"Fast Navigation: Top 10+ Best Free Photo Recovery Software"

If you've accidentally lost your photos, images, or pictures from a memory card, hard drive, SD card, or digital camera, you can utilize a dependable and top-rated free photo recovery software to retrieve them. These tools are designed to recover deleted or lost pictures. All you need to do is select the appropriate photo recovery software to initiate the recovery process. We've tested over 30 photo recovery programs, and below, we've listed the best ones that truly excel.

    1. Data Recovery Software 2. Stellar Data Recovery 3. Recover My Files 4. Recuva 5. Disk Drill 6. PhotoRec 7. Remo Recover 8. R-Studio 9. Acronis Revive 10. Puran Data Recovery

Why It's Possible to Recover Lost Photos

Here's an explanation: When files are deleted from a computer, their directories temporarily vanish. However, their content isn't instantly destroyed. Windows merely marks the hard drive space as available by altering a single character in the file table. As a result, the file entry won't show up in 'My Computer' or via a command line 'DIR' command, and so on. Therefore, if your photos have been accidentally formatted, there's no need to panic. Formatting a partition only deletes the address table, not the actual data. There is still a possibility to recover data from a formatted partition using a recovery tool.

Moreover, if hard drives or partitions are missing, the data area wouldn't be wiped. It's still feasible to employ the same approach for photo recovery from a lost or deleted partition. By utilizing free and user-friendly data recovery software, you can retrieve crucial images without any technical expertise.

1. Best Photo Recovery Software - Data Recovery Wizard Tools

Are you searching for a solution to retrieve deleted photos? Look no further than free data recovery software. This tool is designed to restore photos that were lost for various reasons. Did a corrupted device prevent you from accessing your latest photoshoot? Or did you accidentally format an SD card filled with images? Don't worry! This software comes to the rescue. Here's why you should choose this data recovery software:

  • It can recover images after deletion, formatting, OS crash, or device corruption.
  • This software restores over 1000 types of files.
  • It supports recovering data from a digital camera, memory card, computer hard drive, USB, and more.

Tools has over 72 million satisfied users and has garnered numerous positive reviews.

Favorable Comments from PC World

Supported Operating Systems Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP, Windows Server, and macOS 10.9 or later
Supported Image Formats PG/JPEG, TIFF/TIF, PNG, BMP, GIF, PSD, CRW, CR2, NEF, ORF, SR2, MRW, DCR, WMF, RAW, SWF, SVG, RAF, DNG, etc.
User Friendliness Very user-friendly

Pros:

    • It supports sorting photos by category (people/animals/buildings/others).
    • You can search for deleted/lost photos by extension or name.
    • This software allows identifying the source device of deleted/lost photos/videos.
    • It only takes three steps to recover lost photos.

Cons:

    The free version permits the recovery of up to 2GB of data. If you require the recovery of more data, you'll need to upgrade to the pro version.

User Guide - How to Recover Deleted Photos Using Tools Step 1: Choose the Right Photo Recovery Tool There are numerous photo recovery tools available online, both free and paid. Some popular ones include Recuva, tools Data Recovery Wizard, and Disk Drill. Research and choose one that suits your needs and has good user reviews. Step 2: Download and Install the Software Visit the official website of the chosen tool and download the software. Follow the installation instructions provided, usually by running the downloaded file and following the on-screen prompts. Step 3: Connect the Device If you deleted the photos from a memory card, connect it to your computer using a card reader. If they were on your computer's hard drive, skip this step. Step 4: Launch the Software Open the photo recovery tool. You should see an interface with options to select the drive to scan. Choose the drive where the deleted photos were stored. Step 5: Initiate the Scan Most tools offer two types of scans: Quick Scan and Deep Scan. Quick Scan is faster but may not find all deleted files. If the quick scan doesn't yield the desired results, opt for a Deep Scan, which is more comprehensive but takes longer. Step 6: Preview and Select Photos Once the scan is complete, the software will display a list of recoverable files. You can preview the photos (if the tool supports this feature) to ensure they are the ones you want to recover. Step 7: Recover the Photos Select the photos you wish to recover and click on the 'Recover' or 'Restore' button. Choose a safe location to save the recovered files, ideally a different drive from where they were originally stored to avoid overwriting any data. Step 8: Verify the Recovery After the recovery process is finished, check the saved folder to confirm if the photos have been successfully restored. Remember, prevention is always better than cure. Regularly back up your important photos to avoid losing them in the first place.

