10 free applications to recover files from your PC

If you have been in this computing for a long time, it will be impossible that you have not ever found yourself with the need to recover deleted files from the storage units of your personal computer. This includes internal disks (hard drives or SSDs) or external devices that we connect, such as microSD cards or USB sticks.

Be it for an accidental deletion; an operating system problem preventing access or malware infection, data loss is the order of the day. To them are added the problems of the storage unit. Its useful life is not infinite because successive accesses, reads, and writes or incorrect handling of external drives can cause errors and file loss.

If we have not made the corresponding backup copies (at least of the main files) as required (mandatory in these times) the situation becomes complicated. Fortunately, many of the errors are not fatal, and if the storage units have not experienced critical physical failure, they are likely to be recoverable. The files may have "disappeared", (because they are not formatted or there is a problem in the structure of the files) but they are still on disk.

Free applications to recover files

The industry offers professional data recovery services that use advanced forensic means and achieve the best results even in the worst states of storage drives. The price of these services is quite expensive and they are reserved for critical data processing of companies or professionals.

A consumer customer has a wide collection of commercial data recovery applications. If the budget does not allow you to use it, there are also free tools available that usually offer good results, although it will depend on the type of problem, the condition of the units, and whether we have taken into account a series of recommendations that we will see below.

We remind you of ten of these specialized file recovery applications. Most are for Windows systems and some have a Linux version and are open source:

• Piriform Recuva
• ZAR X
• Data Recovery Software
• Wondershare Data Recovery
• Disk drill
• Apowersoft
• TestDisk
• PC Inspector File Recovery
• Pure File Recovery
• Wise Data Recovery

All these software solutions work in the same way. They are simply downloaded, installed and run. They perform a preliminary scan of the storage unit and show the status of the deleted files that could be recovered in easy to understand and manage interfaces.

From there, we only have to mark the files that interest us and the application will carry out the recovery process.

Depending on the storage unit to analyze and recover the process can take a long time. Be patient. There are no miracles and sometimes it is impossible. If the errors were not caused by a hardware failure, you can recover enough files. Once we have verified that we have been able to save the data, we recommend cleaning the unit with formatting, copying the saved data and continuing to use the unit in the usual way as long as the errors were not caused by physical failure, because the errors will be repeated.

General recommendations

We insist on backups as a regular maintenance task. It is the best lifeline for data in the event of hardware, operating system, or malware infection failures, including a Ransomware attack that, as you know, encrypts files and there is no way to recover them.

The second recommendation to gain effectiveness when recovering files from the PC is simply mandatory and is to stop using the unit as soon as the problems start. It is a critical aspect because overwriting is the main reason that we cannot recover the data.

Another recommendation that derives from the previous one is to remove the storage unit from the computer where it has failed and attempt data recovery on a second external computer such as a PC. If it is a hard disk or SSD we would mount them in free bays as a secondary unit and the same if it is a microSD that has failed in a smartphone or a USB stick or external disk connected to USB ports.

There are no miracles in this. But you don't lose anything by trying them and if there has been no physical damage and you follow the recommendations there is a good chance of recovering this deleted data.