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Recuva - cross functional tool for data recovery on Windows 10

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Recuva is a cross functional tool for file recovery on Windows 10. With this program you can recover photos, video, text documents and other files regardless of their extension, storage device type and the method of their deletion. It works with Windows 7, 8, 10 and Mac OS.

Table of Contents

Why you should choose Recuva for data recovery on Windows

Unlike the majority of programs with similar functionality, Recuva has a full demo version and its only limitation is the amount of data for recovery (1 GB). In most cases, this program counterparts won't work until you enter a license key.

Apart from the possibility to recover 1GB of data before you purchase this software, Recuva can also catch your eye due to:

  • its built-in picture viewer;
  • its user-friendly interface,
  • its high-speed of scanning and recovering processes;
  • supporting the majority of popular formats, Windows editions and storage device types.

Downloading Recuva on Windows PC

To download Recuva app go to the official website → "Download free version" button. Free version allows you to recover data without any limitations in tool functionality. You can buy Recuva Pro for commercial use also there via "Get Recuva Pro!" button.

Download Recuva

For full version buyers there are three variants of a license available: Basic, Media and Pro.

  • Basic variant supports recovery of basic types of files without a preview function;
  • Media has advanced search for deleted media files;
  • Pro ($ 19.95) apart from all the listed above functions with this variant you'll also manage to recover deleted partitions and be able to contact technical support for assistance with recovering lost information.

The program interface and available features

One of the oldest programs for recovering lost files on Windows 10 is constantly evolving. On or before this article, depending on the variant of a purchased license, the users get an extensive set of capabilities for recovering data and partitions after formatting. Particularly, Recuva is capable of:

  • scanning your storage device for deleted information;
  • finding erased partitions after repartitioning;
  • filtering scanning results;
  • searching for deleted files on Windows by specified parameters;
  • opening found documents for a preview.

This utility works perfectly under Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. Regardless of your operating system, the product works with the following storage device types and image formats:

  • file systems of FAT families, Unix (ext2, ext3, HFS +) and NTFS;
  • images with such extensions like JPEG, RAW, TIFF, TIF, PNG, BMP, GIF, PSD, PDD, CRW, CR2, ORF, NEF, ORF, RAF, SR2, MRW, DCR, XCF, DNG, MOS, MCD, VWX, MEF, WP, CDR, PM, PCX, MNG, TGA, JP2, MSP, WMF, WMF, DNG and ERF;
  • memory cards, flash drives, external hard drives, sd cards, digital cameras, smartphones and tablet computers.

How to restore deleted files on Windows via Recuva

Step 1. Select "Recover files" on program main screen, then choose recovering mode: "Recover deleted files" or "Recover lost files". The former is suitable for recovering permanently deleted files and the latter is suitable for all the other cases (formatting, virus and etc.).

Step 2. In the appeared list select the storage device from which images are missing.

Also select the type (format) of documents you need to retrieve. If you don't select the file type ("All files"), the program will find everything that has ever been deleted from the selected drive and can be recovered.

Step 3. Run the scanning and after it's finished, select the documents you need. For this purpose, this utility has a subprogram viewer, which works perfectly with popular image formats.

Step 4: Select the files you need and click "Recover" to start the process of recovering deleted files. If you work with external drives, you might be asked to choose the path to save the recovered data on Windows.

Other programs to find and undelete files on Windows 10

  1. DiskDigger is the most well known competitor of Recuva. DiskDigger supports all the popular image formats as well as batch and single unit recovery. Its only disadvantage is the absence of a built-in viewer, which isn't always convenient.
  2. Unformat is a free utility for recovering lost files on Windows 10, which works a bit slowly, but shows good results in searching on photo cameras internal memory or on smartphones and tablets sd cards. 
  3. PhotoRec app has simple interface and minimum details and it works with 200+ file types. It doesn't have a built-in viewer and the speed of scanning is quite slow, but it has a simple interface with minimum buttons, which can be significantly important to many people.

Vlad Brown, USA, Buffalo, WY

Vlad is a professional writer. He has expert knowledge in data recovery with 15 years of experience. He started his career as a journalist by reviewing PC and mobile apps. His current responsibilities are to keep track of users' questions and answer them. 

His current responsibilities are to keep track of users' questions and provide answers to them, write proven manuals, be the website technical support and also run a Youtube channel.

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