"Tools Photo Recovery Software is the simplest and most efficient method to retrieve deleted photos from a computer. Download this superb data recovery software and follow the video tutorial or step-by-step guide below to restore lost photos or images."

Free Photo Recovery Software Download:

Step 1. Select the location and begin scanning

Hover over the SD card, camera, or hard drive partition where you deleted/lost pictures, and then click "Scan".

Select a location and scan for lost pictures

Step 2. Select the pictures you want to recover Translation: Step 2. Choose the pictures you wish to recover

Upon completion of the scanning process, choose "Pictures" from the left panel. To locate the missing photos, click on "Lost" at the top listing. You can then find the photos based on the device, type, and date.

filter the lost photos

Step 3. Recover Lost Photos

After the preview, click "Recover" and select another location to save the desired pictures.

Recover lost photos

Top 2. Stellar Photo Recovery

Stellar Photo Recovery is a software tool that retrieves lost photos, videos, and audio files that have been deleted, damaged, formatted, affected by viruses, or are from inaccessible drives. The standout feature of Stellar Photo Recovery is its preview function, which enables users to preview audio files before recovering them.

Supported Operating Systems Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP and macOS
Supported Image Formats CR2/CRW, RAF, K25/KDC/DCR, MRW, MOS, MEF, NEF, NRW, ORF, TGA, JPEG, TIFF, BMP, GIF, PNG, PSD, INDD, PSP, PCT, and JP2.
User Friendliness User-friendly

photo recovery software - stellar photo recovery

Pros:

    • It features a clean interface and a straightforward recovery guide.
    • This photo recovery software allows scanning a designated folder and searching for files from the scanning results.
    • Recovering lost photos from any device involves just four steps.

Cons:

  • The scanning for RAW format recovery could be enhanced

Top 3. Recover My Files

This is one of the top-notch, user-friendly photo recovery software options for Windows users. It empowers users to retrieve lost photos from various sources such as hard drives, SD cards, USB flash drives, floppy disks, iPods, and more. The software excels in recovering photos from the Recycle Bin, reformatted data, OS reinstallation scenarios, RAW partition situations, and many other instances.

Supported Operating System Windows only
Supported Image Formats JPEG, TIF, TIFF, GIF, BMP, PNG, WMF, and more
User Friendliness Easy to use

photo recovery software - recover my files Translation:

Pros:

    • Conventional storage devices such as hard drives, SD cards, USBs, and iDevices like an iPod are supported.
    • The software enables scanning of the backup (image file) of a partition.
    • Files can be sorted by date.

Cons:

    Old-fashioned software interface

#4. Recuva

This free photo recovery software can retrieve files that have been permanently deleted and designated as free space by the operating system. Recuva effortlessly and swiftly recovers files from your Windows computer, Recycle Bin, digital camera card, or MP3 player.

Supported Operating System Windows only
Supported Image Formats JPEG, JPG, TIF, TIFF, GIF, BMP, PNG, WMF, and more
User Friendliness Easy to use

photo recovery software - recuva Translation:

photo recovery software - recuva

Pros:

    • This software excels in JPG file recovery.
    • It provides excellent privacy protection and eliminates tracking files.
    • It features a Preview screen prior to final recovery.

Cons:

    • The free version has limited features
    • There's no support for the free version

Top 5. Disk Drill

There are countless ways to lose your data - power failures, failed boot drives, partition damage, an accidentally emptied Recycle Bin, or a virus attack. However, you can retrieve lost data or pictures with the assistance of Disk Drill. It is a professional data recovery software that ranks highly in the信息技术industry. It operates effectively on Windows computers and performs even more impressively on Mac.

Supported Operating Systems Windows and macOS
Supported Image Formats PTIF, TIFF, JPG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, WMF, and more
User Friendliness Easy to use

photo recovery software - Disk Drill Translation: photo recovery software - Disk Drill

Pros: (Advantages or positive aspects)

    • Equipped with auxiliary functions such as data protection and backup drive
    • Arranges discovered files into categories
    • Sorts search results by size and date

Cons:

    1. Only free for 500MB
    2. The scanning process takes much longer compared to previous similar tools, and it finds fewer files.

