5 Best Software Tools to Recover Deleted Photos

Looking for good photo recovery software for your PC? Or maybe it’s your phone? Most people never think about these tools – until those once-in-a-lifetime trip photos vanish without a backup. To help you quickly find something that actually works, we rounded up the top 5 options that can help you restore those photos from a variety of storage devices and data loss scenarios.

What Makes a Good Photo Recovery Tool?

When it comes to photo recovery, a few key things make or break the experience. In our opinion, these factors matter most – and every tool we picked is well-rounded enough to handle them.

• First up: recovery success rate. It’s the dealbreaker. We didn’t bother with anything that showed subpar recovery performance. The tools on our list can handle everything from accidental Recycle Bin empties to trickier jobs like formatted drives or RAW memory cards.
• Then there’s file format support. We looked for apps that recover more than just JPEGs and PNGs. If it couldn’t handle some RAW files from a DSLR or GoPro shots, it didn’t make the cut.
• Preview features are another must. Let’s be real – nobody wants to restore a hundred files with names like “IMG_0192” only to find 90 of them are blurry screenshots.
• And finally, device compatibility – whether your lost photos were on a USB stick, SD card, your Android device, or buried somewhere on your PC, these apps can dig them out.

That doesn’t mean every tool on this list checks every single box. Take PhotoRec, for example – it doesn’t offer any preview features at all. But it’s open-source, incredibly capable, and has a loyal following among photo enthusiasts and professionals who know how to get the most out of it. It earned its spot for good reason.

Top 5 Software to Recover Deleted Photos

But let’s not waste time here. Have a look at our ranking. We’ll break down the pros and the drawbacks for each photo recovery tool as we go. Let’s start!

Video Guide

1. Disk Drill

 

Disk Drill, made by CleverFiles, has been around since 2010. Over the years, it’s built a solid reputation as one of the best data recovery software tools. It’s modern, intuitive, and easy to use – even if you’ve never tried recovery software before.

What makes Disk Drill stand out is how well it balances power and simplicity. You get support for hundreds of file types (yes, including RAW formats), recovery from formatted or corrupted drives, and a sleek design with a preview feature that lets you quickly see your photos before you recover them.

It can restore deleted photos from different devices: internal drives, external HDDs/SSDs, USB sticks, SD cards, microSDs – you name it. It can even scan your Android or iOS device if you connect it to your computer. And, it works on both Windows and macOS, so you’re covered no matter what machine you’re on.

🏷️ Price: Free trial, Pro: $89 lifetime, Enterprise: $499 lifetime

✅ Pros:

• High recovery success rate
• Supports hundreds of photo formats, including RAW
• Clean, beginner-friendly interface
• Preview feature can display found photos (as long as your system has a suitable viewer installed)
• Includes extras like Recovery Vault and Byte-to-byte Backup
• One license covers both Windows and Mac

❌ Cons:

• Free version limits recovery to 500 MB (Windows version)

2. DiskGenius

DiskGenius, developed by Eassos, is one of the most well-known photo recovery software tools for Windows PCs. It differentiates itself from most others because it also combines a full set of old-school disk management tools – think partition editing, disk cloning, and file system repair – all in one place.

At first glance, DiskGenius might look a little technical – and honestly, it kind of is. But don’t let that scare you off. It’s packed with recovery power, especially when things get messy.

It handles standard photo formats like JPG and PNG easily. But where it really earns points is with RAW formats – like NEF from Nikon or Canon’s CRW. Whether your photos were on a memory card, USB stick, external drive, or buried in your PC, it knows how to dig them out without much fuss.

While it’s not as polished as Disk Drill in terms of design (it looks seriously outdated), and its file previews are lukewarm at best, for anyone looking for something a bit more technical, DiskGenius delivers.

🏷️ Price: Free version available, Standard: $69.95 (one-time), Pro: $99.90 (one-time)

✅ Pros:

• Good photo recovery capabilities
• Includes partition management and repair tools
• Supports common and RAW photo formats
• Allows recovery from lost partitions
• High level of control and customisation for advanced users

❌ Cons:

• Interface looks dated and can be overwhelming at first
• Free version has limited recovery (only files smaller than 64 KB)
• File previews are not always helpful
• Scans can’t be saved or resumed

3. Recuva

Recuva is a photo recovery tool from Piriform – the same team behind CCleaner – so it’s no surprise it’s lightweight, easy to use, and kind of feels like a Windows classic. It’s been around for years and has become a go-to for people who want something free and straightforward to recover deleted files, especially photos.

What makes Recuva appealing is how simple it is. You don’t get a fancy interface or advanced features like backups or file system repair, but if you accidentally deleted your photos or cleared your Recycle Bin, Recuva can probably get them back without much hassle.