Top 5 Best Open-Source Data Recovery Software (2023)
We all know that open-source data recovery software has quite a few advantages. Users searching for free solutions are drawn to its availability, while those with enough technical skills might be attracted by its flexibility to customize the software to fit their needs. In this article, we’ve picked the best open-source data recovery software for you and will try to answer whether open-source software can compete with the top commercial solutions.
Mục lục bài viết
Can Open-source Data Recovery Software Effectively Compete With Paid Tools?
Before diving into the rankings, let’s address the elephant in the room: can open-source solutions truly replace commercial software? The answer isn’t a straightforward yes or no. It depends on your specific needs and circumstances.
Here at Handy Recovery, we think that in most cases, for basic data recovery needs, an open-source solution might be just enough. Plus, with the understanding that scanning the device itself could damage the data on it, freeware and open-source software can be a great starting point. This gives you the chance to try recovering your data completely free before moving on to commercial options.
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However, while open-source data recovery software has many benefits that are tough to overlook (we’ve brought them up before, so I won’t repeat them), in this section, we’ll concentrate on its potential downsides so you can set realistic expectations.
- Open-source data recovery programs might not be as user-friendly as proprietary ones. This can include having an outdated UI or lacking a graphical interface altogether, or requiring a certain level of technical expertise. In most cases, you need to be pretty tech-savvy to comfortably and seamlessly use their features.
- Open-source software might be trickier to use and could need a better understanding of file systems and data recovery techniques to successfully get back lost data. For instance, in some cases, you might have to type in certain commands manually to achieve the result you want.
- Open-source data recovery software may not be as well-supported as proprietary software, and updates and bug fixes may be slower to arrive. In fact, as you delve deeper into the world of open-source data recovery software, you may find that many of the available options are outdated, often significantly so. For instance, the most recent version of Kickass Undelete (1.5.5) came out in 2018.
- Users may have to rely on community support for troubleshooting and technical assistance, which may not be as comprehensive as the support offered by paid software vendors. Quite often, there’s a small team of developers behind such a product, or it’s backed by a community. For instance, the popular open-source product PhotoRec is created by a single person, Christophe Grenier, a French software developer. The last major releases of the program (7.2 unstable or stable 7.1) happened in 2019. However, minor updates are still being released today.
- Open-source data recovery software might not be able to handle all types of data loss and may not be as extensive as paid alternatives. This is especially true for niche or professional files, like high-quality RAW photos and video files, such as NEF, CR2/3, RAF, R3D, and others.
Using open-source data recovery software can be a cost-effective way to recover lost files. However, if you’ve lost a large volume of data, open-source software may be less effective than freeware or paid alternatives. For example, Disk Drill Data Recovery is a leading data recovery software for Windows and Mac and its freeware trial version only allows users to recover up to 500 MB of data for free.
To help you find the right data recovery solution for your needs, we’ve compiled a short selection of verified paid data recovery software with generous demos/trial plans in the table below.
These solutions offer more advanced features, flexibility, and recovery options than free software, and can be a good option for users who need to perform extensive data recovery or recover a large volume of data.
However, if you’re just looking to try out data recovery software or only need to recover a few files, a free tool with limited features may be sufficient for your needs.
How To Select Data Recovery Software
Here are some things to look for when deciding on a data recovery software solution.
- 📑 Features: You’ll find that the feature set differs among the hundreds of paid and open-source file recovery software options out there. It’s wise to download a trial of the solution before purchasing it to ensure that it performs as advertised. Some features to look for include the ability to preview found files and multiple scanning modes for more complete data recovery.
- 🗃️ File types: The number and types of files that are supported for recovery is critically important in recovery software. You need to make sure that the tool can recover the types of files you have lost. A good solution will be able to recover all major audio, image, video, document, and archive file types.
- 💻 Devices: Effective data recovery software supports all disk-based storage devices and allows you to recover files after inadvertently partitioning a disk or emptying your Recycle Bin.
- ✅ Reliability: The tool you select needs to perform up to expectations and recover your last data. It should have a proven track record of success and be willing to offer a free limited trial so its features can be tested.
