Question Which free data recovery softwares are most popular ?

[Pimpom]

What free data recovery software is/are popular these days? Preferably for Windows 10/11 and portable.

The last time I did any serious recovery work was perhaps 15 years ago (maybe longer) for a local government agency. I think I used PC Inspector then and managed to salvage about 98% of their data from a dying 160GB HDD. It took me about a week.

 

[Lutfij]

You can look through TestDisk but please remember that your mileage can and will vary.

 

[Pimpom]

Thanks. I'll check it out.

 

[embErsssss]

Recuva is a popular free data recovery tool for Windows 10/11 and has a portable version. It’s easy to use and works well for recovering lost files. Another option is PhotoRec, which is open-source and can recover many file types, though it’s a bit more technical.

 

[Pimpom]

I've long heard of Recuva but never really used it except for a casual try-out years ago. If it's still popular, it must be good. Thanks.

The reason I asked is because I may need to recover data for a friend from his old HDD.