Best free file recovery software 2019

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At some point most people learn the hard way the importance of backups. Chances are you already have something set up, perhaps using a cloud-based program such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or Microsoft's OneDrive. You might have everything routinely saved to a USB stick or to an external hard drive as well. You might even have all three in play.

However, while syncing files and folders across multiple devices makes it easy to save them, it unfortunately also makes it easy to delete them by accident. Trying to organize and rearrange folders is a great way to accidentally misplace an important file, only to realize what happened too late.

This is where file recovery software can come into their own, and while there are some expensive paid plans, we're going to list the best of the free file recovery software here. However, the caveat is that these are never going to be as powerful as the more expensive versions and are intended for situations which only require an easy recovery.

Even still, they still have their place and it's definitely a good idea to have something like any of these in place, just in case - so that the moment you realize you've make a mistake and misplaced something, you can recover it quickly and easily enough, preventing you from need the big paid-for guns in the first place.

Want your company or services to be added to this buyer’s guide? Please email your request to desire.athow@futurenet.com with the URL of the buying guide in the subject line.MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free is the only program in this round up which provides you with essential advice during the installation: do not install the software to the drive you want to recover data from, as you may overwrite files. This version is free, but there are paid-for editions available as well, so you will realise that there are a few restrictions.

You can only recover 1GB of data, you don’t have the option of saving scan results to work with later, and a few other options are missing – but there's absolutely nothing that stops this from being a great free recovery utility, aside from the occasional ad here and there.

You can limit scans to specific files types, and MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free is capable of getting files back from partitions you are not even able to see, and there's support for removable drives including optical media.

Scans are pleasingly fast, and results are searchable to make it easier to find exactly what you're looking for. A superb piece of software that worth of your attention.Featuring a delightful simple interface, Disk Drill make file recovery very simple. There's no need to fiddle with complex options, and the program can be used to scan local as well as removable drives and memory cards. Performance a scan of your chosen drive and you're presented with a list of recoverable files, grouped by type, and you have the option of previewing image files in advance. It's a simple, effective tool with a high success rate.

What seems like a nice touch for anyone who is a little nervous about data recovery, is the inclusion of a quick tutorial the first time the program is run – but it is simplistic in the extreme and of little real value, and ultimately serves as an ad to upgrade to the Pro version.

Disk Drill is available for both macOS and Windows. Upgrading to Pro increases the number of computers the software can be used on, and opens up more options such as advanced scanning and wider file system support. For most people, however, the free version should cover all the usual eventualities.Keeping things nice and simple, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free is the friendly, accessible face of recovering lost files. Fire up the program and you're presented with a screen asking which drive you would like to scan for recoverable data – you then just need to hit the Scan button. There are no options to configure, but if you know exactly where a file has gone missing from, you can specify a folder to scan to speed things up.