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Lost data due to accidental deletions, formatting mistakes, or file system corruption and looking for free software to recover it? Disk Drill provides a reliable solution for recovering any type of deleted file in Windows, including Office documents, photos, videos, and messages quickly and efficiently. Millions of people have already successfully used it to get their data back.
Disk Drill gets your lost or deleted data back fast. With its intuitive and user-friendly interface, in just a few clicks you can scan your disk to locate and recover your valuable files and folders. Its outstanding features include:
Free recovery of up to 100 MB of data;Free preview of recoverable files before performing a recovery;Totally free enhanced protection for important data files with Recovery Vault;Free tool for safe cleanup of the drive;Free byte-level backups of your storage devices.Recovering lost or deleted data for free for Windows 7 through Windows 11 systems is easy with Disk Drill. This free to download and try data recovery software can help with almost any data loss scenario, including those that involve internal hard drives, external USB devices, SD cards, or flash drives. In just a few steps, you’ll be able to scan your storage device and see exactly which files are guaranteed to be recoverable. In some cases, such as when it comes to document recovery or individual photos and short videos, the free recovery limit will be enough to get back everything you lost.
Download and install the free version of Disk Drill for Windows. Make sure you do not use the drive that has experienced data loss for the download and installation as this may result in overwriting or corrupting the files you want to restore. If you will be recovering data from your main hard drive, use an external device such as a flash drive or a separate partition for downloading and installing the application.
Launch Disk Drill and select the device you need to recover data from in the disk list presented in the Storage devices section of the app's interface and click Search for lost data. If you're working with an external device, you can connect it to your computer before launching the program or while it's running (Disk Drill will automatically update the list of available storage devices).
Once you've selected your device and clicked the Search for lost data button, you'll be presented with two recovery methods: Advanced Camera Recovery or Universal Scan. As the name suggests, the former is designed specifically to recover video files (it's highly effective for camera memory cards and fragmented footage), while the latter is a general-purpose data recovery method suitable for most scenarios.
After you've made your choice, Disk Drill will display the scan progress (you can pause the scan whenever you like). You also have the option to click the Review found items button to instantly see the found files (scanning will continue in the background).
When the scanning process has completed or you have paused the scan, you can select the found files that you would like to recover. You can click the Recover all button to restore everything the tool has found or select individual files or groups of files by checking the box next to their names. You have full control over which data gets recovered.
Before recovering, take advantage of the preview feature to verify file contents. As a general rule, if a file can be previewed, it can be recovered. Disk Drill also displays recovery chances for each file, helping you prioritize which files to restore first. Below, we'll show you how to refine the results and find exactly what you need.
After the scanning process completes or is halted, you can use the predefined file filters to make it easier to locate the data you want to recover. Found files are nicely organized in the left panel of the display. Choose from Pictures, Video, Audio, Documents, Archive, and Other to quickly find the files that interest you. You can also view all found files at once if you desire.
You can use the search box located in the top right portion of the interface to look for specific files or file types. Use the same kinds of wildcards as you do in any search box to quickly find a particular file. This can save you some time when all you need is a single file from a large scanned drive.
Files recovered during a deep scan may have been reconstructed and might not have their filenames intact. They can be found in the Reconstructed section of the Found Files window.
Once you have selected the files that you want to restore, click on the Recover button to perform the operation. You will then be prompted to select a storage location at which to save the data Disk Drill is recovering. Do not use the same media that experienced the data loss to prevent overwriting or corrupting the files you wish to recover.
Disk Drill can recover lost data from virtually any type of storage media. This includes your computer’s internal HDD and SSD drives, external hard drives, USB flash drives, and SD memory cards. The free data recovery software can also restore lost data from digital cameras and mobile devices such as iPhones and Android smartphones.
