8 Best Free External Hard Drive Recovery Software Tools (2024)

Typically, external hard drive recovery software serves as a utility to retrieve deleted or lost data from an external hard drive, even when the drive is damaged or has been unintentionally formatted. Since files lost on the external hard drive don't go to the Recycle Bin, you should rely on a trustworthy External Hard Drive Recovery program to salvage data from the external disk.

External Hard Drive Recovery Software | Top 8 Picks

External hard drive data recovery becomes effortless when you know the best data recovery tool to use. Based on user reviews, tech website tests, and our own experience, we've compiled a list of the top 8 hard drive data recovery software options to help you easily retrieve data from external hard drives.

8 Best External Hard Drive Recovery Software:

• #1. tools Data Recovery Wizard^[Hot]
• #2. Ontrack EasyRecovery
• #3. Recover My Files
• #4. GetDataBack
• #5. Recuva
• #6. PhotoRec
• #7. TestDisk
• #8. Windows File Recovery

External hard drive recovery software testing statistics:

Regardless of whether you're using the latest Windows 11/10/8 or an older Windows XP, you can download one of the recommended software tools above for assistance. It will aid in recovering deleted, formatted, or lost data from your external hard drive or retrieving files from an inaccessible drive.

?1. Tool: Data Recovery Wizard - Highly Recommended

Data Recovery Wizard tools can serve as external hard drive recovery software, assisting you in retrieving data from your external disk. In addition to external hard drives, you can also utilize the best data recovery software to recover files from computer hard drives, USB flash drives, memory cards, digital cameras, and more.

 

✅This software is extensively utilized for:

• Recover deleted files from external hard drives, including photos, videos, documents, and audio files.
• Restore data from an external hard drive following a virus attack, OS crash, OS reinstallation, or file system corruption to RAW.
• Support for external hard drives from brands such as Buffalo, WD, Seagate, Toshiba, Samsung, Lacie, Silicon, ADATA, and more.
• Repair videos like MP4 and MOV, and repair images like JPG, JPEG, GIF, etc.

Best For: Users of all levels with Windows and Mac

Ease of Use: Best for Beginners, user-friendly UI design, 3-step recovery process. Go to detailed tutorial >>

If you've experienced data loss on an external hard drive on a Mac, you can also download the Mac version of this software to retrieve data from the external hard drive on a Mac. Kindly share this recommendation with other external hard drive users to assist them with data recovery as well.

?2. Ontrack EasyRecovery Translation: ?2. Ontrack EasyRecovery

Ontrack originated as a data recovery service provider, primarily offering hard disk repair and data recovery solutions to global users. In recent times, they have introduced data recovery software, enabling users to perform do-it-yourself data recovery at home.

Similar to tools like Data Recovery Wizard, Ontrack EasyRecovery also supports restoring lost files on both Windows and Mac computers.

✅Explore what you can achieve with this powerful hard drive recovery software:

• Restore files from damaged, erased, or formatted drives
• Recover deleted files from hard disks and external hard drives, SSDs, USBs, memory cards, etc.
• Repair faulty and corrupted photos and videos (Premium and higher editions)

Best for: Windows and Mac users

Ease of Use: 3-step recovery process

?3. Recover My Files Translation: ?3. Retrieve My Files

Experienced users might be familiar with Recover My Files, a classic data recovery software. It is an old-school data recovery tool developed by GetData.

✅Using this software, you can recover data and files from the following scenarios and devices:

• Recover from hard drive, external hard drive, camera card, USB, Zip, etc.
• Recover files after emptying the recycle bin
• Recover files after formatting, disk crash, partitioning error, etc.
• Recover documents, photos, videos, music, etc.

Best For: Windows users only

Ease of Use: Not suitable for beginners, complex interface.

?4. GetDataBack

Similar to Recover My Files, GetDataBack is also a classic data recovery software that enables users to carry out DIY data recovery on their own. Developed by Runtime Software, GetDataBack comes in different versions for both 64-bit and 32-bit Windows operating systems.

