Best Photo Recovery Software

Puran File Recovery is a free Windows utility for recovering deleted or lost files from hard drives, USB drives, and other storage media. It offers three scan modes: a Quick Scan for recently deleted FAT and NTFS files, a Deep Scan that reads the drive byte by byte to find files that quick scanning misses, and a Full Scan for locating lost or deleted partitions and recovering data from formatted drives. It detects roughly 50 file formats using signature matching, previews files before recovery, and supports wildcard searches.

The tool is free to download and use, with no published paid tier or license fee on its official site, and a portable version is available for use from a WinPE or BartPE boot environment. It has not received major updates in recent years, so compatibility with the newest Windows releases is not guaranteed.

AnyRecover is a cross platform data recovery tool from iMyFone covering Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android in one application. It claims support for over 1,000 file formats and more than 2,000 storage device models, recovering photos, videos, documents, and chat history from apps like WhatsApp and LINE. Additional tools include AI based repair for corrupted or blurry photos and videos, a bootable USB option for recovering data from a computer that will not start, and iCloud data extraction without a factory reset.

AnyRecover is sold through monthly, yearly, and lifetime plans that scale by the number of devices and PCs covered, plus separate business tiers for teams. Purchases include a 30 day money back guarantee, and the software can be downloaded to preview recoverable files first.

DiskGenius is a Windows utility from Eassos that combines data recovery, partition management, and disk backup in one application. It can recover deleted or lost files from hard drives, SSDs, USB drives, SD cards, and RAID arrays formatted with FAT, NTFS, exFAT, or Ext2 through Ext4, and it can rebuild virtual RAID arrays from RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, and 10 configurations. Beyond recovery, it offers partition resizing, GPT and MBR conversion, disk cloning, bad sector checking and repair, and Windows boot repair tools.

A free edition is available with reduced functionality, while the paid Professional edition unlocks full recovery, sector editing, and multi disk tools. Licenses are sold as one month, one year, or lifetime terms, with the lifetime tier offering personal, family, and technician options scaled by the number of PCs covered.

iMyFone D-Back is a data recovery application for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android that helps users recover lost photos, videos, messages, and other files after accidental deletion, formatting, or a system crash. It supports over 1,000 file types and can pull data from internal drives, external drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, and cameras. For mobile devices it offers several recovery modes, including scanning the device directly, iTunes backups, and iCloud backups, plus one click recovery of chat history from apps like WhatsApp, LINE, and WeChat.

D-Back is sold as monthly, yearly, and lifetime license options that vary by the number of supported devices and PCs, alongside a free trial that lets users preview recoverable files before paying. The lifetime plan is a one time purchase that covers more devices and includes ongoing updates and support.

Lensa AI is a mobile-first AI photo editor designed to help users enhance portraits, remove distractions, apply trendy filters, and generate unique AI avatars with minimal effort. Built for social media creators, influencers, casual users, and photo enthusiasts, Lensa AI focuses on making polished, professional-looking edits accessible in just a few taps. Its standout tools include face retouching, object removal, background blur, AI-powered enhancements, and Magic Avatars for stylized self-portraits. The app is especially valuable for anyone who wants to improve selfies, create attention-grabbing profile images, or quickly transform ordinary photos into shareable content without complex editing skills. With a strong emphasis on automation and speed, Lensa AI reduces the need for manual editing while still producing visually impressive results. It’s a good fit for users who want a fast, intuitive way to upgrade photos for Instagram, TikTok, and other visual platforms. Read Lensa AI Reviews

R-Studio is a data recovery suite from R-Tools Technology Inc., a company specializing in data recovery and disk imaging since 2000. It supports NTFS, ReFS, FAT, exFAT, HFS+, APFS, Ext2/3/4 and other file systems across Windows, Mac and Linux, and it can automatically recognize RAID parameters to rebuild RAID 0, 1, 4, 5 and 6 arrays, including nested configurations.

The software includes signature-based raw file recovery for damaged file systems, byte-to-byte disk imaging to protect failing drives during recovery, and network recovery for remote computers. Technician-level licenses add a hexadecimal editor and forensic mode. A free demo lets users evaluate every feature, with the only restriction being a 256 KB cap on recovered file size.

Data Rescue is a data recovery application from Prosoft Engineering for Windows and Mac, aimed at retrieving files lost to accidental deletion, formatting, drive corruption, or a system crash. It supports more than 100 recognized file types and uses a signature based FileIQ engine to identify additional formats. Standard Mode walks users through scanning, previewing, and recovering files, while Advanced Mode adds drive cloning, RAID recovery, and manual scan configuration for more complex jobs.

A free trial lets users scan a drive and recover up to 1GB of data before buying. Paid options include a Standard license for unlimited recovery over a 30 day window and a Professional subscription billed annually that removes the time limit and adds Advanced Mode features. One license activates on both Windows and Mac.

CardRecovery is a Windows utility (offered as CardRescue on Mac) built by WinRecovery Software specifically for recovering photos and videos from memory cards. Its SmartScan engine scans a card sector by sector using knowledge of common image and video file structures to recover files even after deletion or formatting. It works in a read only mode that never writes to the source card, and it supports SD, CF, Memory Stick, xD, XQD, and similar card types from most camera and phone brands.

The software can be downloaded and used for free to scan a card and preview recoverable files. Saving the recovered files requires purchasing a single perpetual license, which includes two years of free upgrades and technical support with no recurring fees.

Ontrack EasyRecovery is a data recovery application from Ontrack aimed at home users, businesses, and technicians who need to recover files from hard drives, SSDs, USB drives, memory cards, optical media, and RAID arrays. Depending on the edition, it adds disk imaging, hard drive health monitoring, repair of corrupted photo and video files, drive cloning, and recovery of broken RAID 0, 5, and 6 volumes with virtual RAID reconstruction. The Toolkit edition extends support to Linux file systems alongside Windows and Mac.

A free version recovers up to 1GB of data with a 25MB per file limit. Paid editions, Home, Professional, Premium, Technician, and Toolkit, each include a free trial, though exact prices are not published on the official product page and require going through the purchase flow to view.

PhotoRescue is photo recovery software from the Belgian company DataRescue, focused on retrieving deleted or lost images and video from digital camera media such as SD, CF, SmartMedia, and Memory Stick cards. It supports common formats like JPEG, TIFF, GIF, and BMP along with several camera RAW formats, and includes an unfragmenting technology intended to rebuild pictures that have been partially overwritten. Quick recovery handles simple deletions while Advanced recovery targets damaged or reformatted cards, and the tool never writes to the source media during a scan.

PhotoRescue is sold as a single non expiring license bundling the PC Wizard and Expert versions, with at least a year of free upgrades included. A free trial preview is available before purchase, though the product's website and version history show little recent update activity, so current compatibility should be verified before buying.