Wise Data Recovery is Windows-only and is free if you only use its Quick Scan function, but this isn't very powerful. A traffic light system then indicates the quality of the files that have been found, and therefore the likelihood of recovering them successfully. There's also an option to set up keyword filters so you can recover specific files, rather than having to search through all the discovered files on a card/drive. Quick scan is indeed fast, but not much use for finding deleted/formatted files - you'll need to perform a deep scan to unearth lost images and video. There isn't even a wizard process to go through - the small app simply loads straight to its main interface, you select the drive you want to scan, and set the process in motion. You can't get data recovery software that's much easier to use than this. As you continue to fill up the card again with fresh shots, more and more files that were on it before the format become unrecoverable. Once you start using your memory card again after it has been reformatted, the old images will start to be overwritten by new data, and then they're permanently obliterated. Recovery software for photos works best if you use it as soon as possible after an accidental delete/reformat/system crash. After what can often be quite a lengthy scanning process, the software will display all the files it's able to recover, and it's then just a matter of selecting the files you want to restore, and where you want to save them. Instead, only the file index is deleted, fooling the camera or laptop (opens in new tab) into seeing a blank card/drive after a reformat and allowing it to overwrite the 'deleted' data.ĭata recovery software can work its magic as it's able to see past the missing index file to the ghosts of the old files and folders once stored on the memory card or hard drive. When a camera or computer reformats a memory card (opens in new tab) or hard drive (opens in new tab), rarely does it really delete the actual data, and the same goes for when you manually delete a file.

The best memory cards (opens in new tab).

The best portable hard drives (opens in new tab).Best external hard drives (opens in new tab).The best cloud photo storage (opens in new tab).

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