It may have happened to you a day ago or probably weeks before. You have deleted a file accidentally and needed it back or you have clicked the Delete button instead of No. Perhaps your memory card encountered a glitch or your USB drive has come across an error message causing your files to become corrupted.
In these cases, what should you do? Well, your first option is to go to Recycle Bin and recover the file. But what if it’s already too late? Then Recuva can save the day.
What is Recuva and what does it do? In this honest Recuva review, we’ll teach you how to use the program and share its pros and cons.
About Recuva
Recuva is a freeware program that is used to recover files like photos, documents, videos, music, and other types of files that are stored on memory cards, floppy disks, hard drives, USB sticks, or even in MP3 players.
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Normally, when a file is deleted, remnants of the file are left behind. With Recuva, all the pieces are put together so you can easily recover the file needed.
What Recuva Does and Doesn’t
As with all programs, Recuva can do a lot of things, but it also has limits. We’ve enumerated them below:
Recuva can do the following:
- Scan through memory sticks, hard drives, and USB sticks to locate folders and files you’ve deleted.
- Give you an idea of how likely it is that the file can be recovered.
- Recover files and folders that Windows can’t.
- Delete a file you may have deleted previously in a secure manner.
- Recover emails that have been deleted permanently.
- Recover files from your Apple devices, such as iPod Nano, iPod, or iPod Shuffle.
- Recover .CRW format image files.
- Retrieve files from FAT, exFAT, and NTFS-formatted drives.
Recuva cannot do the following:
- Retrieve all files.
- Recover securely deleted files.
Recuva Pros and Cons
There are a lot of things to love about Recuva. Not only is it easy to install and portable, but it is also compatible with a number of Windows operation system versions, including Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8.1, and 10.
The downsides are minimal and have little to no effect on the program’s performance. Its download page is a bit confusing to navigate. Also, the installer attempts to add other apps to your PC.
But overall, it’s a life-saving tool!
How to Use Recuva
To get started with this utility, visit its official website and download the version that is compatible with your device. To be safe, download the portable version to avoid installing anything that you don’t need.
If you download the program’s portable version, extract the program from the ZIP archive. After that, run the recuva.exe file.
When the program starts, a wizard will take you through the process of recovering the file. You don’t really have to know where the file is located, but it speeds up the process of searching for the deleted files.
Once Recuva completes the scanning process, a list of recoverable files will be displayed. Should you wish to recover one of them, simply select it and click the Recover button.
For more recovery options, you can use Recuva’s Advanced Mode. This allows you to preview a file or get more information about it.
Wrapping Up
The next time a file goes missing or is deleted by mistake, use Recuva. There is no guarantee that the program can successfully retrieve the file, but it’s really worth trying. It’s your best bet!
To prevent malware strains and virus infections from causing unexpected file deletions, make sure you install an anti-malware tool. And to ensure you don’t delete an important system file, entrust the junk file deletion process to a PC repair tool.
Have you used Recuva before? How was it? Let us know in the comments.