Top 5 Best Free SD Card Recovery Software in 2023

What is the best free SD card recovery software? On this page, you can learn the 5 best SD card recovery software. We have tested 20 data recovery software on the market under 4 data loss scenarios: Files deleted from an SD card, SD card formatted, file system corruption, and deep/quick scan, and picked out the 5 best recovery programs that can help you restore lost data from SD card devices for free. Check out the top 5 SD memory card recovery software below:

1. Recoverit Free Data Recovery

Recoverit Free Data Recovery is a reliable SD card recovery tool that gives you a full chance of getting your deleted/lost data back. It supports the file restoration from various types of SD cards that were damaged by viruses, power failures, accidental delectation, and formatting. Whatever your initial causes are, Recoverit Data Recovery is guaranteed to recover files from the SD card. You can use it to recover all types of data. If you want to recover deleted photos from SD card free or other file types, including music, PDF files, video, etc., you can gain support from this free SD card recovery software as well.

Recoverit was selected as the “Leader in File Recovery Software” by G2, which proves that Recoverit Data Recovery Free is one of the best and reliable SD card recovery tools.

Free Download For Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10/11 Free Download For macOS X 10.10 – macOS 13 Pros

• Supports the recovery of almost all kinds of data.
• The higher success rate of data recovery.
• Supports previewing various files like documents, videos, photos, etc.
• Recovers video files without corruption. Video files are a special file type. They may be stored in thousands to tons of video fragments on your SD memory cards. Thus, you might find that the recovered video files are corrupt or unplayable when you recover your lost video using a common recovery tool. Recoverit developed patented technology for video fragment file recovery. It automatically scans, gathers, and matches the video fragments, ensuring your videos are recovered completely.
• It’s compatible with a wide range of storage devices, from SD and micro SD, SDHC, SDXC to MMC, CF card, HDD, SDD and USB Flash drive.
• The deep scan takes less scanning time.

Cons

• The free version only supports recovering 100 MB of data.

2. DiskDrill Data Recovery

In the testing, we simulated the four data scenarios as mentioned before: Deleted all files and emptied the recycle bin, formatting, deep scan, quick scan (to scan the large files). In the first testing, DiskDrill cannot find any data back(quick scan). Go to deep scan, DiskDrill can search much more files than the others. We check the scanning results, the file categories and names are a mess. It is not good for users to find their lost data. But it takes less time to finish the process of scanning. Initially, Disk Drill was an Expert in Mac data recovery. After literally years improving, Disk Drill for Windows has been grown popular among users.

“Disk Drill for Windows has lived under the shadow of the macOS “original” for quite some time. Based on what we’ve seen in testing, this seems unfair. Disk Drill’s complete collection of features for every imaginable platform and scenario are impressive enough (……). Pricing for the PRO version isn’t ideal for home users, sadly, but this aside, Disk Drill is an excellent recovery option for Windows.” –Christian Cawley, techradar.com

Pros

• It successfully recovered the most lost files after a deep scan.
• The deep scan takes less scanning time.
• In addition to SD card, it supports a wide range of storage devices.

Cons

• Hard to find out your recovered files after the scan.
• The free version only supports recovering 500 MB of data.

Read our full Disk Drill Review.

3. Recuva Free Data Recovery

Recuva is another free SD card recovery software. We tested each scenario on the SD card. Recuva recovered 100 percent of the JPG images. This SD card recovery software did well in recovering other file types in our four testings. It is more stable with the free version, but it has a limit to recover more files. Users can purchase the professional version of Recuva that supports a virtual hard drive and automatic updates. The free version doesn’t include support or automatic updates like the pro version.

“If a file has gone missing from your mistake, a virus infection or a system crash, there is a good chance that this tool can find it. There’s no guarantee that it can successfully recovery any particular deleted file, but it’s your best bet.” –Tim Fisher, lifewire.com

Pros

• It recovered 100 percent of the JPG images.
• The stablest SD card recovery to use.
• Totally free for advanced file recovery.

Cons

• Interface is not intuitive.
• The free edition has fewer features than commercial ones.
• It only works on Windows operating systems.
• It is not compatible with the newly released Windows 11.

Read our full Recuva Review.