那么，这款硬盘恢复软件能为你做什么呢？让我们来看看：

• Support for data recovery on NTFS, FAT, exFAT, EXT, HFS+, and APFS devices
• Recover data lost due to formatting, partitioning, virus attack, power failure, or software malfunction

Best for: Users of Windows, Mac, and Linux

Ease of Use: 4+ steps of data recovery, Not suitable for beginners

?5. Recuva Translation: ?5. Recuva

Though Piriform's Recuva has been around for a while in the data recovery scene, it still stands as a powerful tool among many disk recovery options. Its exceptional performance in file recovery continues to attract numerous fans.

With a low price, Recuva surpasses its competition, even if its interface is old and somewhat complex for novices.

✅ Let's see what this external hard disk recovery software can do:

• Recover files from a computer, recycle bin, digital camera card, MP3 player, etc.
• Recover pictures, music, documents, videos, etc.
• Recover from external storage devices such as external hard drives, USB sticks, etc.
• Permanently delete files securely, erase files

Best for: Windows users only

Ease of Use: Not suitable for beginners.

Now that you've learned about the basic features of the top 5 external hard drive recovery software, you can choose one and use it to restore your lost files from an external hard drive, USB, or SD card.

?6. PhotoRec

PhotoRec supports multiple platforms and boasts robust file recovery capabilities. This free and open-source data recovery tool can restore over 480 file extensions. It is capable of retrieving images from various digital devices and is compatible with numerous operating systems, including Linux, macOS, and Windows. However, it took the longest to test across all data loss situations.

✅Refer to the following list to learn more about PhotoRec:

• Recover data from FAT, NTFS, exFAT, ext2/ext3/ext4, and HFS+ file systems.
• Supports various storage devices, including external hard disks and more.
• Utilizes read-only access to handle the external hard drive from which you are going to recover lost data.

Best for: Windows, macOS, and Linux

Ease of Use: Not suitable for beginners.

?7. TestDisk

Another free resource for recovering deleted partitions is a tool called TestDisk. Apart from fixing the partition table and retrieving the boot sector, it can also restore deleted partitions from hard drives. TestDisk is open-source software, which means you can inspect, enhance, and modify it if you have the necessary skills.

✅Refer to the following list to learn more about TestDisk:

• Supports multiple file systems, and TestDisk can assist you in recovering files from deleted partitions.
• Similar to PhotoRec, this is also an open-source recovery software.
• Supports data recovery on various storage devices, such as external hard drives, SD cards, and more.

Best for: Windows, macOS, and Linux

⭐ Ease of Use: Not suitable for beginners.

?8. Windows File Recovery

Microsoft provides a command-line tool called Windows File Recovery for restoring deleted files. This tool is available for free from the Microsoft Store for Windows 10 versions 2004 (May 2020 Update) and later. It can recover various file types, including JPG, PDF, PNG, MPEG, Office documents, MP3, MP4, and ZIP files, from your hard drive or other devices.

✅Explore the following list to learn more about Windows File Recovery:

• Using Windows File Recovery, you can restore an unlimited amount of data from your computer for free.
• Windows File History can be safely downloaded from the Microsoft App Store.
• The tool features a command line interface, and it also allows you to filter files with Windows File Recovery.

Best for: Windows, macOS, and Linux

Ease of Use: Not suitable for beginners.

Aside from suggesting the top hard disk recovery software, we have assembled practical advice for safeguarding your external hard drive data and outlined comprehensive steps to recover deleted files from Samsung external hard drives and other external hard disks. Feel free to share this passage on social media to assist more readers in recovering their external hard drives.

How to Recover Data from External Hard Drives

The simplest approach to recover data from an external hard drive after losing files is to utilize the best data recovery software available for both Windows and Mac. One such professional hard drive recovery tool is the Data Recovery Wizard.

This external hard drive recovery software can be utilized to retrieve data from external hard drives that have been accidentally deleted, formatted, infected with a virus, or lost due to other reasons. It supports devices from major manufacturers such as WD, Seagate, Toshiba, Lacie, Silicon, and more.

遵循以下步骤来从外部硬盘恢复数据：

**Step 1. Select and scan the external hard drive**

1. Download and install the Data Recovery tool on your PC or laptop. 2. Connect the external hard drive to your computer. 3. Run the Data Recovery Wizard and select the external drive from the External Drives list. Then, click on Scan for Lost Data.

