Recuva Review 2024: What is Recuva? Is Recuva Safe or Free?

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Connie Yu
Updated on September 14, 2024 Preview 28.5K Preview 3
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Easy and fast to use, Recuva is picked by many users as the best free solution to recover deleted or lost files on Windows. It debuted in 2007 and combines free pricing with solid features. During 2016 ~ 2021, Recuva discontinued updates, then came back to a regular update since 2022, and the latest version is V1.54.120 released on 26 Jun 2024.

In this Recuva Review, we will give all the answers about users’ concerns on using Recuva, such as its safety, free limitations, its pros & cons, how to use Recuva to recover files, and how to pick between Recuva Free or Pro.

 

What is Recuva?

First thing first, what is Recuva?

Well, Recuva is a Windows program allowing users to find and recover files both on internal or external storage device. It is available in both Free and Pro version. Following is a list of its main features:

Main features: 

  • Recover files lost due to moving to recycle bin, permanent deletion, computer crash, damage drive, formatted disk, etc.
  • Recover various files: pictures, music, documents, video, compressed files, emails and so on.
  • Recover files from computers, media card, ipod, document folders, recycle bin, a specific location, on a CD/DVD
  • Allow basic scan and deep scan
  • Securely delete files for permanently erasing
  • Copy Image to Clipboard
  • Save scanning result in text file

 

Can Recuva Recover Permanently Deleted Files?

Yes, it can.

No matter the file is right-click deleted, removed by clicking Delete button, trashed by pressing Shift + Delete, deleted with rm command, or permanently deleted from recycle bin, Recuva will scan and recover the deleted files, but the recovery rate will be different, some can be easily recovered, while some are unrecoverable at all.

 

Is Recuva Safe to Use?

Yes. It is safe to use.

Many users have doubt onto the safety of Recuva, mainly for the reason that Recuva offers a totally free version for all users, which make users believe that a free app always comes with something annoying or malicious.

However, it is 100% clean and safe to use Recuva, there is no virus or bundled malware. Though there is advertisement for in-app purchase of its Pro version and CCleaner, it offers the best free data recovery service and open all its basic features to users for free.

In addition, Piriform Software, the developer of Recuva, is also the owner of CCleaner (system optimization freeware), has a long history of creating great freeware since 2004, with millions of users all over around the world, all these things together prove Recuva to be safe for your Windows. 

But to use Recuva safely, you are always recommended to download the program from its official website: https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva/download

 

Is Recuva Actually Free?

Yes, it is free, it offers a standalone free version. 

The free version is free of charge and can be used for data recovery, users cannot only scan file for free, but also recover all data without limited amount of data, unlike other free data recovery programs that allows 1 or 2 GB data recovery.

However, the Free Recuva has limitations:

  • It has a relatively lower recovery rate than Pro version
  • It won’t allow auto update
  • It doesn’t offer technical support
  • There is no virtual hard drive support
  • It won’t offer CCleaner for Android Pro & Mac Pro for free use

( Recuva is only available for Windows users, to use Recuva Mac or Recuva Android, you will need to find an alternative)

 

Recuva Free VS Pro

On the download page of Recuva, there are 2 options: FREE RECUVA and RECUVA PROFESSIONAL. Before making a final decision, just have a look at the following table:

  Features Recovery Rate Auto Update Support Free Bundle Apps
Recuva Free Recover different files; 
Recover from computer, media card, document folder, recycle bin, etc.;
30%~65% No No No
Recuva Pro ($24.95) Recover different files; 
Recover from computer, media card, document folder, recyle bin, etc.;
Recover from virtual disk;
50%~80% Yes Yes CCleaner (Android & Mac) 

Actually, the biggest difference between Recuva Free and Pro lies in the recovery rate and support of recovering from virtual disk. While, it is not necessary for a great part of users to recover from virtual disk. If you want to try Recuva service, we recommend using Recuva Free, based on following reasons:

  • Recuva Free is 100% free to recover files, no limitations on file size, file quantities
  • Recuva Professional guarantees a higher recovery rate than Recuva Free, but it is not the best choice among those priced data recovery software

So, if you want to try Recuve service, try Recuva Free first, but if you want a higher recovery rate, try a Recuva alternative instead of paying for Recuva Professional.