#6. PhotoRec

PhotoRec is a free and open-source software that excels in data recovery on older operating systems such as OS X, Linux, Free BSD, Net BSD, Open BSD, and Windows. It is capable of retrieving data even when the file system has been damaged.

Supported Operating System Windows/macOS/Linux
Supported Image Formats Common photo file types
User Friendliness Difficult for beginners

Photo Recovery Software - PhotoRec

Pros:

  • It supports cross-platform data recovery - Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, etc.
  • It can restore data on a wide range of devices.
  • The software is effective for various file formats, not limited to images only.

Cons:

    • Recovering numerous files but not all of them
    • Moderately complex usage instructions

Top 7. Remo Recover

This photo recovery software provides a comprehensive file repair solution and data recovery for every situation. It thoroughly scans your drives, detects erased files and folders, and allows you to save them at any preferred location.

Supported Operating System Windows and macOS
Supported Image Formats Common photo file types
User Friendliness User-friendly

photo recovery software - Remo Recover

Pros:

    It has a high recovery rate for production images.

Cons:

    It failed to recover any of the camera raw images during the reformatted drive test.

Top 8. R-Studio

Equipped with innovative data recovery technologies, R-STUDIO is an extensive solution for retrieving files from NTFS, NTFS5, ReFS, FAT12/16/32, exFAT, HFS/HFS+, and APFS (Macintosh) file systems. It excels in recovering data in numerous real-life scenarios of data loss.

Supported Operating Systems Windows, macOS, and Linux
Supported Image Formats Almost all file types
User Friendliness Easy to use

r-studio - photo recovery software

Pros:

    • Enables data recovery from various data loss scenarios.
    • Exclusive support for data recovery from network drives.
    • Allows creation of image files and recovery of files from image files.
    • Only five steps are required to restore lost pictures.

Cons:

  • It has an outdated and relatively complicated interface.
  • It takes a considerable amount of time for a simple scan.

Top 9. Acronis Revive

Acronis also supplies us with data recovery software. Acronis Revive enables the recovery of files that have been accidentally deleted or removed prematurely. Be it a file mistakenly sent to the trash, compromised by a virus, or intentionally erased but subsequently needed, this robust tool can assist in restoring it. (Note: The company has since removed the software, so you cannot utilize this tool anymore.)

Supported Operating System Windows only
Supported Image Formats Common photo file types
User Friendliness Difficult to use

Free Photo Recovery Software - Acronis

Pros:

    • Intuitive wizard-style interface
    • Recognizes localized file names
    • Supports dynamic disks
    • Creates an image file

Cons:

  • The free version only allows you to locate and preview erased files; you'll need to upgrade to the paid version to recover photos.

Top 10: Puran Data Recovery

Puran Data Recovery is another photo recovery software worth giving a try. It can restore erased photos (along with videos and audio files) from both computer hard drives and external storage devices. Regardless of how you lost your images, this software can come in handy.

Supported Operating System Windows only
Supported Image Formats Common photo file types
User Friendliness Easy to use

Puran Data Recovery for Photo Recovery

Pros:

    • Copies entire drives or individual files and folders
    • Supports drag and drop functionality
    • Includes various speed levels

Cons:

    • You cannot preview the result
    • You cannot filter the files you want to recover

Which one is the best option for me?

How can you determine the best photo recovery software from the top 10 listed above? We evaluated them based on three criteria: scanning time, number of files found, and file size. This table provides more information about free photo recovery software options:

Product Name Recover My Files Recuva Disk Drill Stellar Data Recovery tools Data Recovery Wizard
Scanning Time 1 hour > 1 hour > 1 hour 37 minutes 27 minutes
Files Found 321,297 files 111,213 files 2,254 files 414,170 files 784,741 files
File Size 13.80 GB size not shown 1.92 GB 19.84 GB 38.53 GB

Other Photo Recovery Solutions (for Android or iPhone)

What if you accidentally deleted photos on your smartphone? How can you easily retrieve lost photos from your device? Whether you're using an Android or an iPhone, there are tools available to assist you. Our products specialize in restoring pictures from mobile phones.

