list of DIY programs under review. We removed Ontrack® EasyRecovery™ Home because we think that its price is too much for its performance, especially for DIY users. We also removed Handy Recovery, Active@File Recovery, Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Home, and Orion File Recovery because of their low file recovery performance in recent years.
We also included four new programs. The following programs are being reviewed for the first time in 2016:
The following products that were reviewed in 2015 are being reviewed again in 2016, but with the new expanded exFAT criteria:
For your convenience, we consolidated the results of our evaluation and tests into an interactive table below. You can click the column title to expand the column into a full tab to see more detailed results of the evaluation or test. Some tabs also include additional test / evaluation descriptions and brief conclusions.
Interface and Features Ratings
| Product | File recovery features | User Interface | Localization Support | Demo version restrictions | File preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restorer Ultimate | 5.7 | 6.0 | 5.5 | 4.0 | 6.0 |
| R-Undelete | 4.1 | 5.0 | 5.5 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| Seagate File Recovery | 4.1 | 5.0 | 4.5 | 3.5 | 6.0 |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 2.7 | 4.0 | 3.0 | 6.0 | 3.5 |
| Systweak Advanced Disk Recovery | 1.9 | 4.5 | 5.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 |
| MiniTool Power Data Recovery | 2.4 | 4.5 | 2.0 | 5.5 | 3.0 |
| Undelete360 | 1.7 | 3.0 | 5.0 | 4.5 | 3.0 |
| Data Rescue PC3 | 3.4 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 1.5 | 2.0 |
File recovery performance Ratings
| Product | Emptied Recycle Bin | Disk re-format | Damaged partition | Deleted partition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restorer Ultimate | 5.3 | 5.2 | 5.8 | 5.6 |
| Seagate File Recovery | 5.3 | 4.9 | 5.8 | 5.3 |
| R-Undelete | 5.3 | 5.0 | 5.8 | 4.9 |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 4.5 | 5.0 | 4.5 | 5.6 |
| MiniTool Power Data Recovery | 3.8 | 4.4 | 5.0 | 5.5 |
| Systweak Advanced Disk Recovery | 3.4 | 4.1 | 4.8 | 5.4 |
| Data Rescue PC3 | 3.3 | 4.0 | 4.5 | 4.8 |
| Undelete360 | 2.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
For the 2016 review, we dropped some of the lowest performers from our lineup and added four new promising contenders. One of these newcomers to the list, Seagate File Recovery, showed quite impressive results and won third place in our rankings. The other three also showed very good performance under our new test criteria. However, Restorer Ultimate and R-Undelete continue to receive the highest ratings, even with the addition of the new utilities. One change from 2015: Restorer Ultimate overtook R-Undelete as the #1 product due to its higher rating for file recovery performance, especially for reformatted disks.
Overall Rating
| Product | Rating | Conclusions |
|---|---|---|
| Restorer Ultimate | 5.5 | This DIY file recovery program took back first place since our last review. It has the best user interface, an excellent set of file recovery features and now the best ratings for file recovery performance. It is capable of solving almost all file recovery tasks, rivaling many professional data recovery programs. Its excellent file previewer partially makes up for its relatively restrictive demo mode limitations. Recommended for both advanced and inexperienced computer users. Restorer Ultimate can be upgraded to the PRO version with support for more file systems, RAIDs, etc. We consider the PRO version an ideal data recovery solution for advanced computer users and IT professionals without much experience in data recovery. And last but not the least, this is the lowest-priced program in the list. Even the PRO version is affordable enough to be included in our DIY file recovery software review. |
| R-Undelete | 5.5 | Very good user interface coupled with a rich feature set and excellent file recovery performance. Recommended for inexperienced users who have only occasionally or never performed data recovery tasks before. Unrestricted file recovery from FAT disks (most USB sticks, memory cards, etc.) in demo mode. |
| Seagate File Recovery | 5.5 | Very good user interface, a nice array of features and excellent file recovery performance. Seagate fell short of the top 2 products due to its demo mode restrictions, its relatively small number of interface languages, and, most importantly, its price. In terms of price for performance, Restorer Ultimate and R-Undelete far outperform Seagate File Recovery. |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 4.5 | A program with a good wizard interface, decent file recovery features, and very good file recovery performance, especially for the exFAT file system. EaseUS’s standout feature is its file recovery of up to 2 GB of data in demo mode. Weak points include poor localization support: although several new interface languages were added since our last review, it still cannot recover Asian or non-Latin characters correctly. |
| MiniTool Power Data Recovery | 4.0 | The program has a quite good user interface and a very good file recovery performance. In addition, it can recover up to 1 GB of data in its demo mode. Unfortunately, its localization support is quite poor: only English is available for the interface language and it does not support Asian languages or non-Latin characters. And unlike EaseUS, MiniTool has not made efforts to improve in this area over the years. |
