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Help & Info about Recuva for Windows

  • What is Recuva?

    Recuva is an application designed to recover or restore deleted files from hard drives and other storage devices. It is intended for personal use and is particularly helpful when a file has been accidentally deleted, or when a storage device cannot be read by Windows, but the files on the device itself remain in tact.

  • Is Recuva free?

    Recuva is a 'freemium' software package, which means the program and its core functions are free to use, but a premium 'Pro' version is also available, at a cost, which adds a number of additional features. In this case, the free version includes the same recovery technology as the 'Pro' version, so it is suitable for most users. The 'Pro' product adds extra features, like virtual hard drive support and priority customer support.

  • Is Recuva safe?

    The software is completely safe to own and use, and has been independently verified to include no spyware, no adware and no other malicious threats.

  • Will Recuva find all deleted files?

    The program will scan a drive or storage device and identify as many deleted files as it can, while also giving an indication of whether the file can be recovered or repaired. With that being said, there are some limitations to this and the sooner the software is used after deleting the file, the greater the chances of success.

  • Can it recover files from a USB stick?

    In addition to retrieving files from a computer hard drive, the software is also able to recover files from USB sticks, digital camera memory cards and many MP3 players, including iPods.

  • Can it recover files from a damaged drive?

    In many instances, Recuva is able to retrieve files from a damaged drive, or storage device. Often, operating systems like Windows are unable to find a file if the index of the drive is damaged, even if the file itself remains in tact. Recuva works by scanning all parts of the drive, rather than just the index, and will display a list of files found, along with an estimate of the chances of successful recovery.

  • Can it recover files from a reformatted drive?

    Unlike some similar programs, Recuva is able to retrieve most files from recently reformatted drives, especially if the drive has not been used since. Usually, when a drive is reformatted, the index is deleted but the files are not overwritten until more files are saved to it. Recuva examines the full contents of the drive, rather than just the index, and will show all of the files and data that can be recovered.

  • Can Recuva permanently delete files?

    The software includes a secure deletion function, allowing users to remove files for good. This makes use of military-standard deletion techniques to securely overwrite a file multiple times, so that the file remains erased.

  • Can Recuva retrieve unsaved Word documents?

    In many cases, the software is able to use the temporary files to rebuild Word documents, even if they were not saved or if the Word software package crashes. Again, as with other file recovery types, the chances of this being successfully achieved decrease the longer the user waits before attempting the recovery process.

  • What is new in the latest version?

    The latest version of the software added a new content search function, allowing users to search for specific text strings within deleted documents. It also added support for newer versions of Windows, improved recovery success rates when dealing with compressed files and saw minor improvements to the user interface.

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Laws concerning the use of this software vary from country to country. We do not encourage or condone the use of this program if it is in violation of these laws.
Softonic

In Softonic we scan all the files hosted on our platform to assess and avoid any potential harm for your device. Our team performs checks each time a new file is uploaded and periodically reviews files to confirm or update their status. This comprehensive process allows us to set a status for any downloadable file as follows:

Clean

It’s extremely likely that this software program is clean.

What does this mean?

We have scanned the file and URLs associated with this software program in more than 50 of the world's leading antivirus services; no possible threat has been detected.

Warning

This software program is potentially malicious or may contain unwanted bundled software.

Why is the software program still available?

Based on our scan system, we have determined that these flags are possibly false positives.

What is a false positive?

It means a benign program is wrongfully flagged as malicious due to an overly broad detection signature or algorithm used in an antivirus program.

We’d like to highlight that from time to time, we may miss a potentially malicious software program. To continue promising you a malware-free catalog of programs and apps, our team has integrated a Report Software feature in every catalog page that loops your feedback back to us.

Flag any particular issues you may encounter and Softonic will address those concerns as soon as possible.