You can use many data recovery tools or software to recover lost files from USB drive. We have tested the most commonly found online USB flash drive data recovery tools for you and have selected the best to make them in this top 10. We have created this list by studying the following aspects about the different tools: the ability to recover files from a USB drive, the number of deleted files that can be recovered by these tools, and the steps required to recover files using these tools. Hope this article helps you find the most efficient and user-friendly USB drive data recovery tool..
# FonePaw Data Recovery
FonePaw Data Recovery (opens new window) is probably the easiest to use USB drive data recovery tool in this list. This software is available on Windows and Mac. FonePaw Data Recovery can recover photos, videos, documents, audio files, and anything else you can imagine from USB drive, SD card, external hard drive, Windows or Mac computer, etc.
FonePaw Data Recovery offers two modes of data recovery: "Quick Scan" mode , which can quickly recover recently deleted data from your USB drive, and "Advanced Scan" mode which takes longer to find deleted data. on your USB drive, even if the drive has been corrupted or formatted.
You don't need any special computer knowledge to be able to use FonePaw Data Recovery. Indeed, this tool was designed to help ordinary users to recover data by themselves. So, it is extremely easy to use to recover lost files from USB drive..
Step 1: Install FonePaw Data Recovery on your computer. It is compatible with Windows 10/8/7 / XP / Vista and macOS 10.14-10.7.
Step 2: Connect the USB drive containing the lost data to your computer and then launch the software..
Step 3: Select the file types you want to recover from the USB drive and then click on your USB drive drive. Click “Scan” and the tool will automatically use “Quick Scan” mode on the USB drive to find your lost files. Once the scan is complete, you will see all recently deleted files on your USB drive. If you want to find more files on your USB drive, you can switch to "Deep scan" mode.
Step 4: Select the deleted photos, videos, audio files, and documents that you want to recover, then click “Recover” button to restore them to your computer.
# PhotoRec
You might be wondering what software named PhotoRec does in this list. Actually, this tool can recover not only photos but also other types of files, such as ZIP files, Office documents, PDF files, HTML files, from USB flash drive, hard drive , or a memory card. However, compared to tools like FonePaw Data Recovery, this USB drive data recovery tool is more complicated to use as it requires running command lines to perform data recovery, instead of just clicking a button. PhotoRec works on Windows, Mac and Linux systems.
# Wise Data Recovery
Wise Data Recovery supports data recovery from USB drives using the FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS file system. However, it only works on Windows systems. After scanning your USB drive, all the files found by the software will be listed according to their path. Each file is preceded by a different colored tag. There are three different colors that indicate that the file has been fully or partially recovered, or if it has not been recovered. The files found cannot be filtered by file types, making it more difficult to find the deleted files that you really need.
# UndeleteMyFiles
This tool is made up of several modules, including File Rescue, Mail Rescue, Media Recover, etc. You can select a USB drive to recover data that you lost on it. Moreover, this software also has a feature called File Wiper which can permanently erase a deleted file so as to make it unrecoverable. This tool can display the size, date modified, and directory of the deleted file and allows you to sort the deleted data based on file types, their locations, or their sizes.
# Recuva
Recuva allows you to select a USB drive connected to your computer and choose to recover images, music, documents, videos, or any other type of file. Data recovery from damaged or formatted USB drive is supported by the software. The software can give you a preview of the deleted photos so that you can determine if this is the file you are looking for. However, you will not be able to preview a document or video. Recuva also has a secure overwrite feature which can destroy deleted files on your USB drive to make them unrecoverable.
# PC Inspector File Recovery
It is free software which is capable of recovering lost data from USB drive using FAT32 or NTFS file system, which means it does not support data recovery on USB drives. USB drives using the exFAT file system. It can recover data from formatted USB drive on which boot sector or FAT has been erased. Files can be recovered with original time and date. Files like doc, xls, pdf, jpg, png, gif, mp3 can all be recovered with this tool.
# Orion File Recovery Software
This USB flash drive data recovery tool can recover files, music, and photos from portable drive or computer hard drive. Once deleted files have been found, users can sort deleted files based on their location, file type, and names. This tool also has an overwrite feature, which can permanently delete a file on a USB drive if you are worried that someone else might get your files back using any of these data recovery software.
# Undelete 360 Recovery
Undelete 360 Recovery can recover data from USB drive if the data was accidentally deleted or lost due to virus or software issue of the USB drive. After finding the files, the tool will sort them by their types (.jpg, .psd, .png, .rar, etc.) or by folders. You can not only view deleted files, but also know the status of the deleted files, whether they have already been overwritten or are still recoverable or not.
# Active Undelete Data Recovery
This USB flash drive data recovery tool comes in four different versions: DEMO, Standard, Professional and Ultimate. The last three versions are not free. With DEMO version, you can scan deleted files from USB drive, but you will not be able to restore them to your computer. The software has advanced scripting features, which allows you to create special file signature to search for recoverable files, but these are not available on DEMO version.
# Prosoft Data Rescue
This USB flash drive file recovery tool works on Windows 7 and later versions of Windows, as well as macOS 10.10 or later versions of macOS. It is capable of recovering images, audio files, documents, etc. from a USB key or an external hard drive. However, it does not allow you to scan deleted files by file type, which means you will have to scan the entire USB drive even if you only want to recover one photo. The tool also sorts the found files as deleted, recoverable, found, or invalid files. Windows and Mac versions are available.