| Systweak Advanced Disk Recovery | 4.0 | The program showed quite a good file recovery performance for NTFS and FAT32 file systems. But it doesn’t support the exFAT file system, which seriously limits its recovery capabilities. Also, no built-in previewer and severe demo mode restrictions made its overall rating low. |
| Data Rescue PC3 | 3.5 | The program showed a good file recovery performance for NTFS and FAT32 file system. However, it doesn’t support the exFAT file system, which seriously limits its recovery capabilities. Also, no built-in previewer and extremely severe demo mode restrictions (actually, no file recovery or preview is possible) made its overall rating so low. |
| Undelete360 | 2.5 | Although this program has a quite good interface and recovery parameters, its performance is quite poor. In fact, it can recover only deleted files. |
Our evaluation and test results are designed to help you choose a file recovery program most suitable for your needs. This is why we subject each utility to a consistent battery of tests and provide you the details on how they performed in each area. If you are purchasing a file recovery program for future data recovery tasks (a very wise move, by the way), we recommend purchasing the program with the highest rating. If you are looking for a data recovery program to address an immediate data loss event, the best way to find the program that will meet your needs is to evaluate each one. Start with the top-ranked program and try each one until you find the one that gets you the best results. By using the demo versions, you can estimate your chances for a successful recovery before you invest in a license. Different programs have different file recovery algorithms and will yield different results for each particular case.
You may also want to read further into our detailed test results. We performed tests using some of the most common data loss scenarios—one of our tests may be the exact circumstance you are facing.
Do-It-Yourself File Recovery Software Tested and Evaluated in 2015
For our 2015 update of our DIY file recovery software comparison, we expanded our review to include a few new programs. The following programs are being reviewed for the first time in 2015:
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate Corporate
Reviewed Version: 13
Prices: US $29.95 (US $44.95 for Professional and US $69.95 for Ultimate)
We also continue to test and evaluate the programs which were included in our 2014 annual review:
For your convenience, we consolidated the results of our evaluation and tests into an interactive table below. You can click the column title to expand the column into a full tab to see more detailed results of the evaluation or test. Some tabs also include additional test / evaluation descriptions and brief conclusions.
Interface and Features Ratings
| Product | File recovery features | User Interface | Localization Support | Demo version restrictions | File preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R-Undelete | 4.1 | 5.0 | 5.5 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| Restorer Ultimate | 5.7 | 6.0 | 5.5 | 3.0 | 6.0 |
| Ontrack® EasyRecovery™ Enterprise | 4.3 | 4.5 | 6.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 |
| Recover My Files | 3.8 | 4.0 | 6.0 | 3.0 | 5.0 |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 3.6 | 4.0 | 2.5 | 6.0 | 3.5 |
| Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Home | 2.7 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 3.0 | 5.0 |
| Active@ File Recovery Ultimate Corporate | 4.1 | 3.0 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 |
| Handy Recovery | 3.6 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 3.5 | 3.0 |
| MiniTool Power Data Recovery | 2.3 | 4.0 | 2.0 | 5.5 | 3.0 |
| Orion File Recovery | 1.4 | 4.0 | 3.5 | 2.5 | 0.0 |
File recovery performance Ratings
| Product | Emptied Recycle Bin | Disk re-format | Damaged partition | Deleted partition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restorer Ultimate | 5.5 | 4.6 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| R-Undelete | 5.0 | 4.6 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| Active@ File Recovery Ultimate Corporate | 4.5 | 3.8 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 4.5 | 3.8 | 5.5 | 6.0 |
| MiniTool Power Data Recovery | 4.0 | 4.2 | 5.0 | 6.0 |
| Recover My Files | 4.5 | 3.9 | 4.0 | 6.0 |
| Handy Recovery | 5.0 | 4.2 | 3.0 | 6.0 |
| Ontrack® EasyRecovery™ Home | 3.5 | 3.9 | - | 6.0 |
| Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Home | 4.0 | 4.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Orion File Recovery | 2.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Ontrack® EasyRecovery™ Enterprise | - | - | 4.0 | - |
Even after expanding the scope of our DIY file recovery software review, Restorer Ultimate and R-Undelete continue to receive the highest ratings in our yearly comparison. However, since last year, R-Undelete has moved to the number one DIY data recovery software because of its higher rating for file recovery performance. Last year, R-Undelete scored low on the NTFS partition reformatted as a new FAT32 partition test, but in the updated version, R-Undelete has a much higher success rate. Meanwhile, Restorer Ultimate has seen a drop in score for its demo mode—the program is now a bit too restrictive, especially when compared to other programs (such as R-Undelete) which allow users to recover quite a large amount of files in their demo mode.