Dell®, HP®, Acer®, Asus®, MacBook Pro®, MacBook Air®, Apple iMac® and more
HP®, Samsung®, Seagate®, Toshiba®, WD®, LaCie®, Intel®, Adata® and more
SanDisk®, Samsung®, Kingston®, Corsair®, Patriot®, PNY®, Verbatim®, Silicon Power® and more
SanDisk®, Transcend®, Toshiba®, Lexar®, Integral®, SP®, PNY®, Kingston® and more
Samsung®, HP®, Sony®, GoPro®, Canon®, Sigma®, Nikon®, Epson®, Panasonic® and more
Samsung Galaxy®, iPhone®, Lenovo®, Huawei®, OnePlus®, Google Pixel®, LG® and more
* If TRIM is disabled. Learn more >
** Note: iPhone / Android devices are only supported in Disk Drill for Mac at the moment
This free data recovery program offers users the ability to recover deleted files in any format. Documents, images, audio, and video files in all popular formats are supported by this professional-grade tool. Download Disk Drill today to start recovering all your files no matter what format they are in with just a few clicks.
AVI, FLV (Flash video), MKV (Matroska Video), MP4 (MPEG-4 video), BRAW (Blackmagic raw video format), SWF (Flash movie)
AU (Audacity audio files), M4A (Apple Lossless Audio), MP3 (MPEG Audio Stream, Layer III), OGG (Ogg Vorbis Compressed audio file)
AI (Adobe Illustrator), CR2 (Canon Raw Image), DNG (Digital Negative), GPR (GoPro raw image format), NEF (Nikon camera RAW image)
APK (Android Package), CS (Visual C# Source Code File), DOCX (Microsoft Word), HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
7Z (7-Zip Compressed), CAB (Windows Cabinet File), ISO (ISO-9660 CD Disc Image), RAR (WinRAR Compressed Archive)
M (Objective-C Implementation File), JKS (Java KeyStore), SQL (bundled SQL queries), MYO (MYOB Limited Windows File), PSS (Password Saver)
Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP
Windows Server 2025/2022/2019/2016/2012 R2/2012/2008 R2/2008/2003 R2/2003
FAT16/FAT32/exFAT, NTFS, NTFS5, ReFS, HFS, HFS+, APFS, EXT2/EXT3/EXT4, BTRFS and any RAW disk
Disk Space: 1GB minimum free space
CPU: 32-bit (x86), 64-bit (x86-64) or ARM compatible CPU 1.0 GHz or faster
RAM: at least 4GB
Disk Drill is a versatile data recovery solution for all recent versions of Windows that goes beyond the simple recovery of deleted files to also handle formatted drives, corrupted partitions, fragmented video files and more.
It’s easy to accidentally delete a file from a digital storage device. Disk Drill can recover those lost files almost as quickly as you deleted them. Taking advantage of the Recovery Vault feature enables one-click restoration of specially designated important files and folders.
Damaged drives that are still able to connect to the operating system can have lost data recovered with Disk Drill. In cases where the device cannot be accessed, a data recovery service may be needed to recover your files. Recovery software needs the device to be recognized by the OS.
Viruses and malware often attack your system by randomly deleting files and folders. A professional data recovery tool can get your files back while you remove the offending virus from your computer. Make sure you use reliable antivirus software to minimize the chance of malware infection.
Sometimes a partition may mysteriously disappear for no apparent reason. It could be the result of an operating system glitch or malware attack. Whatever the reason, performing a scan on the entire disk will enable you to recover data from the lost partition with Disk Drill.
Formatting the wrong partition or SD card is a common problem that can lead to extensive data loss. Disk Drill can efficiently recover data from formatted devices and storage media. A deep scan may be necessary to fully recover the data from a formatted device.
Disk Drill can easily recover files from an emptied Recycle Bin. If you act quickly, a quick scan should be sufficient to get files back that were in the Bin when it was emptied. The files still exist on your disk and can be found and restored with recovery software.