4. iCare Data Recovery Free

You can retrieve data back unlimited using iCare data recovery free. In our testing, iCare SD card recovery can retrieve almost 90% of the deleted data from these four data loss scenarios. During the test, it takes a longer time to scan the deleted files, but it does not support the recovery of JPG images and deep scan in the free version. Also, iCare is compatible with Windows only, not for macOS users.

“iCare Data Recovery Free is worth a try, it is 100% free and does good on recovering some deleted documents, such as PDF, Word, Excel, etc. But if your files are lost for other reasons (not deletion), or if you want to find and recover more lost files, you should turn to iCare Data Recovery Pro.” –Connie Wisley, cisdem.com

Pros

• Recovery of data without file size limitation in the free version
• This SD card recovery software is very easy to use.
• It did well for any data loss scenarios.

Cons

• This program only works for Windows users.
• It has the slowest scan speed.
• Free version doesn’t support deep scan recovery and RAW/deleted partition recovery
• Free version is not available for commercial use

Read our full iCare Data Recovery Free Review.

5. PhotoRec Data Recovery

PhotoRec is an open-source and free commond-line recovery tool. We tested PhotoRec with the same data loss scenarios. It supports recovering any file type. What this tool does efficiently is simply recover deleted files and folders from HDDs, SSDs, USB Flash Drives, and Memory Cards or Sticks. Also, it is safe and reliable enough for business users and can be used with all types of computers and hard drives. The testing has taken the longest time to scan deleted files in any data loss scenarios.

“The draw of free and open-source software is always strong and while TestDisk and PhotoRec deliver, neither tool seems good enough to fully recover data from the source disk. Useful for low-level recovery, they appear unsuitable for recovering long-lost data.” –Sofia Wyciślik-Wilson and Christian Cawley, techradar.com

Pros

• This SD card recovery software is completely free.
• Support different systems like Windows, macOS, and Linux.
• It can get all types of files back in easily.

Cons

• It’s quite difficult to understand the command-line interface for the beginner.
• Quite technical for users.

Read our full PhotoRec Tutorial.

To sum up, the Recoverit Data Recovery has covered all the features we require at a perfect SD data recovery software. Computer users can now be pleased as the fear of data loss no longer exists thanks to the excellent ability of the Recoverit data recovery. We will recommend it as the best SD card recovery software. If you need an SD card repair solution, you can also use Recoverit SD card recovery software or choose the most suitable one from the above best 5 free SD card recovery software.

Free Download For Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10/11 Free Download For macOS X 10.10 – macOS 13

Video Tutorial on How to Recover Files from SD Card

You can explore more from Wondershare Video Community.

Comparison of the 5 Free Data Recovery Software

Data recovery solutions
Platform
Supported File types for recovery
File system/structure
Score
Price

Recoverit

Windows & Mac
1000+ file types for documents, videos, audios, graphics, email, and other files
FAT, exFAT, NTFS, NTFS5, ext2/ext3, HFS+, ReFS file systems.
10
Free, Essential ($59.95), Standard ($69.95), and Advanced ($79.95).

Disk Drill

Windows & Mac
Documents, videos, archives, music, or photos.
FAT, NTFS, HFS+, EXT4.
8
Basic: Free
Pro (Windows): $89
Pro (Mac): $89.

Recuva

Windows
Pictures, Music, documents, videos, emails, etc. file types are supported.
NTFS, FAT, FAT16, FAT32.
7
Free
Professional: $19.95
CCleaner Professional Plus: $39.95

iCare

Windows
Photos, videos, audio files, contacts, messages, calendar, and call history.
NTFS, FAT, FAT16, FAT32.
6
Free
Pro: $69.95

PhotoRec

Cross-Platform
Videos, archives, documents, & lost pictures from a digital camera.
FAT, NTFS, exFAT, ext2/ext3/ext4 file system, and HFS+
6
Free & Open Source

Conclusion

In this article, we reviewed 5 free data recovery software. You can utilize them to recover lost or deleted files. However, not all of them support both Windows and Mac computers. So if you’re working with a Mac, try Recoverit Data Recovery, Disk Drill, or PhotoRec. Moreover, to ensure the data formats are supported by the software, Recoverit is the best choice as 1000+ file types are supported by it.

Asides from the free version, a few of them provide a paid version, supporting more advanced features like recovering data from the crashed computer. Recoverit stands out from the crowd.

Free Download For Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10/11 Free Download For macOS X 10.10 – macOS 13