Recuva Professional
Version 1.55.133 · Piriform · Windows 7 / 8 / 10 / 11 · ranked #168 in the library
Finds files that were deleted rather than destroyed, walks the drive for the ones whose directory entry is gone as well, and writes what it recovers somewhere else so the recovery does not overwrite what is left.
Read the installation section below before you start. The order of the steps matters on this release.
About this release
Overview
Deleting a file usually does not erase it. The directory entry is marked as free and the blocks are returned to the pool, but the contents sit there until something else claims that space. Recuva reads the file system structures directly, finds those entries, and reports what can still be pulled back with an honest condition rating per file: excellent where every block is intact, poor where something has already been written over part of it.
The quick scan handles the common case, which is a file deleted an hour ago on a drive that has not been busy since. Deep scan is the slower path for when the directory entry itself is gone, after a format or a partition table problem, and it reads the volume looking for file signatures rather than for entries. That finds a great deal more but returns it without the original names, since the names lived in the structure that was destroyed, so the results come back grouped by type and identified by content.
It works on anything Windows will mount: internal disks, external drives, USB sticks, memory cards from a camera, and music players that present themselves as storage. The Professional tier in this build adds support for virtual hard disk files, automatic background updates to the recovery engine, and priority handling of the deeper scan modes. The secure overwrite tool runs the process in the other direction, writing over free space or over a specific file so that nothing can be recovered from it afterwards.
What it does
Feature breakdown
Quick and deep scanning
A fast pass over the file system structures for recently deleted files, and a slower signature based pass over the whole volume for entries that no longer exist.
Condition rating per file
Every result is rated by how much of it is still intact, so time is not wasted recovering files that have already been partially overwritten.
Preview before recovery
Images and many document types render in a preview pane, which is the only reliable way to identify a file that a deep scan returned without its name.
Wide media support
Internal and external disks, USB sticks, memory cards and any device that mounts as storage, plus virtual hard disk files in the professional tier.
Secure overwrite
Overwrite free space or a specific file with several pass options so that the same techniques cannot recover it afterwards.
Filtering and sorting
Filter results by type, size, date order and condition, which turns an unmanageable list of a hundred thousand fragments into something workable.
Changed in this build
Version 1.55.133
- Deep scan signature set extended with additional current document and camera raw formats.
- Faster scanning on large volumes, with better progress reporting during the long signature pass.
- Improved handling of exFAT volumes from cameras and card readers.
- Preview pane now renders more raw formats without needing an external codec installed.
- Fixed a crash when scanning a drive that was disconnected during the pass.
Installation
Follow these in order
- Stop using the affected drive immediately. Every write to it reduces what can be recovered.
- Install to a different drive from the one you are recovering, or use the included portable build from a USB stick.
- Extract the archive on a different machine or a different volume.
- Disable real time protection for the activation step.
- Run the installer and apply the included activation before first launch.
- Open Recuva, confirm the professional features are available, then re-enable protection.
Release notes
From whoever packed it
- Never recover to the same drive you are recovering from. Writing the results back can overwrite the files still waiting to be found.
- A portable build is included so the application never has to be installed onto the drive you are trying to rescue.
- If the drive is making noise or dropping out, stop and image it first. Repeated scanning of a failing disk makes things worse.
System requirements
Minimum and recommended
| Operating system | Windows 7 through Windows 11, 32-bit or 64-bit |
|---|---|
| Processor | Any x86 or x64 processor |
| Memory | 1 GB minimum, more helps on volumes with very large result sets |
| Privileges | Administrator rights are required for direct volume access |
| Storage | 50 MB for the program plus a separate destination for recovered files |
Questions about this release
Answered before you ask
- Why do some files come back corrupted?
- Because part of them was already overwritten. The condition rating tells you this before you recover, and there is no way around it.
- Why are the deep scan results unnamed?
- The filename lives in the directory entry. If that is gone, the content is still findable by signature but the name is not recoverable.
- Can it recover from a formatted drive?
- Often, with a deep scan, provided nothing substantial has been written to it since the format.
Download
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