Partitions can suddenly present themselves as RAW file systems that are inaccessible by your operating system or applications. Disk Drill can get the files back by reconstructing the data based on its extensive database of file signatures. Files may need to be renamed to their original name after recovery.
Disk Drill can also handle more complex storage configurations like RAID arrays and Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices. Best of all, the same straightforward recovery process applies here as when working with a single hard drive.
Disk Drill provides you with a complete set of utilities that allow you to not only recover data, but also diagnose your device for free, safely extract data from a problematic drive, protect important files from accidental deletion, keep your files organized, and securely erase sensitive information.
Creating a byte-to-byte backup of your drive is one of the smartest moves you can make before attempting recovery, especially when dealing with crashed hard drives or failing storage devices. With Disk Drill, you can create a backup image in a few steps to end up with an exact replica of your entire storage device, sector by sector. This backup can then be scanned safely without putting additional stress on the original device.
S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) monitoring is an early warning system for drive failure. Disk Drill's free S.M.A.R.T. diagnosis tool can continuously monitor your hard drive's health metrics and track factors like bad sectors, temperature, read errors, and spin-up time. When the software detects potential problems, it alerts you before failure happens.
Recovery Vault keeps track of metadata for files you designate as protected. If you accidentally delete a protected file (even from the Recycle Bin), the feature provides a convenient option to restore the deleted files. The best part is that the stored metadata takes up virtually no space on your drive, so you won’t quickly run out of available storage space like you might with other data protection methods.
Running out of disk space? Disk Drill's free cleanup tools help you reclaim storage without costing you hours and even days of your life. The Clean Up feature creates a visual map of your drive that shows exactly which files and folders are hogging the most space, while the Find Duplicates tool scans your drive to identify identical files that are wasting precious storage.
Disk Drill's Advanced Camera Recovery module specializes in reconstructing fragmented video files that traditional recovery methods struggle with. The module can piece together fragmented video segments recorded by cameras, drones, and action cameras (including GoPro, DJI, Insta360, and many others), and it works with all major video formats, such as MP4, MOV, and specialized camera formats like INSV and LRV.
"The software was easy to install and easy to navigate. And it's free! It restored all my photos."
"Tried Disk Drill for free and was able to recover all the files that had been lost during a computer error. Saved me hours of work trying to reconstruct the files on the SD card. Phew what a relief!"
by Disk Drill Team
The free version of Disk Drill for Windows lets you recover up to 100 MB of data, which is plenty for documents, spreadsheets, or a batch of photos. What’s more, you can scan and preview unlimited files before recovering, so you'll know exactly what's recoverable before making any decisions. On Mac, the free version can recover files protected by Recovery Vault and also preview all recoverable data.
Yes, but SSDs support a feature called TRIM that tells the drive to permanently erase deleted data for performance reasons. Once TRIM does its job, the data is gone for good and no free or paid tool can help. However, if TRIM is disabled on your SSD, then free tools can recover deleted files just like they would from a traditional hard drive. It's also worth noting that TRIM often doesn't get triggered on external SSDs, which improves your chances of successful recovery. Learn more about SSD data recovery.
It depends on how the files were lost. If we’re talking about a regular deletion, then most free data recovery apps can restore the original names and folder structure of deleted files. However, corruption or formatting can cause this metadata to be deleted. In such cases, recovered files may appear with generic names and lose their original folder structure.
Absolutely. Disk Drill has a free version for macOS that works across all modern Mac systems, including those with Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4, M5 chips). The Mac version offers unlimited scanning and previews, plus free recovery of files protected by Recovery Vault.
If your drive is showing SMART warnings or bad sectors, then your first step should be creating a byte-to-byte backup image of the drive using Disk Drill's free imaging feature. Once you have the backup image, you can safely scan and recover from that instead of putting additional stress on the failing drive.
REQUIREMENTS
Windows 10-11 (64-bit)/11 (ARM), 51.3 MB
Use Disk Drill 2.x-5.x for Windows XP+
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