Trusted since accidental deletion became a thing

Deleted it by mistake? Get it back.

RecuvaDownload scans your drive, USB stick or memory card and pulls back photos, documents and videos you thought were gone for good — free, and without the jargon.

Download for Windows
v1.55.0 · 5.4 MB
100% free · No sign-up
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Downloads to date
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Recovery success rate*
0$
Cost, always
Works on Windows 11 Works on macOS No account needed Scans SD cards & USBs Portable version available Works on Windows 11 Works on macOS No account needed Scans SD cards & USBs Portable version available
Why people keep it installed

Built for the moment right after "oh no"

Deep scan mode

Goes past the recycle bin to find files the drive has already marked as "free space" but hasn't overwritten yet.

Fast quick-scan

Most everyday deletions turn up in under a minute — no need to run the deep scan unless you have to.

Preview before you restore

Thumbnail previews for images so you're not restoring files blind, plus a health indicator per file.

Works on external drives

USB sticks, SD cards, external HDDs and even iPods — plug it in and point the scan at it.

Secure overwrite tool

Going the other way — permanently wipe sensitive files so they can't be recovered by anyone else, either.

No install required

A portable build runs straight from a USB stick — handy when it's the host machine's own drive you're recovering from.

Three steps, no manual needed

From "it's gone" to "found it" in a few minutes

01

Install & open

Run the setup file — it takes under 30 seconds and asks for nothing but the install folder.

02

Pick a location & scan

Choose the drive, folder or device where the file used to live, then start a quick or deep scan.

03

Preview & restore

Tick the files you want back and restore them to a different drive — never the one you scanned.

Not picky about file types

If it was a file, it's fair game

The scan engine reads raw file signatures, not just the file table — so it can put names back on files even after a format, in most cases.

Photos
JPG, PNG, RAW
Documents
DOCX, PDF, XLSX
Videos
MP4, MOV, AVI
Music
MP3, WAV, FLAC
Emails
PST, EML
Archives
ZIP, RAR
Free forever, no license key

Whatever it was, let's go find it

Under 6 MB, installs in seconds, and doesn't ask you to create an account first.

v1.55.0 · 5.4 MB · Windows 7–11 & macOS 11+

Before you ask in the comments

Common questions

The core scan-and-restore tool is fully free with no watermarks or restore limits. An optional paid edition exists for automated scans and priority support, but you never need it to recover a file.

Not always — once the space a deleted file occupied gets overwritten by something new, recovery odds drop fast. That's why we recommend scanning as soon as you notice the file is missing, and restoring to a different drive.

Yes. The installer is digitally signed and scanned against major antivirus engines before every release. We link only to the official build on this page.

Often, yes. The deep scan reads raw file signatures rather than relying on the file table, so it can still identify files after a quick format in many cases.

Not directly — this build targets Windows and Mac drives, USB storage and memory cards. Phone-internal storage needs a different approach we cover in the recovery guide.