For Android users:

If you wish to directly recover lost Android photos, videos, or other data on your phone without using a computer, the best Android data recovery app - dr.fone - Data Recovery (Android) can assist you.

More details: Recover Deleted or Lost Android Photos.

recover android photos

For iPhone Users: Recover Deleted or Lost iPhone Photos

If you wish to retrieve iPhone photos, we can assist you as well. MobiSaver is a tool that perfectly meets your needs for recovering lost photos from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod. Simply download it and follow the provided instructions.

Please find detailed guides below.

Step 1. Connect your iPhone to your PC

Launch the tool MobiSaver, choose "Recover from iOS Device" on the left, and click "Start".

Recover Photos from iPhone - 1

Step 2. Scan for Lost iPhone Photos

MobiSaver will automatically scan your iPhone 13/12/11/X/XR/XS/8/7/6/5/4, and find the existing pictures as well as some lost photos for you.

Recover Photos from iPhone - 2

Step 3. Preview and Restore Photos

Tick "Photos" on the left. You can clearly view the photos in your phone and select the ones you need to recover. Choose "Recover to PC" or "Recover to Device" to commence the photo recovery process.

Recover Photos from iPhone - 3

Conclusion

Don't worry if you've lost valuable photos from your desktop, Mac, iPhone, or Android device. There's always a solution to retrieve lost or deleted pictures from any of these devices. Free photo recovery software can come to your rescue in such situations. The sooner you utilize it, the higher the likelihood of recovering your files.

People Also Ask These Questions About Photo Recovery: 1. What is photo recovery? 2. How does photo recovery work? 3. Can I recover deleted photos from my phone? 4. Is it possible to recover lost photos from a damaged SD card? 5. Can I recover photos without a backup? 6. Which software is best for photo recovery? 7. How do I recover photos from a formatted hard drive? 8. Are recovered photos original quality? 9. How long does it take to recover lost photos? 10. Do I need technical knowledge to perform photo recovery? 11. Can I recover photos from a water-damaged device? 12. Is it safe to use photo recovery tools? 13. Can I preview photos before recovering them? 14. How can I prevent future photo loss? 15. Are there any free photo recovery options available?

Discover reliable photo recovery software to restore photos and videos from an SD card, iPhone, or Android device. Whenever you encounter a photo loss situation, address it using the following frequently asked questions:

1. How can I retrieve my deleted photos?

要恢复电脑上的照片:

Step 1. Launch the Data Recovery Wizard, hover over the partition or storage device where you deleted the photos, and click Scan.

Step 2. Wait for the scan to finish. Then, choose the deleted photos you wish to recover. To quickly find the target photos, click on Filter and select Pictures.

Step 3. Click "Recover" and choose a location on another hard drive to save the recovered photos.

2. What is the best photo recovery software?

Best Photo Recovery Software in 2020 - Our Picks:

    1. data recovery software
    2. Solar Data Recovery
    3. Recover My Files
    4. Recuva
    5. Disk Drill
    6. PhotoRec
    7. Remo Recover
    8. R-Studio
    9. Acronis Revive
    10. Puran Data Recovery

Among these options, Free Photo Recovery Software stands out for its compatibility and excellence. This software is capable of recovering various types of multimedia files, such as raster graphics, vector images, RAW camera files, videos, and audio files.

3. Can you retrieve deleted photos from your phone?

If you wish to recover lost Android photos, videos, or any other data on your phone without using a computer, the best Android data recovery app - Dr.Fone - Data Recovery (Android) can come in handy. Complete guide>>

Additionally, if you need to recover iPhone photos, we can assist with that as well. MobiSaver is a tool perfectly suited for retrieving lost photos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod. Simply download it and follow the instructions provided. Complete guide>>

4. Can I retrieve deleted photos from a digital camera?

Yes, you can recover deleted photos from any brand of digital camera, such as Nikon, Sony, Canon, Samsung, etc., using free photo recovery software.

Step 1. Select the location and begin scanning.

Step 2. Choose the photos you wish to recover.

Step 3. Recover the deleted photos.