Disk Drill is a flexible data recovery tool that can be used to perform deleted photo recovery with just a few clicks. It features multiple powerful scanning algorithms that are automatically executed in the optimal order to deliver the best data recovery results possible. As such, Disk Drill delivers professional performance in a beginner-friendly package.
With Disk Drill, you can recover virtually all photo file formats you may come across from any storage device. You can even preview lost images to ensure that you’re recovering the right files. Included with Disk Drill are multiple free disk tools designed to help you protect important files and keep your data better organized. All this and more makes Disk Drill the best software to recover deleted photos.
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Best for: Disk Drill is the best software to recover deleted photos because it combines exceptional ease of use with the ability to deliver professional picture recovery results.
R-Studio is a professional-grade photo recovery solution with enough features to satisfy the needs of data recovery experts who recover lost and deleted photos and other files for living. Some of its most noteworthy features include advanced RAID reconstruction, built-in HEX editor, and the ability to recover data over a local network or the internet.
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Best for: R-Studio is difficult to recommend to beginners because it lacks the intuitiveness of Disk Drill. An inexperienced user could easily get lost in the vast sea of available options and fail to recover deleted photos. However, professionals and power-users shouldn’t hesitate to give it a try.
Recuva provides users with basic file recovery capabilities and support for most common file types. It owes much of its popularity to the fact that the free version can recover an unlimited number of photos without any major restrictions. In addition to performing picture recovery, Recuva can securely delete sensitive photos and other data using military-standard deletion techniques to make it absolutely impossible for anyone to ever retrieve them back—not even with the most advanced photo recovery tools out there.
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Best for: Even though it has been some time since Recuva was last updated, this photo recovery tool remains a solid option for addressing more straightforward cases of data loss.
Stellar Photo Recovery, previously known as Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery, is a purpose-built software to recover deleted photos, videos, and audio files from SD cards (Mini, Micro, SDHC, and SDXC), USB flash drives, hard drives, and other storage devices. It boasts a three-step recovery process that even complete beginners can complete without reading or watching a tutorial beforehand. The premium version of this photo recovery app can repair corrupted photos and videos, a feature that’s definitely worth paying for regardless of whether you’re a professional photographer or just a hobbyist.
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Best for: The most expensive version of this photo recovery software stands out with its ability to repair corrupted photos and videos. Just know that it takes some time to finish the job.
PhotoRec is a versatile recovery tool that uses a menu-driven command-line interface to interact with users. As such, it’s not the right tool for casual users who are looking for an intuitive photo recovery program that doesn’t require an explanation. But if the lack of a graphical user interface doesn’t bother you, then PhotoRec can offer the ability to recover more than 480 file extensions in about 300 file families from hard drives, CD-ROMs, memory cards, and other storage devices.
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Best for: There’s a good reason why PhotoRec is one of the most popular apps to recover deleted pictures among photographers who are not afraid of the command-line: it gets the job done for free.
TestDisk is a powerful open-source data recovery software with support for all commonly used image file formats. Its primary strength is the ability to find lost partitions and make non-booting disks bootable again. Just like PhotoRec, which comes from the same developer, TestDisk lacks a graphical user interface, so recommending it to regular users who have only limited experience with deleted photo recovery is not easy.
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Best for: TestDisk is one of the best photo recovery apps when it comes to addressing issues with lost partitions, but inexperienced users often struggle with its command-line user interface.
As its name suggests, CardRecovery is a deleted photo recovery application whose main purpose is to recover lost, deleted, corrupted, or formatted photos from various memory cards, including all types of SD cards, CF (Compact Flash) cards, xD-Picture cards, and others. At its heart is the so-called SmartScan technology, which can quickly locate and restore lost photos without moving, deleting, or otherwise modifying other data and potentially causing additional data loss.
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Best for: If you intend to recover deleted photos only from memory cards, then CardRecovery is an affordable solution that delivers decent results thanks to its SmartScan technology.
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Usability | Excellent | Good | Good | Good | Limited | Limited | Limited |
Trial recovery limit | 500 MB | Can only recover files less than 256 KB in size | Unlimited | Scan only | Unlimited | Unlimited | Scan only |
Preview recoverable data | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ |
Data protection tools | S.M.A.R.T. data analysis, Recovery Vault, and disk backup | Disk imaging | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
OS support | Windows & Mac | Windows, Mac & Linux | Windows | Windows & Mac | Windows, Mac & Linux | Windows, Mac & Linux | Windows |
Price | $89 lifetime license (Windows + macOS) | $79 | $19,95/year | $49.99/year | Free | Free | $39.95 |
Considering that our list of the best photo recovery software applications includes several free options, you might be wondering what makes paid photo recovery software worth the price.
Well, there’s no straightforward answer because all paid apps for recovering photos are different, but there are certain advantages that totally free photo recovery software solutions often lack, including:
When choosing a digital image recovery software for PC, considering the following:
Here are the top 5 best photo recovery software solutions for Mac: