Best free tool you've found for recovering accidentally deleted files

[Violet Caitlin]

Whether it's a formatted drive, an emptied recycle bin, or a corrupted card from a camera, share whatever's actually worked for you rather than just the first search result everyone recommends without testing.

[RomanReigns26]

Recuva has rescued a surprising number of files for me from emptied recycle bins and USB sticks. The normal scan is quick, but the deep scan is worth trying when the file was deleted a while ago. I usually filter by file type and recover to a different drive so I do not overwrite anything else.

It is not magic, especially after a drive has been heavily used, but the interface is friendly enough for someone who does not want to learn command-line tools at the worst possible moment. The green, orange, and red condition indicators are useful, though they should not be treated as a guarantee.