Recuva Editor's Review

Recuva is small un-delete program that is very effective for restoring deleted files. Chances are that if you've accidentally deleted a file, this program will recover it for you.

Let's make a scenario. You deleted a file and due to the fact that you were pressing Shift, the file didn't go into Recycle Bin. Now you find yourself in the situation of wandering what can be done to recover the lost file. Well, I recommend you to avoid doing anything more on the partition that contains the file that you want to restore. It's clear that every time you create or change a file on that partition, the chances increase that the contents of the file you want to recover will be overwritten with new data, unless it is in a protected area like the Recycle Bin. However, this is not our case.

Second, install Recuva. Open the program and (using the Wizard) select the sort of file you want to restore. You can choose between Picture, Music, Document, Video and some other. In case you're not sure what type of file was the one you want to restore, select 'Other”. Then you'll have to choose where was the file you want to restore. If you know the location select it, if not, just select 'I'm not sure” and Recuva will search all the hard drive for the lost file. Select 'Enable Deep Scan' in case you went already through this process and Recuva was not able to find the file (files) you want to recover.

Next, the program should start scanning your hard drive for files that are able to be restored. After some time you'll get a list of all the files that Recuva was able to find. Some of them are going to be unidentifiable (with scrambled names) and other files are going to have their original names. Each file will have a small colored circle in front of them which shows if the file can be restored successfully or not. Red means the file was overwritten and you can forget it, yellow means the file is in bad condition but you can still take your chances restoring it, green means that you can get back your file with no problem.

If the list is too big and you can't find a particular file, switch to advanced mode try to find your file using the search field. Now, when you finally found your file, select it using the checklist (you can select as many files as you want) and then click the “recover” button. You'll have to specify the location where the file (files) will be saved.

Pluses:It's free; user friendly; it finds quickly recoverable files; it can even restore files emptied from recycle bin;

Drawbacks / flaws: -

In conclusion: I like Recuva very much. It's fast and really easy-to-use. As CCleaner (which I use very often and was made by the same company), I recommend Recuva to everybody who accidentally deleted their files but also to those who want to restore files deleted by some sort of virus or malware. The only thing you have to keep in mind is that the chances to recover a file rise the sooner you try to un-delete them using Recuva.

version reviewed: 1.38