Download of the Week: Recuva

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Jos

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From the same guys who brought you CCleaner and Defraggler comes this really useful free tool that helps you restore lost files, whether you accidentally shift-deleted them a minute ago, or emptied through the recycling bin days before. Recuva is really simple to use and works fast.

For beginners and intermediate users, there's a quick-start Wizard that guides you through the process of recovering your files -- just let Recuva know what kind of files you're looking to recover, optionally specify where they were located, and the program does the rest. This Wizard will launch whenever you start the program, but there's an option to disable it and use the full interface for more fine-grained control.


Results will be shown in a list, thumbnail or tree view where you can preview potentially recoverable files. In the list view you'll see each file next to a colored dot indicating your chances for a successful recovery (green for excellent, orange for acceptable, and red for unlikely). You can sort the list by clicking any of the headers, or click the check boxes next to the files you want to recover and proceed. There's also an option for securely deleting files, in case you want to completely wipe something out from your computer's hard drive.


If you can't find what you're looking for, you can use the Deep Scan mode -- it will take a lot longer, though, and there is no guarantee that you'll find your lost files. Recuva may not be the best solution for recovering data from damaged or formatted had disk drives, but if you have an itchy trigger finger when it comes to deleting files it might come in handy. It's also a good piece of software to carry around on a USB stick in case of emergencies.

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I have used this software with special thanks to the pros on this forum for recommending it.
It works really well.
 
While I don't mind the software these guys produce I had some major issues with Defraggler 'eating' my HDD space. Every 10mins of work I would lose another 4GB and I never got it back. So chances are I'm steering clear of them now...
 
While I don't mind the software these guys produce I had some major issues with Defraggler 'eating' my HDD space. Every 10mins of work I would lose another 4GB and I never got it back. So chances are I'm steering clear of them now...

If what you say is true, you have major issues you can't blame the software for...:suspiciou
 
How does this software work on networks, as I have some users that have very happy delete trigger fingers and It takes IBM ages just to do a restore of certain files.
 
I am not a fan of Recuva. I found the best recovery software is GetDataBack

http://www.runtime.org/
 
I can vouch for Get Data Back from runtime.org as being vastly superior to this.
However, Get Data Back is not free and this is.

I have used recuva in the past and it was probably 50% effective for me.
 
"Vastly superior" is quite a stretch. We use Recuva a great deal with some clients. It is remarkabley trouble-free, and it is free, compared to GetDataBack.
What is more, I clients like it for its simplicity, apart from the fact that it costs most people nothing.
 
We would not use Recuva, if we were being paid to recover the data, but we would not use GetDataBack either when paid to do our best work.
 
After 3 hours with Recuva , i got 3 files back.

Get Back Data, recovered over 1600 files just after 10min on same HDD.


Recuva is junk!
 
Well, I must say that with Recuva I've managed to recover a lot of essential files who were accidentally deleted with 100% rate of success. And I'm happy it's free!
 
I keep Recuva as a tool on my "tool stick" (a USB stick). I haven't had to use it for anything yet ... but I am ready if needed. If there were any other free tools like this, I would try it also.
 
this is a useful tool especially to those clumsy persons like me. i always "accidentally" delete some of my files because of my fast finger clicking. with this tool installed in my computer, worry no more!

in addition, it has also the deep scan feature that makes it more interesting to use. me myself still havent use this software for restoration, but once i already have my computer here in china, probably softwares like these are the once i will install first.

anyway, nothing still beats the power backup-copying. especially if you work to in a company the security is at stake, recuva tool will be a great help, but having a usb as a secondary storage device would be a great help sometimes.
 
We use Recuva upon occasion because it is free and quick to install. Handy for simple tasks.
But it is far from the best file recovery program. It is slow to very slow, and the results are sometimes incomplete compared to other file recovery software. It does recover a heck of a lot of stuff that was long ago erased. But we find it inconsistent.
 
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