Step 2. Review the scan results

• Tools Data Recovery software will immediately scan the selected drive for all data, including deleted, corrupted, and existing data.
• You can use the Filter feature to quickly locate files of a specific type, such as Pictures, Word documents, Excel sheets, PDFs, videos, emails, etc.

Step 3. Preview and recover data

• Double-click on a file from the scan results to preview it.
• Select the files you wish to recover and click "Recover."
• Choose a different drive to save the recovered files rather than the original location.

Before proceeding with external hard drive data recovery, watch this video first. It offers more information on recovering data from external hard disks.

 

Upon mastering the complete steps of external hard drive recovery, feel free to share this tutorial on social media to assist more friends!

How to Protect Data on External Hard Drives

Prevention is always better than a cure when it comes to data protection. To minimize the risk of losing files entirely from any storage device, you should both reduce the likelihood of data loss and have a data recovery tool at hand to retrieve data once it's lost, especially when there's no backup. Generally, there are two ways to safeguard data on your external hard drive: develop good usage habits and regularly back up your external hard drive.

When do you need external hard drive recovery software:

Aside from common reasons such as accidental deletion and formatting that result in data loss on an external hard drive, there are other scenarios where external hard drive recovery is necessary. For instance:

• Data on the external hard drive is lost due to virus attacks, OS crashes, or OS reinstallation
• The external hard drive has a RAW file system, making it inaccessible
• The external hard drive is detected in Windows but doesn't display any data
• The USB hard drive is not recognized

Good habits for protecting an external hard drive:

1. Keep your external hard drive away from fire, water, high temperatures, and other potentially damaging elements.
2. Disconnect the external hard drive from your computer when it's not in use to prevent unnecessary wear and tear.
3. Avoid editing files directly on the external hard drive; instead, copy them to your computer first to reduce the risk of corruption.
4. Always safely eject the device before physically disconnecting it to prevent data loss or damage.
5. Store your external hard drive in a protective disk enclosure to shield it from physical harm.

Ways to backup an external hard drive:

1. Manually copy and paste the essential files from your external hard drive to another location. 2. Regularly and automatically back up your external hard drive files using backup software, such as backup software. 3. Synchronize the data on your external hard disk with cloud storage.

Developing good habits is helpful to minimize the risk of accidental data loss on your drive. Although backing up your disk is useful to prevent total data loss in case you lose files on your storage device.

Sure, please provide the text that needs to be translated.

How to Easily Recover Data from a Hard Disk That Isn't Being Detected

How can you recover data from an undetected internal hard drive? What about recovering data from an external hard drive that isn't being detected? Read more >>

底线

External hard drive data recovery is straightforward with the assistance of data recovery software. Almost all available data recovery tools cater to external hard drive recovery, albeit with varying levels of quality. Select a reliable tool and promptly use it to retrieve data from your external hard disk.

Tools Hard Disk Recovery software is more practical and reliable than most data recovery software, thanks to its robust data recovery capabilities and exceptional technical support. Should anyone encounter issues while using Tools Data Recovery Wizard, they can reach out to us for online assistance by sending an email to support@tools.com.

Aside from data recovery, as a responsible data recovery software provider, we also recommend that you regularly back up your important data. Nothing beats having consistent backups of your files.

帮助我们传播信息！如果你喜欢这篇文章，请在你的社交媒体账户上分享。

FAQs on External Hard Drive Recovery Software

Here are 4 additional questions regarding data recovery from an external hard drive. Find the answers here.

**1. How do I recover my external hard drive?**

• Download and install the Data Recovery tool on your PC or laptop.
• Connect the external hard drive to your computer.
• Run the Data Recovery Wizard and select the external drive from the External drives list.
• Double-click on a file from the scanned results to preview it.
• Select the files you wish to recover and click "Recover".

< strong > 2. What is hard drive recovery software?

Recovering lost, erased, or corrupted data from hard disks, USB drives, SD cards, and other storage devices can be a lifesaver with the help of data recovery software.

**3. What is the best data recovery software for 2023?**

• Tools Data Recovery Wizard
• Recover My Files
• Ontrack EasyRecovery
• GetDataBack
• Recuva
• PhotoRec
• TestDisk
• Windows File Recovery