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Make sure the paid data recovery software you choose offers all these capabilities. Or if you are still in the market for a free, open-source tool, it should also check as many of these boxes as possible.
Top 5 Best Open-Source Data Recovery Software
Here are our suggestions for the best open-source data recovery software solutions.
1. TestDisk (Windows, Mac & Linux)
TestDisk is free data recovery software created to make non-booting disks bootable again. It can also be used to recover partitions lost to human error or malware.
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Pros:
- Easy recovery of partition tables
- Can fix MFT and FAT tables
- No installation needed
- Supports the majority of popular file systems
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Cons:
- Uses a command-line text interface that’s difficult to use for beginners
Download TestDisk
User Experience:
TestDisk is completely free and open-source software. I like that it needs no installation, so the process is streamlined. While the text-based command-line interface might be intimidating for beginners, TestDisk makes partition recovery simple. TestDisk supports many file systems and recognizes over 480 types of file formats. This outstanding support means that no matter the format of the files you want to recover, you have a good chance of getting them back.
PhotoRec, which will be discussed shortly, is a companion to TestDisk that recovers missing or accidentally deleted files, including photos, videos, and documents. TestDisk doesn’t offer much in the way of customer support, but you can use their help forum if you have any questions.
Criteria
Value
Versions / Licensing
v7.2 / Freeware
System requirements
DOS/Win9x, Windows 64-bit systems, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and above, Linux 64-bit systems, Mac (32 and 64-bit systems)
Supported languages
English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, Portuguese
Supported file systems
FAT, exFAT, NTFS, MFT, ext2/ext3/ext4
Last updates and news
The newest version of TestDisk can recover files on the NTFS system
Recovers formatted data
Yes, TestDisk can recover formatted and missing partitions
2. PhotoRec (Windows, Mac & Linux)
PhotoRec is free data recovery software that can retrieve deleted files, including videos, pictures, and documents from many types of devices such as CD-ROMs, hard disks, and digital cameras (Canon, Nikon, and others).
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Pros:
- Recovers files in more than 480 formats
- Supports a variety of file systems
- Custom file types can be added
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Cons:
- The interface can be difficult to understand and use for beginners
Download PhotoRec
User Experience:
PhotoRec is free and can be used with CD-ROMs, USB memory drives, memory cards, and various digital cameras to undelete photos, videos, documents, and other files. It’s a companion to TestDesk and you can use CGSecurity’s TestDesk and PhotoRec help forum to answer any questions you may have. Users can ask and answer questions about active topics in three languages: English, German, and French. You can also reach out to TestDesk’s main contributor, Christophe Grenier, to offer suggestions about the software.
Criteria
Value
Versions / Licensing
v7.2 / Freeware
System requirements
DOS/Win9x, Windows 64-bit systems, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and above, Linux 64-bit systems, Mac (32 and 64-bit systems)
Supported languages
English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, Portuguese
Supported file systems
FAT, exFAT, NTFS, MFT, ext2/ext3/ext4
Last updates and news
The latest version improved its algorithm to streamline data de-fragmentation
Recovers formatted data
Yes, PhotoRec can recover files from a corrupted file system or reformatted partition
FreeRecover is an open-source file recovery program that is compatible with the NTFS file system. Released in 2013, it’s a user-friendly program that enables files to be recovered easily.
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Pros:
- Simple Graphical User Interface suitable for all users
- Allows the user to search through deleted files
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Cons:
- Requires the .NET framework to run
Download FreeRecover
User Experience:
I was pleasantly surprised after using FreeRecover. Although it doesn’t have many reviews and isn’t the most popular data recovery tool, it does the job well. The interface is engaging and simple to understand.
FreeRecover also retrieves the original file paths of missing or corrupted files and provides estimates for their integrity. The best feature by far is that I could search for the files I wanted to recover. If you remember the name or path of the file you need, your job is already nearly done.
While it’s a great recovery tool, FreeRecover does have its limitations. It can only run if you have the .NET framework on your system, and it can only recover files from NTFS drives.