 

Is Recuva A Good Program? Check out Recuva 2024 Review (V1.54.120)

Cisdem Editor’s Rating: 3.0/5.0

Advantages:

  1. Free to use
  2. Easy to use with smart wizard and intuitive interface
  3. Fast scanning and recovering
  4. Support virtually all file formats (video, photo, document, music, email, archive, log, etc.)
  5. Support recovery on CD/DVD
  6. Analyze damages or contents
  7. Check and advise if a file is recoverable or nonrecoverable
  8. Quick scan and deep scan modes
  9. Preview files under Advanced mode
  10. Overwrite files securely

Disadvantages:

  1. Misname files
  2. Unstable recovery rate
  3. Cannot resume scanning
  4. Only for Windows

Installation

Recuva installer is lightweight with a size of 25.2MB and the installation is quite easy thanks for its smart wizard. You will be guided to choose the file type and location where you want to recover the files.

smart wizard

But for Recuva Professional, since it allows users to recover file from external drives, there is an extra step guiding users to create disk image in the Wizard.

 

Interface

A user-friendly interface can make things easier and this is what Recuva do for its users. The interface is neat but informative to give enough information for next step. Especially the interface for Wizard, scanning and analyzing process, it helps users to proceed easily. While for its Recovery interface, it may be a little clustered, yet it is still considerate to accommodate all the features for better user experience. 

interface

 

Scanning

After Recuva Wizard, you will be able to search/scan deleted files. You can enable deep scan at the beginning if you want to dig out deleted files as many as possible. 

recuva scan

If you have chosen the file type or location for scanning in the Wizard, the scanning process will be done faster. 

The scanning includes 3 stages: scanning drive, analyzing damages and analyzing file contents.

analyze damage

The feature that makes Recuva different from other data recovery programs is that it helps to analyze damage and file contents of found deleted files. Therefore, on the Recovery interface, Recuva will display the status of these found files, to tell if they can be easily recovered or not, or if they can be retrieved or not. Though the accuracy of this feature is still controversial, it tells something.

recuva scan03

When comparing to other priced data recovery software, Recuva processes scanning much faster, but the name of scanned files are not in their original names. Still, users cannot save and resume scanning later if they find the scanning is going to last for some time.

recuva scan04

 

Recovery

Recuva will find and locate numerous deleted files from your computer or card. In order to fast find and recover the selected files, Recuva offers various options for smart recovery.

  1. Display files: There are 3 modes to view the found files (List/Tree/Thumbnail).view mode
  2. Sort files: Also users can put these files in good order according to filename, path, size, last modified, state, comment, which helps to fast locate a file for recovery.soft files
  3. Show state and comment of the found files: Recuva will mark all the found files in 2 colors, green and red. Green files are those can be easily recovered, in an excellent state for users to recover. Red files are those cannot be recovered, there will be a reason shown to explain why, much possibly is due to data overwriting. recuva state
  4. Select files for recovery: there are 2 ways to select a file for recovery, either highlight or check it.  recovery options
  5. Secure Overwrite: You are allowed to overwrite the selected file after recovery. But give a second thought before using this feature, if Recuva finds the wrong file and you continue with overwriting, you are much likely to lose the file forever.
  6. Save found items to text file: Though you cannot save a scanning process and resume the next time, Recuva allows users to save the scanned results to a text file, keeping record of the name, size and path  of the found files. recuva list

 

Advanced Mode

You may have noticed the “Switch to Advanced Mode” button on up-right corner. If the basic recovery mode fails to recover your files, you can switch to this mode.

advanced mode

Under advanced mode, users can freely choose location to scan, choose to scan files or contents, so you can locate a deleted file quickly and recover without error.

scan content

Also users can customize the scanning even set up scanning rules for best recovery result. 

recuva scan options

In this mode, it allows users to preview the files, though some files cannot be previewed in this program.

recuva preview

 

Recovery Rate

The recovery rate is unstable. 

