What's free
- Full recovery of JPEG and PNG photos — the formats people lose most often.
- All three scan modes — Quick, Deep and Carving — and the full forensic scan engine.
- Works on Windows 10/11 and macOS, across NTFS, FAT32, exFAT (and APFS/HFS+ carving on Mac).
- No account, no watermark on recovered files, no ads, no data sent anywhere.
Unlocking every other format — free
If you've lost more than JPG/PNG, pairing the free RecoverHelper mobile app unlocks the rest: camera RAW (CR2, NEF, ARW, DNG…), HEIC, video and audio, documents and archives, thumbnail preview, and partial recovery of fragmented files that other tools give up on. The pairing is free: scan the QR code shown in the app once and this PC stays unlocked — no license, no subscription.
Free, but still safe and private
RecoverHelper opens the drive you're scanning strictly read-only — it physically cannot write to the source — and recovered files always go to a different drive so you never overwrite what you're rescuing. Nothing leaves your computer: there's no telemetry and no cloud upload. The only network call is a one-time pairing check (just a token and a hashed machine ID), and only if you pair the app.
Try it before you pay
Because the free tier runs the same full scan, you can see exactly what's recoverable before spending a cent. If your lost files are JPG or PNG, you're done for free. If they're RAW or video, you'll know they're there — and the free app pairing is one QR scan away.