Criteria
Value
Versions / Licensing
GNU General Public License
System requirements
Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10
Supported languages
English
Supported file systems
NTFS
Last updates and news
Latest update made in 2017
Recovers formatted data
Yes, FreeRecover can recover formatted and deleted files
Kickass Undelete makes file recovery easy. It’s a free open-source tool that you can use for Windows to retrieve files that have been deleted or lost but that have not been overwritten and are still recoverable.
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Pros:
- User-friendly interface
- Filter by extension and filename
- Supports FAT and NTFS systems
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Cons:
- Sometimes crashes after file recovery
- Only supports Windows systems
Download Kickass Undelete
User Experience:
While using Kickass Undelete was a pretty good experience initially, the program crashed after I retrieved my files. This may have been an anomaly since that was the only time the software crashed.
Its simple and user-friendly interface makes it an attractive file recovery option for beginners. You can also sort through your files by name and extension to find important documents immediately instead of looking through files manually.
Criteria
Value
Versions / Licensing
Freeware
System requirements
Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10
Supported languages
English
Supported file systems
NTFS and FAT
Last updates and news
Kickass Undelete was last updated in 2018
Recovers formatted data
Yes, Kickass Undelete can recover deleted and formatted files
Recuva is award-winning freeware that is not an open-source solution. It can recover music, pictures, videos, documents, and other file types from your memory cards, hard drive, mp3 players, floppy disks, or USB drives.
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Pros:
- Low cost
- Preview screen
- Secure overwrite features
- Free version available
- Clear, easy-to-use interface design
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Cons:
- Inability to recover as many files as paid software solutions
Download Recuva
User Experience:
Recuva’s free and easy-to-use. That, along with a clear interface, would make it a winner if it wasn’t for the fact that it didn’t recover all my files in one go. I used a test drive and saw that Recuva left about a third of the files unrecovered.
The free version is worth a try if you don’t have a lot of files to retrieve. It’s a steal if you manage to recover the files you need, and will only cost you some lost time if it doesn’t. The secure overwrite option lets you permanently erase files from external data storage.
If you need a serious data recovery tool, you should consider a paid product after giving Recuva a look.
Criteria
Value
Versions / Licensing
v1.53.1087 / Freemium
System requirements
Available for 32-bit and 64-bit systems. Supported by Windows 10, 8.1, 7, Vista, and XP
Supported languages
Over 30 languages, including English, Arabic, Chinese (both simplified and traditional), Italian, French, and Spanish
Supported file systems
FAT, exFAT, NTFS
Last updates and news
The latest version added support for new Windows versions
Recovers formatted data
Yes, Recuva can recover files from newly formatted or damaged drives
For Beginners: A Quick Intro To Data Recovery Software
Data recovery software makes it possible for you to retrieve corrupt, lost, or unintentionally deleted files from your hard drive, external hard drive, USB, memory card, or gaming device. While data recovery software is usually quite expensive, some options are open-source and free to download and use.
When Is It Worth Using a Data Recovery Tool?
The tools mentioned are indispensable but they only work in certain conditions. The most important point to remember regarding data recovery software is that once the original file has been overwritten, it can no longer be recovered with software.
For this reason, the most important thing you can do after discovering you have experienced data loss is to stop using the storage device that contained the lost files. The faster you stop using the device, the better your chances of getting them back.
If you’ve accidentally deleted a file, it isn’t immediately erased from your hard drive. Instead, the space it occupied is marked as being available to the operating system. It may be overwritten when new data is saved to the device. With the right open-source file recovery software, you can safely retrieve it.
Recovery software can also help if you have inadvertently formatted a drive or partition. In cases of physical damage, it is unlikely that recovery software will be able to help. In these situations, it’s best to contact a data recovery service.
In Conclusion
It’s best to conduct thorough research to select recovery software that suits your needs so you can get your important files back as soon as possible.
If you’ve experienced file corruption on a large scale, it’s advisable to use a reliable, commercial product to recover your data. These open-source solutions give you a good chance of recovering a limited amount of files and will give you a sense of how data recovery software works.
