Losing photos can feel like precious moments of life slipping away. However, the best photo recovery software for Windows recovers accidentally deleted or lost photos from your computer, saving the moments that you keep close to your heart.
The photo recovery software for PC scans storage devices (such as SSDs, hard drives, or memory cards) to find traces of lost or deleted photos. It then applies advanced algorithms to reconstruct these image remnants for restoring your pictures to a usable state.
However, finding the best app to recover deleted photos is a hassle in itself, as the web is flooded with such applications, and not all of them serve the desired purpose.
Hence, we did all the hard work of researching, analyzing, and listing the best photo recovery apps in this article. We selected these applications after thorough research and consideration of multiple factors, including their strong recovery capabilities, user-friendly interfaces, broad file type and file system support, preview options, and more.
Well-Researched List of the Best Photo Recovery Software
Below are our top suggestions for the best software to recover photos on Windows PCs. You are free to choose the one that fits your needs perfectly from the list.
1. Disk Drill
Meet Disk Drill, a versatile photo recovery software for Windows, with a friendly interface and robust recovery capabilities. Available in both paid and free versions, Disk Drill impresses users with a wide file system support (it supports multiple file systems, such as NTFS, FAT32, HFS+, and exFAT), availability of a recovery vault and byte-to-byte backups to prevent data loss, and the following features.
Key features of Disk Drill
- Support for a wide range of devices, such as USB drives, SSDs, SD cards, and more
- RAW image support to help you recover photos in their original quality
- A preview option to view photos before actually recovering them
- Sorts and filters the recovered photos based on their file type, size, date modified, and other criteria
Pros
- Read-only mode to ensure safe and secure recovery
- Fast scanning using advanced algorithms
- Clear scan progress indicators
- High recovery rate
- Pause and resume option for lengthy scans
Cons
- The free version has a 500MB recovery limit
- Priced on the higher end than competitors
Click here to learn more about Disk Drill
Also know: Best Data Encryption Software for Windows 11/10
2. R-Studio
Next, we have R-Studio as the best app to recover deleted photos on Windows. This software is among the favorites of professionals and advanced users due to its high-end features, such as reconstruction of damaged RAID arrays, data recovery over a network, recovery from non-bootable machines through a bootable USB or CD, and the following remarkable features.
Key features of R-Studio
- Supports almost all major file formats, such as NTFS, exFAT, FAT, APFS, HFS/HFS+, etc.)
- Byte-to-byte disk copying to ensure safe recovery of lost photos
- RAW file recovery and smart scanning with disk structure analysis
- A file preview option to verify the file integrity before recovery
Pros
- Excellent recovery capabilities
- Many advanced features
Cons
- The trial version limits the file size to 256 KB
- Outdated interface, not suitable for novice users
Click here to learn more about R-Studio
3. Recuva
Let us take a look at Recuva, another praiseworthy photo recovery software for PC. This simple and free photo recovery tool lets you restore images on a wide range of storage devices, such as DVDs and CDs.
Moreover, Recuva boasts both quick and deep scan modes, a portable version you can carry on a USB drive to recover photos on any device, and the following notable features.
Key features of Recuva
- Preview option to view files before their recovery
- Additional features, such as secure overwrite to remove deleted files permanently
Pros
- User-friendly
- Unlimited recovery in the free version
- Wide compatibility
Cons
- Dated interface, not updated for a long time
- Some advanced features are missing in the free version
- Occasionally fails to preserve the original folder structure during photo recovery
Click here to learn more about Recuva
4. DMDE
When it comes to recovery software for photos on Windows, we cannot skip DMDE (DM Disk Editor and Data Recovery Software). It is a versatile software praised for its cost-effectiveness and high-end features, such as recovery of lost photos from formatted drives or partitions, RAID construction, and the following noteworthy features.
Key features of DMDE
- Recovers all common photo formats and also some RAW formats
- Disk imaging capabilities to back up data or recover photos from a damaged drive
- A helpful disk editor to examine and modify disk structures, allowing photo recovery in complex scenarios
Pros
- Free recovery of up to 4,000 files with unlimited repetitions
- Effective photo recovery in tricky situations
- Predicts the likelihood of recovering files/photos successfully
- High recovery speed
Cons
- Not very user-friendly
- Previewing is available only for a few image formats
- Needs customization to work with certain RAW formats effectively
Click here to learn more about DMDE
The list of the best photo recovery software for PCs cannot be complete without Wondershare Recoverit. We like it for its compatibility with a wide range of file types and storage media, such as SD cards, USB drives, and hard drives, and the following laudable features.
- In addition to photos, it helps you recover corrupted or damaged videos
- Deep scan for more effective recovery of lost or deleted files
- Preview function to view files before recovering them
Pros
- Handles NTFS, FAT32, and exFAT files really well
- Clean and user-friendly interface
- Bootable media creation to recover files from crashed or unbootable PCs
Cons
- Not so efficient in recovering HEIC, DCR, and RAF files
- The free version has a recovery limit of up to 100 MB
- Limited previewing in the free version
Click here to learn more about Wondershare Recoverit
Also know: Best Free Web Scraping Tools to Extract Data
Best Photo Recovery Software for Windows PC: The Conclusion
Never lose a photo again with the best photo recovery software above! The best photo recovery apps in this article help you recover deleted or lost photos (and even other files) with little to no effort. You can go through their features, pros, and cons to choose the one that checks all the right boxes for you.
However, if you need help choosing the best app to recover deleted photos for your needs, have any questions, or have any suggestions about this article, please reach out through the comments section.