Four new programs have been added to the tests and review. Two of them—Ontrack® EasyRecovery™ Home and Recover My Files—showed quite impressive results and won the third and fourth position in our rating.
Overall Rating
| Product | Rating | Conclusions |
|---|---|---|
| R-Undelete | 5.6 | Very good user interface coupled with a rich feature set and excellent file recovery performance. Recommended for inexperienced users who have only occasionally or never performed data recovery tasks before. Unrestricted file recovery from FAT disks (most USB sticks, memory cards, etc.) in demo mode. |
| Restorer Ultimate | 5.5 | Previously the top-rated DIY file recovery software, this program still boasts the best user interface, an excellent set of file recover features and one of the best ratings for file recovery performance. It is capable of solving almost all file recovery tasks, rivaling many professional data recovery programs. This year, it losses stars for its unchanged demo version restrictions now seem too prohibitive compared with other evaluated programs. The file size limit of 128 KB is not enough to reliably estimate chances for successful file recovery. Its excellent file previewer partially makes up for that drawback. Recommended for both advanced and inexperienced computer users. Restorer Ultimate can be upgraded to the PRO version with support for more file systems, RAIDs, etc. We consider the PRO version an ideal data recovery solution for advanced computer users and IT professionals without much experience in data recovery. And last but not the least, this is the lowest-priced program in the list. Even the PRO version is affordable enough to be included in our DIY file recovery software review. |
| Ontrack® EasyRecovery™ Home | 4.6 | Very good combination of user interface, file recovery features, file recovery performance, and excellent localization support. Drawbacks include poor file search and sorting capabilities and support only for proprietary disk image format. Ontrack® EasyRecovery™ Home can be upgraded to the Enterprise and Technician versions with support for more file systems, RAIDs, etc, but their prices are prohibitive for home users. |
| Recover My Files | 4.6 | Excellent localization support, a good interface that combines wizard and non-wizard modes, a very interesting file previewer, and quite good file recovery performance. Recover My Files can be upgraded to the Professional version with support for more file systems, RAIDs, etc. |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 4.5 | A program with a good wizard interface, decent file recovery features, and very good file recovery performance. Free file recovery of up to 2 GB of data is a very strong reason to pay attention to this program. Weak points include poor localization support: only English and German languages are available for the interface language and it does not support Asian languages or non-Latin characters. |
| MiniTool Power Data Recovery | 4.5 | The program has a quite good user interface and a very good file recovery performance. In addition, it can recover up to 1 GB of data in its demo mode. Unfortunately, its localization support is quite poor: only English language is available for the interface language and it does not support Asian languages or non-Latin characters |
| Handy Recovery | 4.0 | The program showed a very good file recovery performance, but its non-wizard interface may be hard to use for inexperienced users. Also localization support is relatively poor: it does not support Asian languages or non-Latin characters. |
| Active@ File Recovery Ultimate Corporate | 3.5 | This program showed a very decent file recovery performance, supports a large number of file systems, and has an excellent localization support, but its non-wizard interface (only in English) may be hard to use for inexperienced users. Also its previewer can show only graphic and text files with file sizes up to 10 MB. Active@File Recovery can be upgraded to the Professional and Ultimate version with support for RAIDs, a startup version, etc. |
| Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Home | 3.0 | A program with a very good wizard interface and file recovery features. However, we could not recover any files from a deleted NTFS partition. This program also received some of the poorest file recovery performance for several other tests. |
| Orion File Recovery | 0.5 | Very poor data recovery performance. We could recover files in only one test: emptied Recycle Bin. |
Our evaluation and test results are designed to help you choose a file recovery program most suitable for your needs. If you are purchasing a file recovery program in advance to add to your toolset for use in a future data recovery task (a wise move, by the way), we recommend choosing the program with the highest rating. But if you are looking for a data recovery program to address a specific and immediate data loss event, the best way to find the program that will suit your needs is to evaluate each one. Start with the program at the top of the list and try each one out until you find one that will produce the best results. By using the demo versions, you can estimate your chances for a successful recovery before you invest in a license. Different programs have different file recovery algorithms and will yield different results for each particular case.