In my tests, only 50% files deleted in my Recycle Bin are recovered, even a few of those recovered files cannot be opened. And it always find more system files than those common files in a video, image, document format, actually, they are not the files users want to recover.

When switching to advanced mode, it indeed digs out more files, but most of them are system files or uncommon formats that we don’t use often. Even when I wanted to switch back to the basic mode and check the results, I could not, I had to quit the app and re-scan.

Also, according to Recuva users’ feedbacks, Recuva helps for someone while do no good for others. But basically, it does good on recovering documents than that on media files, such as pictures, audios or videos.

 

So, Is Recuva A Good Program? 

As a free data recovery program, yes, it is. Comparing with other free tools, it has an intuitive interface, uses a straightforward process to recover files. In addition, you don’t have to upgrade to Pro version to unlock the full features, unless you want to get more features in Recuva Professional.

However, as a solution to recover deleted files on Windows, Recuva is not a good choice.  

It does helps to recover files on your Windows PC, but most of the found files are marked as unrecoverable. There are occasions you fail to recover a file using Recuva, especially when your files are lost for a long time. In general, it does better when recovering deleted documents.

 

How to Use Recuva to Recover Files on Windows or from SD Card?

First, where to Download Recuva?

The latest version of Recuva is V1.54.120, you are always recommended to download the app from its official website.

System Requirements

Windows 10, 8.1, 7, Vista and XP. Including both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, but not RT tablet editions.

Download Address

https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva/download/standard

Upgrade to Recuva Professional

You can only download the Recuva Free to recover files for free, if you want to download Recuva Professional, you need to upgrade the Free version to Pro:

  1. Go through the Wizard and enter the main interface.
  2. Click “Switch to Advanced Mode”.
  3. Click “Options” and choose “About”.
  4. Choose to Upgrade to Pro and fill in your registration code get from Recuva.upgrade to recuva pro

How to Use Recuva to Recover Files?

  1. Run Recuva Free on your Windows PC, in the Wizard interface, click Next.smart wizard
  2. (Optional) Connect your SD Card with your computer with a card reader, if you want to recover files from SD Card.
  3. Choose the file type you want to recover and continue with Next.file type
  4. Choose file location and continue with Next.file location
  5. Click Start the scan the deleted drive you have selected.start scanning
  6. View and sort the found files to fast locate the deleted files, also you can switch to advanced mode to preview files before recovery.recover files
  7. Select the deleted files you want to restore and click Recover, save the recovered files to local drive.recuva save

 

Conclusion

Being a free desktop program to recover deleted files from Windows, Recuva Free has proved its advantages over other free data recovery tools. But if you are looking for a program with higher recovery rate, an alternative to Recuva would be a better choice.

Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7 Free Download macOS 10.9 or later

avatar
Connie Yu

Connie Yu has been a columnist in the field of data recovery since 2011. She studied a lot of data loss situations and tested repeatedly to find a feasible solution tailored for each case. And her solutions are always updated to fix problems from the newest systems, devices and apps.

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Comments (3) Leave a Reply

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  • Candice

    At no point is this free which makes it just as useless as every other data recovery programme that claims to be free.

    1 years ago commonReply

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  • Teresa

    I'd say Recuva is truly a nice free app. But compared to other newer apps like Cisdem Data Recovery, it seems a bit outdated. Recuva is also unfriendly to Mac users since it has no Mac version at all. In this case I prefer Cisdem.

    1 years ago commonReply

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  • Promedos

    Recuva wizard is a useful tool within the software that helps user diagnose the recovery task needed to be done.

    4 years ago commonReply

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