You may also want to read further into our detailed test results. We performed tests using some of the most common data loss scenarios—one of our tests may be the exact circumstance you are facing.
Data Recovery Software Tested and Evaluated
After applying the above criteria, we compiled a list of the programs that are available for download on the Internet and have been widely recommended or reviewed on blogs, forums and social media. The software tools we chose to test and compare are listed below:
Reviewed Version: 7.8.708689
Prices: $49.99 (Restorer Ultimate Pro); $69.99 (Restorer Ultimate Pro Network)
Host operating systems: 2000, XP, 2003 Server, Vista, 2008 Server, 7, 8 (32/64 bit) A Mac OS X version with the same functionality is available.
Support for data recovery hardware: N/A
To help you compare, we consolidated the results of our evaluation and tests into tables. Click on the product name links to get detailed information.
Interface and Features Ratings
| Product | File recovery features | User Interface | Localization Support | Demo version restrictions | File preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R-Undelete | 5.0 | 5.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| Restorer Ultimate | 6.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 3.0 | 6.0 |
| Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Home | 2.0 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 4.0 | 5.0 |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 4.0 | 4.0 | 2.0 | 6.0 | 4.0 |
| Handy Recovery | 4.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 3.0 |
| MiniTool Power Data Recovery | 2.0 | 4.0 | 2.0 | 5.5 | 3.0 |
File recovery performance Ratings
| Product | Emptied Recycle Bin | Disk re-format | Damaged partition | Deleted partition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restorer Ultimate | 6.0 | 5.5 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| R-Undelete | 6.0 | 5.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| Handy Recovery | 5.0 | 5.0 | 4.0 | 6.0 |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 4.0 | 4.0 | 5.5 | 6.0 |
| Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Home | 5.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 6.0 |
| MiniTool Power Data Recovery | 3.0 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 6.0 |
Overall Rating
| Product | Rating | Conclusions |
|---|---|---|
| Restorer Ultimate | 6.0 | A very good combination of file recovery features and performance. It’s capable of solving almost all file recovery tasks and it rivals many professional data recovery programs in its features. Recommended for both advanced and inexperienced computer users. In addition, Restorer Ultimate can be upgraded to the Pro version with support for more file systems, RAIDs, etc. We consider the Pro version an ideal data recovery solution for advanced computer users and IT professionals without much experience in data recovery. And last but not the least, this is the lowest-priced program in the list. |
| R-Undelete | 5.5 | Fewer file recovery features than Restorer Ultimate, but still enough to solve almost any DIY file recovery task. Recommended for inexperienced computer users that need an occasional file recovery. Major plus: Unrestricted data recovery from FAT disks (which includes most USB sticks, memory cards, etc.), even in its demo mode. |
| EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | 4.5 | A decent combination of file recovery features and performance. Major advantage: Free file recovery of up to 1 GB of data. Disadvantages include its poor localization support; the user interface is only available in English and German languages, and its data recovery doesn’t support Asian languages and non-Latin characters. |
| Handy Recovery | 4.0 | Showed a very good file recovery performance but its non-wizard interface may be hard to use for inexperienced users. Also, localization support is relatively poor; it doesn’t support Asian languages and non-Latin characters. |
| MiniTool Power Data Recovery | 4.0 | The only good point of this program is that it can recover up to 1 GB of data in its demo mode, but it showed quite poor file recovery performance. |
| Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Home | 3.0 | Very good localization support; recognized all tested localized characters in file and folder names. Completely failed one file recovery test and showed the poorest file recovery performance for several others. |
By performing this battery of tests and assessing each data recovery software tool on these merits, we hope to provide you with two valuable pieces of information: the best overall data recovery software and the best data recovery software for your specific needs. For those of you who are investing in file recovery software proactively (which is a wise move, by the way), we recommend choosing a program with one of the highest overall ratings (Restorer Ultimate or R-Undelete). But if you are currently in the midst of a data loss crisis, we recommend going through our list from top to bottom in order to determine which software supports your needs. Different programs have different file recovery algorithms that give different results for each particular case. While each file recovery program lets you estimate your chances for successful file recovery prior to purchase, you may find that our test descriptions match your predicament closely enough to make a decision upfront.
Good luck!
